COTW: "See the USA, In Your Chevrolet"

With another million 'Mericans added to the unemployment rolls this week, US Person thought to post another ghoulish indicator of the economic calamity facing us:

People are not replacing their older cars.  This fact could be attributed to a) with no wages, you cannot afford a new, higher car payment, and b) car quality is improving, allowing people to keep their existing rides longer.  New car and truck sales were down 24% over last year in the first half of 2020.  Sales are expected to return to 1970s level:

chart credits: Wolf Richter

With more old cars on the road, car makers find it increasingly difficult to sell units.  The national fleet has grown, now at 253 million cars, light trucks, SUVs and vans, but the pandemic has hit the industry hard, reducing both the number of sales and the amount of driving. Automakers have responded by increasing their sticker prices.  Wolf Richter says that car prices have increased by 70% from 1990 to 2020, and pickup prices by 163% based on representative models.

Mauritius Grapples with Oil Spill

Latest: Thirty-nine dolphins and three whales have washed ashore dead in Mauritius, apparently victims of the oil spill island officials have failed to control. The country's fisheries minister has called the event "a sad coincidence".  The grounded tanker spit in two and sank after about 3000 tons of fuel oil had been pumped off the ship.  The ship ran aground on a coastal reef on July 25th.  Officials were slow to react to the grounding.  The tanker began leaking oil into Mahebourg Lagoon on August 6th, fouling a protected wetlands and an islet that is a wildlife sanctuary.  Thousands of resident volunteered to control the spill with makeshift equipment, and ferry dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants to safety.  Why the ship was off course is unexplained at this point.  The tanker's captain and first officer have been charged with "endangering safe navigation".  The government is seeking compensation for the spill from Nagasaki Shipping, owner of the MV Wakashio.
 
{11.08.20}The island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is grappling with a oil spill from a Japanese tanker grounded on a coral reef off the southeastern coast.  The tanker, MV Wakashio, struck the reef on July 25th.  It lay stranded for 10 days before it began leaking fuel oil.  Fortunately the tanker was not carrying cargo at the time of it grounded, but it did have 3,894 tons of fuel oil on board.  The spill threatens several natural areas along the coast including the largest remaining wetland in Mauritius, Pointe d'Esny, Aigrettes Nature Reserve, and Blue Bay Marine Area. Clusters of mangrove are found along the eastern coast and are areas of high biodiversity, often serving a spawning grounds for numerous species of fish.


Booms have been deployed around the stricken ship, but have proven largely ineffective in containing the 900 ton spill headed up the coast, driven by winds and currents.  About 500 tons of fuel have been pumped out of the ship, and the breach appears to have been plugged. There is concern that the tanker could break up before 2500 metric tons of fuel are removed from the tanks.  Mauritius officials admitted they are unprepared for a spill disaster; the Wakashio is the third ship to run aground in five years.  The nation's prime minister called for international assistance the day after the spill began.  The islands are known as a tropical paradise of azure waters and enticing beaches.  It is also a port of call for ships traversing the Indian Ocean.  For years environmental activists have been warning about the proximity of international ocean traffic near to fragile marine ecosystems.  Akihiko Ono, executive vice president of Mitsui OSK Lines, the ship owner, said his company was deeply sorry for "the great trouble we have caused."  No estimate of the damage to the coastline, death toll to marine life, or cost of the cleanup have been made public.

'Toontime: Fantasy 'Merica

After three nights of non-stop mendacity from RNC, your head must be spinning!  Read PNG and you will receive the anecdote.  No, not hydroxyQ, but the news fit to repeat.  Here are this week's hilarious 'toons:

credit: Rick McKee

Only in the Heel's 'Merican Nightmare' does a paralyzed victim of police brutality get handcuffed to his hospital bed.

credit: Horsey, Los Angeles Times

BC Idonwanna: Look, which one is Orange man, now?

The Heel had the unmitigated gall to call the kettle black in last night's rambling TV ad for himself. US Person says give him the old "Trojan Horse"; it has got to be better than this inexplicable freak show in the Swamp!

 Is it me?....

