US Refuses to Protect Wolves in Northern Rockies

Federal wildlife officials refused to restore Endangered Species Act protection to Northern Rockies wolves despite states implementing hunting plans and repeated requests from conservation groups. Vigilantes in Idaho are again offering bounties ($1000) for dead wolves.  Wolves in the Northern Rockies were removed from the Endangered Species Act list at the end of the Trump regime.

California wolf near Yosemite

US Fish and Wildlife estimates 2800 wolves in the region stating that the species maintains high genetic diversity and connectivity that allows it to adapt to future changes.  Conservationists see a different picture  saying some western states are trying to renege on wolf conservation commitments made a decade ago. Because a few western states (Montana, Wyoming and Idaho) are aggressively culling wolves, they still need 
federal protection. As wolf numbers have rebounded, the ancient enmity between agriculturalists and wolves has reignited. Livestock owners claim the wolf has recovered and is not in need of further protection. [photo credit: AP]

Wolves are experiencing a better fate in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and California where wolf populations are expanding under management plans. Grey wolves are still federally protected in the Great Lakes region thanks to a ruling by a federal judge in 2022. When their federal protection lapsed, Wisconsin hunters far exceeded the number of permissible wolf kills in a single season. The issue of wolf recovery has become part of the culture wars ranging across the nation. One positive note is that the USFWS announced on February 2nd it will promulgate a nationwide wolf recovery plan in 2025, replacing the disasterous piecemeal treatment now in effect.

US Bans Three Weed Killers

In a major setback to world agrochemical companies, a federal judge in Arizona has banned dicamba-based herbicides.  The court also found that the EPA violated the law by allowing them on the market.  The ban is specific to three herbicides manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta.  These are considered responsible for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and their habitats.  The Ninth Circuit previously banned the products in 2020, but the Trump regime reapproved the products just one week before his camping swing through Georgia.

The suit to against the use was brought by farmers and conservationists. The EPA was found not to have followed public comment regulations before approval.  Dicamba was introduced in the US in 1967, but was not widely used because of its propensity to volatilize during warm weather.  As a gas the herbicide drifts widely causing extensive damage.  Monsanto and BASF produced crop seeds tolerant to dicamba and encouraged farmers to use their version of dicamba which the companies claimed was less prove to drifting off target.  About sixty-five million acres have been planted with dicamba resistant crops, about the size of Oregon according to the EPA.  Discovery documents in the suit show that the companies knew about the potential for drift damage and that scientists at EPA complained they did not have enough time to study the herbicides before approving them.  A year later EPA produced a report saying dicamba was still prone to spreading to adjacent areas.

The ruling affects Bayer's XtendiMax herbicide, which it inherited from Monsanto when it acquired the company in 2018, Syngenta's Tavium herbicide, and BASF's weedkiller Engenia.  The ban comes at a bad time for Bayer, which is coping with mass litigation over Monsanto's Roundup herbicide that contains glyphosate, a chemical found to cause cancer in humans.  So far Bayer has paid billions in damages and settlements.

TWIT: Citizen Trump

That is how three judges on the panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for DC referred to the Ochre Menace in the fifty-seven page opinion denying his claim of immunity from criminal prosecution.  The opinion was a comprehensive and authoritative dismantling of his claim based on separation of powers and double jeopardy principles.  One informed observer called it "certiorari proof", in reference to the expected appeal to the Supreme Court.  The per curium decision gave the deranged autocrat until next Monday to file an appeal with the high court.  After that date the mandate will be returned to the District Court and trial proceedings may recommence.  Don Legit needs five votes on the Supreme Court to obtain another stay of proceedings. Most Court pundits think that outcome to be unlikely even if the Court grants a review.

Two judges appointed by Democratic administration and one by Republican administration quoted Judge Chutkin of the lower court with approval.   After first finding interlocutory appeal jurisdiction by distinguishing the Midland Asphalt case, the panel addressed the two prongs of the Appellant's imunity argument.  The appeals court stated that his assault on the structure of our government was unprecedented.  Accepting his claim of unbounded authority to commit crimes would, "neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power--the recognition and implementation of election results...at bottom [his] stance would collapse our system of separated powers... since as Madison stated in Federalist No51,  "dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government."  Denying his immunity claim based on separation of powers principles the judges concluded would be to maintain its proper balance.