Lake Charles Chemical Plant on Fire

Laura devastated the western Louisiana coast with 150 mile an hour gusts and huge storm surge.  The hurricane came ashore as a Category 4 after it rapidly intensified in the Gulf of Mexico.  Perhaps the worse damage inflicted by Laura is the fire at BioLab chemical plant in Lake Charles.  The plant is billowing toxic smoke across Interstate 10.[photo credit, Getty Images]  According to records the plant manufactures chlorine based products.  Chlorine is flammable and in certain situations, explosive. In 2019 the plant produced 115 million pounds per year of tricholoroisocyanuric acid, and disodium isocyanurate. When burned the acid releases chlorine gas, which was used as a weapon in WWI. Another facility on the same site manufactures dimethlyl hydrazine, a rocket propellant, for the US government. This plant, owned by the Lonza Group, is already considered to be a major emitter of air pollutants including sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds.

What other damage has the hurricane done?  Ironically, a 1915 confederate

memorial statute that the town voted to keep standing just two weeks ago was toppled to the ground by the hurricane's force. The number of severe hurricanes in the Atlantic has doubled since the 1990s, in conformity with predictions by climate scientists that global warming would intensify storms. LOOK!--at this chart:

Add caption

Washington State Kills Off Another Wolf Pack

State wildlife authorities in Washington killed the last two remaining wolves of the Wedge Wolf Pack on August 13th. Reaction from wolf advocates was heated, blaming the state agency for expediency in its action, and failing to protect a state endangered species.  The state has killed thirty-four wolves, almost all of them for livestock conflicts in the Kettle River Range, prime wolf habitat.  Twenty-nine of the wolves killed have been at the demand of the same livestock owner. The extermination of a wolf pack in this area is a repeat of the 2012 slaughter in which all but one wolf of an eight member pack were killed.

Currently, the state has no mandate for non-lethal wolf control measures to be used before lethal removal is authorized.  Advocates have petitioned Gov. Inslee to reform the state's wolf management plan.  A activist on the state's wolf management advisory group was removed for disagreeing with the departments liberal use of lethal means.  Advocates say there is no scientific evidence that supports lethal removal as a long-term solution to conflicts with livestock owners.  The state has issued a kill order for the Leadpoint Pack, whose territory borders the former Wedge Pack territory. 

NOAA Fails Right Whale

More: NOAA has apparently stopped an internal inquiry into the politicization of the agency's right whale protection activities. NOAA launched an inquiry in March after media reports of weakening protection for the critically endangered whale by the agency's "political team". According to the report in Roll Call the scientific conclusion that seismic blasting in the whales' calving area would further endanger the already rare whale was altered for political considerations since the finding conflicted with the regime's effort to open up the Atlantic seaboard to oil exploration.  The incident is reminiscent to the Heel altering an official NOAA weather map showing hurricane Dorian's storm track with a "Sharpie"® marker.

A watchdog group which requested an investigation was informed by the agency that an inquiry begun in April was being halted because of litigation against NOAA, It claimed litigation overlapped the internal agency inquiry.   Once considered in the top ranks of federal scientific organizations, NOAA's reputation for scientific integrity has suffered under the Heel.  The right whale it is supposed to protect is on the edge of extinction only about 400 individuals still inhabit the eastern seaboard, subjected to entanglement and collision.

{16.07.20} IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, placed the North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, on the list of critically endangered species last week.  The whale's eminent extinction is an entirely preventable event, but the regime does not care about other creatures that share this planet with us, just as it does not care about the hundreds of thousands sick and dying from a novel virus. Only about 400 right whales remain with fewer than 250 breeding age animals alive.  PEERS, the environmental organization for public employees, says that NOAA has tried to put a positive spin on the declining numbers instead of taking common sense precautions to protect the marine mammal from deadly entanglements in discarded fishing gear and collisions with ships speeding through their foraging and breeding zones.

Emails from early 2020 show career officials discussing the disappearance and presumed death of "Dragon", a breeding female, which the agency was loath to report to the public. It regularly reports sightings of calves, which stand little chance of survival without their mothers. A watchdog group has asked the Commerce Department's inspector general to investigate whether the agency has violated its own administrative order regarding the integrity of the agency's scientific findings. Counsel for the group wrote the inspector general, "The Trump administration’s practice of injecting politics into the scientific decision-making process risks NOAA’s credibility as a fact and science-driven agency."

NOAA has refused to aggressively regulate fishing boats in areas occupied by the endangered whale. In June, one of just ten calves born this season was struck by a boat off the New Jersey coast. No advisory was issued by authorities.  Speed warnings are only given out when three or more whales are known to be in a particular area.  Entanglement and collision are the leading causes of unnatural death among right whales, once hunted to near extinction by man.  In fact, the whale got its name because it was easier to kill than other species, like the sperm whale, which sometimes turned on its persecutors.  The right whales plight was intensified by the regime when it recently authorized commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

In another move to weaken bedrock environmental laws, the Antichirst completed regulatory changes to the National Environmental Policy Act making it easier for exploiters to avoid the federal requirement for impact studies of federal actions.  The final rule sets hard deadlines of between one and two years for completion of a study, and in some cases, such as oil and gas development, removes the requirement entirely.  The new rules also eliminates the obligation for agencies to study the cumulative effect of a project on climate change. 

Predictably the corrupt occupant of the VWH is using the economic disruption caused by the pandemic to justify his rollback of more than 100 environmental protection laws and regulations as necessary to return to normal levels of economic activity.  A professor of economics at Barnard University, Dr. Belinda Archibong told interviewers, “Saying ‘We’re going to pull back on regulation’ does not mean that firms are going to start hiring more people. That’s complete nonsense. All that’s going to happen is it’s going to lead to more pollution, period.” Unemployment is at record levels, the highest since the Great Depression. Want to understand the modern US economy? Consumer spending consists of around 70% of GDP. Consumers do not spend when they have no wages. Wall Street does not hire factory workers or retail clerks, despite raking billions from government relief efforts.

Huzzah!...Trumpalooza drags on and on and on....

COTW: Repugnants on Display

two speakers at the RNC convention

REALLY?  No, US Person is not kidding. This St. Louis couple*, who pulled guns on BLM demonstrators passing by their home, appeared at the GOP convention.  Is this really what 'Merica has come to?  If so, then the democratic experiment begun 246 years ago is an abject failure--perhaps a predictable denouement given that the experiment was financed in the beginning by slave economics.  Any one honest enough to admit it, knows that the United States is a corporate oligarchy, not a democracy. Just ask participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Here is a chart that accurately describes the current COVID-based reality:

US COVID-19 DEATHS (est.): 258,000
DEATH VALLEY, CA: 130℉

No amount of fascistic, racist propaganda is going to wipe that measurable fact from the slate.  The simple choice is that this republic cannot afford four more, unreal years of 'THE HEEL, UNLEASHED':

the Heel greets his fanatics

*The McCloskeys live next door to a Jewish synagogue. The synagogue prides itself on raising fruits and vegetables on its property, as well as honey. The honey, however, is no more because the McCloskeys destroyed the Jewish honeybee hives located on the property line fence without taking the matter up with the synagogue. They claim the hives were theirs to destroy because the fence is six inches on their side of the line. Would you want these people as neighbors?--give me a break!

Drowning in Plastic

Microplastics, those microscopic particles of man-made chemical compounds that are embedded in the food chain have now made their way through the human gut.  A study reached that conclusion in 2018 and two researchers at Arizona State University have found them in human organs.  Studying 47 tissue samples, the graduate students found plastic compounds in every one, including BPA (biphenol A) used in packaging and thought to cause cardiovascular problems. The study by two graduate student researchers is considered the first to study human tissue contamination by microplastics.

credit: R. Carey/WWF

Microplastics have wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems.  They are so prevalent microplastics impact fish fertility and respiration. Some 300 million tons of plastic waste is thought to be created each year. Most plastics are not biodegradable, but does deteriorate into smaller and smaller pieces from 5mm to less than .001mm.  The problem of plastic waste is not improving, either.  A recent study reported in Nature Communications concludes that the mass of microplastics found in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean is approximately 12-21 million tons.  This estimate counts only three of the widely used types of plastic in limited sizes.  Compared to the previous estimates of 17 million tons for all plastic waste in the Atlantic, the study suggests the ocean's pollution is much greater. 
that marine birds feed plastic detritus washed up on remote Pacific islands to their chicks causing starvation and poisoning. Studies have concluded that

There has been an upsurge in plastic waste during the pandemic, as global humanity reaches for the PPE and stays indoor consuming packaged products of all types.  Plastic waste will double by 2040.  There is hope that humanity can reduce its suicidal path to planetary destruction, if it begins to change its adverse behaviors now. This chart shows a credible way to reduce the flow of plastics into the oceans:

US Person wants you to tell politicians that you want the flow of plastics into the world's oceans to be reduced, if not stopped, by implementing an enforceable global treaty immediately.  Sign here.