Turning to the Impeachment Clause justification the court found it inapplicable for two reasons: one, Impeachment is a political process controlled by Congress not a judicial one in which criminal penalties could be imposed and, two the charges in his impeachment trial are not the same as those charged by the indictment.  The Constitution informs us of the authors' intent to not rule out criminal prosecutions for crimes committed in office. The Impeachment Clause limits its affect to removal and disqualification from office and goes on to state that, "the party convicted [in the Senate] shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law". The judges go on to explicit reject Trump's negative inference of conviction in the Senate as a prerequisite to prosecution for various contextual reasons, noting in the process that Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No 65 thought that the punishment of a dangerous officer as a criminal "remains within the province of courts of law...". Clearly the appellate judges are writing for the edification of the "originalists" on the Court.

The concluding paragraph of the opinion is forceful:

We have balanced [Citizen] Trump's asserted interest in executive immunity against the vital public interests that favor allowing this prosecution to proceed. We conclude that concerns of public policy, especially as illuminated by history and the structure of our government, compel the rejection of immunity in this case [citing Fitzgerald 457 U.S. 747.] Accordingly the order of the district court is AFFIRMED.

Will the grievous injury to American democracy committed by Gerald Ford in 1974 giving a blanket pardon to Richard Nixon for the crimes he committed in office be finally rectified? Or will a partisan and corrupt Supreme Court deliver Citizen Trump from accountability? Our "long national nightmare" is far from over. So stayed tuned.

Boarder Wall Threatens Sanctuary

UNESCO, responsible for World Heritage sites, says the boarder 'wall' between the US and Mexico threatens the ecological connectivity between two wildlife reserves, El Pinacate and Gran Desierto Alta Biosphere Reserve and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Reserve. A section of barrier cuts across the reserves impacting wildlife that depend on springs in Arizona for water. A representative of the Center for Biological Diversity said the 30 foot wall does not block humans from crossing, but does stop the passage of animals, causing damage to the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert [photo below]. 

credit: S. Müller

Without remediation, the reserves could appear on UNESCO's list of endangered World Heritage sites. According to the CBD, the barrier now runs 87 miles along the border of El Picante with only a 14 mile gap in mountainous terrain. Animals accustom to traveling to springs in the north are now without a water source. Quitobaquito Springs [video] is the most well known and is also sacred to the Thohono O'odham people who live on both sides of the border. In September UNESCO published a document calling on the US and Mexico to cooperatively develop a mitigation plan whose aim is to restore ecological connectivity. It also called for conservation measures to be implemented as part of Mexico's new solar power array near Puerto Peñasco. The Mexican government published a report in 2022 finding that the border structure would cause habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation as well as reduced water resources.

Dead animals including peccaries, deer, and desert bighorns have been found in the vicinity of the wall, presumably dying of thirst. Adding the adjoining reserves to the UNESCO danger list would allow the release of World Heritage funds to the threatened sanctuaries. Currently, the Mogool Foundation, which was founded to improve social and environmental health, is providing water in the south by filling concrete troughs with water transported from neighboring municipalities. While the effort may sustain wildlife cut off from natural sources, it is an expensive and inefficient means of mitigating the problem.

Scientists Propose New Hurricane Category

To accommodate the mega-hurricanes generated by global warming conditions, scientists have proposed adding a "Category Six", expanding the Saffir-Simpson scale 1 through 5 rating now applied to storms. Hurricane Patricia reached wind speeds of 215 mph well beyond the 157 mph level classed as Category 5 as well as having the second lowest barometric pressure ever recorded. [photo] Rapid intensification of hurricanes is considered to be a consequence of very warm surface waters. Patricia escalated from a tropical disturbance to a Category 5 in just 24 hours. It made landfall near Jalisco, Mexico.

A category six cyclone would have sustained winds above 192 mph, speed almost impossible to imagine and as fast as a Formula One race car. The new study in which the new category was proposed is published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. The Saffir-Simpson scale was developed by a civil engineer and a meteorologist. It classifies storms according to sustained wind speed. A wind speed of 74 mph is classified as a category one. Category five storms have caused incredible amounts of damage on shore. Katrina's ravaging of New Orleans, Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico and typhoon Haiyan's killing of 6,000 people are recent examples of their destructive power. 