'Tootime: Putin's Apprentice

Hopefully in this election, the Repugnants will get what they deserve for backing a fraudulent plutocrat whose basic talent is telling lies too numerous to count with a strait face.  A Senate investigation confirms the facts of the FBI and Special Counsel investigations: Putin used his intelligence services to influence the 2016 election, and the Trumpists cooperated with their efforts.  Putin's apprentice has created a "wet, hot mess" in Washington.  Will Joe be able to clean it up?  Progressive are giving up a lot to replace a dangerous authoritarian with a centrist corporate Democrat.  It is the nature of a two party system not envisioned by the founders.  Bernie Sanders put it this way: "“We’re going to come together to defeat Trump, and the day after Biden is elected, we’re going to have a serious debate about the future of this country, but it will be done within the framework of a democratic society.”  Amen.

Don 'the heel' Trumpillini channeling his inner dictator....

 COVID-19 US DEATH TOLL (EST.): 250,500

ANWR Open for Bidness

credit: C. Miller

On Monday the regime of Earth-destroyers and Q-anon supporters took the final step in a deeply flawed environmental assessment process to open the Arctic National Wildlife refuge to oil and gas development.  Most of the Arctic coastal plain is already open to exploration.  One has only to look at Prudhoe Bay and its surroundings to see what is in store for the last remaining wilderness on Alaska's north slope if greedy oil companies get their way.  The truth is that ANWR has been the target of the industry for six decades, and now that they have a majority in the Senate and the Chief Apprentice in Office, they are flouting laws to take away land that should be devoted solely to wildlife habitat.

Development would create a spider web of drilling rigs, oil pipelines, and roads—permanently altering this wild landscape for nearly 200 species of migratory birds who make the Refuge home, along with denning polar bears, hundreds of thousands of caribou, and other unique wildlife.  It is already too apparent that the Arctic is undergoing profound change due to global warming.  Destroying what remains for a relatively few more barrels of oil is stupid and immoral.  The current Secretary of the Interior told the press that he thinks the first lease sale could take place before the end of the year.  The Alaska Wilderness League said in response, “Any oil company that would seek to drill in the Arctic Refuge will face enormous reputation, legal and financial risks.”  Companies have shown little interest in operating in Alaska's harsh environment during a time of low oil prices, but that does not stop the Heel from publicly bragging that he accomplished what Ronald Reagan could not.  Join other conservationists in the good fight to protect our wild America.

Pandemic Depression

Here are the charts that justify the descriptor, starting with unemployment:

1.64 million filed for unemployment in week 20 (ending August 1st) of the collapse of the labor market.  That makes 32 million "Mericans out of work (unadjusted), the second highest total since the Great Depression.

Of course, with no wages coming in, mortgage delinquencies are rising, spiking in April beyond all previous records:

Miami was the worst hit metro area where all those unmasked folks are living the suburban dream beneath sunny skies, up 6.7%.  About 8% of mortgages are now in forbearance.  An interesting side note to the coming implosion of the real estate bubble is that the current Treasury Secretary's bank was under investigation for foreclosure violations by the state of California. However the then attorney general, none other than the current darling of the moment, Kamala Harris, declined to prosecute One West. Never bite the hand that might feed you.

Senate Agrees with Mueller

So there you have it, folks.  The Repugnants in the Senate did their own investigation of the Russian Connection, and the one thousand page report they released after three years of work confirm what Robert Mueller told us last year.  The Heel and his gang of grifters were in cahoots with the Russians.  As summarized by the New York Times: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 American election to help Mr. Trump become president, and some members of Mr. Trump’s circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.  The extensive report is a rare work product of a bipartisan Senate committee headed by a Repugnant, Richard Burr of North Carolina.

For the first time a key contact of former campaign chair, Robert Manafort, Vladimir Kalimnik, is identified as a Russian intelligence officer.  Manafort shared confidential campaign information with Kalimnik.  The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Kilimnik likely served as a channel to Manafort for Russian intelligence services, and that those services likely sought to exploit Manafort's access to gain insight [into] the Campaign," The Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee tied Kalimnik to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit that conducted the hacking operation against the Democratic National Committee in 2016. The Senate committee deemed Manafort's many contacts with Russian operatives a "grave counter-intelligence threat".

After years of work, Robert Mueller had previously identified dozens of contacts between Trump minions and Russian operatives which the Democrats in the House of Representatives labeled "collusion"*. Their impeachment effort confined largely to a single phone call, ran into a partisan stone wall in the Senate.  Regime sycophants like William Barr have spent the last year and a half denigrating Mueller's efforts by attempting to frame the investigation of the Russian Connection as a politically motivated "hoax".  The IG for what used to be the Department of Justice has found that the original FBI counterintelligence operation that gave birth to the entire scandal was based on probable cause.  Mueller's latter work has now received the Senate's bipartisan imprimatur.

Psalm 73

*The committee report describes an April 2016 meeting that GOP Congressman Dana Rohrabacher had in Moscow with Vladimir Yakunin, the former president of Russian Railways and a close confidant of Putin. Yakunin at the time was under US sanctions. The committee said that Yakunin “is significantly involved in Russian influence activities, including those targeting elections.” Much of the report’s information on Yakunin is redacted.  On the question of possible Kompromat in the possession of Russia, The report goes far beyond the infamous “pee tape” rumor. It states that Trump “may have” begun a short affair with a former Miss Moscow during a 1996 trip to Moscow—without reaching a firm conclusion.  Regarding the role of Roger Stone, who's sentence the Heel commuted, the committee laid out a range of evidence that Mr. Stone was focused on WikiLeaks. He and Mr. Trump had spoken a few days earlier, on Sept. 29, also on an aide’s phone. Another campaign aide, Rick Gates, witnessed it and told investigators that the two men discussed WikiLeaks. After that call, Mr. Trump told Mr. Gates that “more releases of damaging information would be coming.” From March to November 2016, court records show Mr. Stone had 39 calls with the Chief Apprentice.  According to the Senate report the campaign considered the leak of the intercepted emails to be its "October Surprise".

Border Wall Threatens Endangered Wildlife

Mexican stoneroller, courtesy USFWS

The water levels of life-sustaining ponds in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge are dropping precipitously.  Wildlife officials are having to remove endangered fish species from the ponds in order to save them.  Since its creation in 1982, the mission of the Refuge has been to preserve rare species of the Rio Yaqui, such as the Yaqui chub, Yaqui topminnow and Huachuca water umbel.  Through a series of artesian wells connected to an aquifer, the refuge has kept ponds filled for nearly forty years.

That is all changing as the regime withdraws acres of water to mix concrete for its border folly--the wall of shame.  Under normal circumstances, such a major federal project would be subjected to extensive environmental review under NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, and the Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act.  But these protections have all been circumvented under national security exceptions.  Consequently, the Refuge is without legal protection.  Forced to cooperate with the regime, Refuge officials sent hydrological studies and recommendations about how to reduce the impact of construction on the Refuge and its endangered residents.

courtesy USFWS

Emails released to High Country News under FOIA show Homeland Security consistently ignored the advice and expertise offered it.  Months of dysfunctional communication took place between August 2019 and January 2020, and during crucial moments, Homeland Security kept USFWS officials in the dark.  Despite claims it was coordinating with the wildlife protection agency, documents show construction caused groundwater levels to plummet.  In October, Refuge managers wrote Homeland Security saying the depletion of groundwater had reached a "dire emergency". 

Wall contractors went ahead and drilled within 480 feet of the Refuge, abandoning the well after it did not produce water.  Pond levels continued to drop as the contractors continued to pump large volumes of water from private land just a mile and a half from the Refuge.  In the Sonoran desert, water is precious and scarce.  The connection between adverse impacts on the Refuge ponds and water withdrawals for building are undeniable. The Refuge ordered more powerful pumps for its ponds, but they came too late for at least three of the ponds it is trying to protect.

Greenland's Meltdown May be Permanent

credit: AFP

Scientists studying Greenland's ice sheet over the past thirty-five years have concluded that annual snowfall is not enough to replenish the snow and ice being lost to summertime melting.  That melting is causing global seas to rise a millimeter per year.   That may sound like an insignificant amount, but if the entire ice sheet goes, the water released will cause sea levels to rise by 6 meters--more than enough to inundate coastal cities.  An author of the study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment journal said Greenland is the "canary in the coal mine, and the canary is pretty much dead at this point."

The Arctic region has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe for the last thirty years, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.  Arctic sea ice is at its lowest extent in forty years.  It is melting ice sheets anchored on dry land that will add fresh water to the Earth's oceans.  Some exploiters are already licking their chops as Greenland is uncovered, since it is rich in minerals and the fabled Northwest Passage will be ice free.  No wonder the Heel in Office offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, the current sovereign.  Last month the imperial US reopened a consulate in the autonomous territory at Nuuk, the capital.

The melting of Greenland will be with us well into the distant future.  The study suggests that the ice sheet will gain mass only once in 100 years.  Reducing global warming to agreed upon levels will not bring back the ice pack, but in would slow the rate of change in the Earth's climate patterns and the accompanying sea-level rise.  This delay would give humans time to adapt and implement new strategies for dealing with the brave, new world they have created.

"Toontime: In the Land of Golden Showers

'Merica's politics have become a salacious crime novel. Don 'Showers' Trumpillini does not even bothering to cover up his ostentatious corruption.  He is literally defunding the USPS to prevent a nationwide mail-in ballot.  His strategy is to undermine confidence in the legitimacy of the election results enough to allow a close count to be declared "rigged" and "invalid".  He knows his racist, delusional supporters are outvoted, so vote suppression is his only option.  The plutocrats he represents want to continuing sponging off those of US still servicing their mounting debt. A cadre of 643 Forbes-certified billionaires grew their collective wealth by an estimated $685 billion, from mid-March through early-August of this year. Bon temps roller!

COVID DEATHS IN US (est.): 242,200*

 Golf Trips in Office: 273

It's rigged!....

versus real leadership

*A NYT analysis of excess deaths in the US reveals that the number of U.S. residents who have died since March is now more than 200,000 higher than it would be in a normal year, suggesting that the official COVID death counts are grossly underestimating the lethal effects of SARS CoV-2.  Meanwhile the profits of the largest for profit health care insurer, United Health Care, doubled over the same quarter last year during a pandemic.  That reason alone is enough to justify a single payer system.

Fighting the Heel's Ecological Suicide

Conservation groups and eight states sued the Heel in Office to stop his dismantling of another keystone environmental protection law, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In 2018 the plaintiffs sued to overturn the Department of Interior's cockeyed interpretation of the Act, which said that migratory birds were protected only from intentional, deliberate lethal acts.  Today a federal judge ruled that an unscientific interpretation in a department legal opinion violates the plain meaning of the treaty.  If the regime's rule had been in place in 2010, there would have been no recovery for the millions of coastal birds killed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  Judge Valerie Caproni noted, “It is not only a sin to kill a mockingbird, it is also a crime. That has been the letter of the law for the past century."

Although the ruling is a victory for migratory birds and their habitat, Congress must act to pass a permanent legislative fix, so the regime's attempts to turn their twisted legal opinion into permanent administrative rule is halted.  The Act is not an unduly burdensome law, but a common sense measure to protect migrating birds from man-made hazards, like covering waste pits that tired birds mistake for ponds where they can rest on their journeys.  Audubon Society says that up to one million birds are killed each year in oil waste pits.

Siberia is Burning

Hopes of reaching the 2℃ limit on global warming set a the Paris climate
conference are going up in smoke as freakish fires rage out of control in Siberia.  These fires have emitted more carbon dioxide in two months than in any complete fire season since records began, and more than all of Scandinavia.  Half of the fires are in peatlands, which can burn for extended periods of time given enough heat, which the Siberian fires have in abundance. [photo: NASA]  The amount of carbon stored in northern peatlands was recently determined to be double what was previously estimated. Russian scientists say 6.7 million acres of remote wildlands are burning across six regions.  Greenpeace puts the estimate at 3.3hectares or about 8 million acres. Smoke from the fires have reached eastern Washington state.

fire in Krasnoyarsk, credit Greenpeace

Some of the fires were caused naturally, including so called "zombie" fires where last year's smoldering  fires in peat bogs have reached the surface and reignited. Russian authorities are working to extinguish some of the fires, but only a tiny fraction of those burning out of control.  About 45% of Russia's forests are in zones where fires are allowed to burnout.  A recent update on the Russian forest service website said personnel were fighting 129 active fires.  Nevertheless this years fires seem to be less serious than the 2012 fire season in which over 40 million acres of forest were burned.

Warming Climate Increase Spread of Ticks

Ticks that spread Lyme disease used to be confined to the warmer regions of the US. As the climate warms, scientists see a spread of deer ticks, ixodes scapularis, to regions once too cold for the tick to survive in winter.  So named because of their habit of parasitizing white-tailed deer, these blood-suckers transmit a number of diseases affecting humans besides Lyme disease, such as anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and the rare Powassan virus disease.  The tick is hardy, able to survive frost, and in the spring one of the first invertebrates to become active as it searches for a blood meal.


Cases of Lyme disease, a debilitating infectious disease that can cause paralysis, joint pain, swelling, fatigue, and memory loss have doubled to about 30,000 per year.  Usually, the initial symptom is an expanding rash at the site of the bite.  Ticks, normally found in the southeast have spread to the upper Midwest, New England and eastern Canada.  Increased outdoor recreation by housebound human seeking to escape their monotony, has increased exposure to potential infection.  Warmer winters have allowed ticks to feed later into autumn, increasing their chance of surviving winter; in spring females lay hundreds of eggs in the leaf litter.  Ticks that have infested an area are transmitting new bacteria-based diseases such as anaplasmosis and Powassan virus disease, which can be fatal.  Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics, not always easily, and symptoms can linger for months.  The best defense is to avoid tick bites with protective clothing and insect repellent containing DEET.  Check dogs for ticks and apply tick repellent.

'Toontime: The Heel in Office

credit: Dave Granlund
BC Idonwanna:  Orangeman drinkiing hydroQ again!

US Person has enjoyed the multitudinous explanations of the oft inexplicable behavior and public statements of the Chief Apprentice.  The pundits offer the gamut from psychosis, neurosis, to criminality, neo-fascism and dementia.  US Person is partial to the criminal variety in that Don Veto emulates gangster behavior, followed closely by fascist dictator. One explanation US Person has read is intriguing, and comes from the realm of TV entertainment. No, it is not his TV reality show, The Apprentice, although that monster run certainly launched his public career.

In turns out Don Veto is friends with Vince McMahon, owner of the World Wrestling Federation. (WWF)  His hotels and casinos have played host to "Wrestlemania" events, and he has even participated in these displays of fake sport. In 2013 the WWF inducted him into its hall of fame. In his first campaign for president he adopted the familiar story line of the ring: good guys versus the bad guys, or in pro-wrestling parlance, the "face" versus the "heel". The face is often handsome and appeals for the sympathy and respect of the crowd. The bad guy heel often insults the crowd and only cares about his own glory. He plays the role of the chaotic spoiler, and also the victim. Think of Ted diBiase, the 'Million Dollar Man', or today's Kevin Owens, the schoolyard bully. Trump copies them all, down to his nearly incoherent, emotional speech patterns, intended to inflame the crowd when they hear the shared cues.

A former announcer for the Federation, Jim Ross, says Trump is "vintage WWF...everything plays out the way it would if the event were happening from a wrestling ring on Monday Night Raw...Trump was enmeshed on WWF TV in one of the most successful story lines in company history." Trump's heel persona allows him to connect immediately with the aggrieved, angry racist, and low-information public conventional candidates do not reach.  These are the same people who scream themselves red in the face at the antics performed in the wrestling ring. The Apprentice in Chief is the anti-hero of 'Merican politics.

When US Person hears the descriptor, heel, his mind flashes back to the 1942 classic noir film, The Glass Key and the remarkable scene between Alan Ladd, the hero, and William Bendix, the sadistic mob henchman. Bendix repeatedly tells his captive, "Yer a heel!" Ladd has a big grin on his face as Jeff (Bendix) works up enough rage to beat him senseless. Whether that reaction is in the script, or Ladd is showing appreciation for Bendix's riveting performance is hard to say. US Person has a similar reaction to the Chief Apprentice's outrageous behavior, which has earned him the consuming attention of a corporate mass media (CMM) desperate for ratings. The national audience is transfixed by 'Der Donald's' provocative antics before the camera. Astounding to think the heel occupying the most powerful political office in the world learned his shtick by watching fake sport, or performance art if you will, on TV. But then this must be de riguer for postmodern 'Merica where truth is always relative and personal integrity never pays the bills*.

*A word about the Democratic ticket: three factors are glaringly obvious. Joe Biden will be 78 years old when he takes office, so the health and age of his replacement must be considered. Democrats want a woman Vice President. The Democratic base is substantially progressive, or at least to the left of Joe Biden, a corporate Democrat. The Sanders campaign proved that, defeating the former VP in early primaries when the field was still crowded. Progressives of all races have therefore earned their ideological representation on the ballot. These factors point to one person who can hold party factions together, transcend losing identity politics, and is capable by experience of ascending to the Office Without Corners: Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

Will he hurt God?


US COVID-19 DEATHS (est.):  230,000

The Gathering No More?

Sri Lanka is home to one of the great wildlife spectacles of the world, and it is a huge tourist draw to the island.  Over 300 hundred wild elephants journey to a man-made reservoir in Minneriya National Park to feed on fresh grass shoots emerging when water is withdrawn for irrigation.  Park officials negotiated a limit on filling the reservoir to 70% of capacity so that the favored food is exposed when the elephants arrive in July.  They have noticed that elephants are leaving Minneriya due to high water levels in the park.

"The Gathering" as it is known, generates $6.5 million in tourism annually for the local economy, which will be lost if the elephants leave.  The ancient Minneriya resevoir is part of the island's complex irrigation system that has been impacted by a more recent multi-purpose irrigation project that releases water to the tank for farming in the dry season.  According to wildlife officials, elephants left the park within seven to ten days of water release in 2018-2020.  They still inhabit the national park, but the altered conditions at the tank may make "the Gathering" an event of the past.

credit: C. Jayatilake

The good news is that among the elephants showing up at Minneriya this year, were two rare elephant twins.  The photo shows that they are remarkably similar in appearance. Observers see them suckling from the same mother elephant, one on each side. They also play together. Genetic tests will be performed to confirm the behavioral observations. The male and female calves are the first live elephant twins recorded in Sri Lanka. Still born twin calves were discovered in 2018.  Africa elephants are also known to produce twins, but it is a rare event.  In Kenya's Amboseli National Park, the first live twins were recorded in 1980, but thirty-eight years past before more twins were born.  Instances of the birth of twins has been recorded in Uganda and Tanzania.  Elephant calves require huge amount of a mother's energy supply, so producing live twins is a tremendous effort, even for an elephant.

 

COTW: Dire Straits II

Ask anybody who knows something about 'Merican capitalism--from pundit to plutocrat--the economy is all about growth, not just growth in one quarter, but sustained growth.  Without it the people suffer declines in their standard of living.  Look!...at this graph:

The nicely curving trend line goes up, but the actual economy has never really recovered from the Great Recession of 2008.  After resuming an upward climb since then, the GDP is tanking again due to the pandemic.  As US Person rudely points out, GDP is driven largely by consumptive spending.  An increasing share of any postwar economic expansion benefits the already rich.  Certainly, the extra $600 a week check helped out unemployed poor families, but a lot of people stashed it in the face of hard times to come.  Those savings do not help the GDP which has suffered the greatest loss since 'Merica demobilized in 1946:

chart credits: D. Henwood

Yet our plutocratic masters of the regime are quibbling about giving the lazy lumpen proletariat another dose of needed cash.  Six hundred dollars a week fades into chump change when compared to the $16 trillion the Fed has doled out to keep Wall Street flush.  Check this out: the price of gold is now over $2000 an ounce. Without direct payments to consumers, the economy will deflate further and the depression lengthened.  The secret is out: they got theirs, and they do not give a rat's ass about the rest of US.

 "Its the greatest!...."