The authors said their proposal does not mean a category six storm is likely in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico, but such a storm is certainly possible given the extraordinary heating of ocean surface waters due to climate change.Satellite data shows that storms are increasing in severity. The Saffir-Simpson scale is an imperfect measure of a cyclone's destructive power since most damage arises from intense rainfall and flooding.  But a category six storm would definitely produce a large storm surge that would inundate coastal zones. Wind speeds of that magnitude would collapse buildings, rip up trees, and severely damage infrastructure.

TWIT: The Lessons of History

Several prominent historians and constitutional scholars have develed into the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and its Section 3 disqualifying insurrectionists from holding public office.  As US Person has already posted, the legislative history unequivocally supports these propositions:

• Don 'Legit' was an insurrectionist who sought to overthrow the peaceful transition of Executive power on January 6th;
• He was an officer of the United States at the time;
• He took an oath of office to support the Constitution;
• Insurrections include not just armed rebellion of the past but those that may occur in the future 

The so-called originalists on the Supreme Court ought to pay attention to these conclusions by eminent scholars in their amicus brief.  They claim to be interested in the intent of the authors in the context of history when interpreting the Constitution.  MAGAist constructions are unnatural and overly narrow, intended to only exculpate the perpetrator.  As many commentators have observed by now, this is a pivotal moment in our history.  Either we are a republic of laws fairly construed, or a deteriorating democracy on the path to dictatorship.

On another legal front Judge Engoron has paused his decision in the New York fraud case to consider the findings of the legal monitor, Barbara Jones, appointed to oversea the operations of Trump Org.  She found some glaring omissions, questionable practices, and irregularities in the organization's financial operations.  Most questionable is the existence of a $48 million internal loan reported in financial disclosure statements of 2018-2021 (so-called MAML disclosures), yet the company disputes whether the the loan existed in the first place.  This potentially fraudulent entry could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Judge Engoron.  The Attorney General is asking for injunctive relief banning Trump and his sons from the real estate industry in New York.  She says such an injunction is needed because of a demonstrated propensity to use false financial filings, even during the criminal investigation and the appointment of a monitor.  Without such injunctive relief such fraudulent filings are likely to occur again. Bring the pain, judge!

He may also be waiting for the outcome of a potential perjury plea agreement by Alan Wiesselberg, Trump's former CFO, who lied on the witness stand about the size of Trump's penthouse apartment and was publicly called out for the lie by Forbes magazine.  It just keeps getting worse for Don 'Legit'

credit: H. Darko, Columbia Missourian

Brought to You Since 1954

Newly uncovered documents show that the fossil fuel industry knew of the effects of combustion on the Earth's climate since 1954.  Early research by Charles Keeling, sponsored by industry, measured CO₂ in the western US. He went on to establish the "Keeling Curve" [left], which shows the upward trend of carbon dioxide content in the world's atmosphere. This mathematical correlation has been acclaimed as one of the most important scientific achievement of modern times.

Companies formed the Air Pollution Foundation that donated $158,000 in today's money to the research effort, which included studying the smog plaguing Los Angeles at the time.  Keeling's research director, Samuel Epstein, wrote about a new isotope analysis that could track atmospheric changes caused by the burning of coal and petroleum. He wrote in November of 1954 that, “The possible consequences of a changing concentration of the CO2 in the atmosphere with reference to climate, rates of photosynthesis, and rates of equilibration with carbonate of the oceans may ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization.” His prediction has materialized today. The documents are "smoking gun" proof that the industry was aware much earlier than previously known of the severe ecological effects from burning its products. 

Physicist Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, warned a symposium audience in 1959, "It has been calculated that a temperature rise corresponding to a 10 per cent increase in carbon dioxide will be sufficient to melt the icecap and submerge New York. All the coastal cities would be covered, and since a considerable percentage of the human race lives in coastal regions, I think that this chemical contamination is more serious than most people tend to believe." Incredibly the industry continues to deny in some respects the consequences of two centuries of carbon combustion. The oil lobby has launched an eight figure advertising campaign promoting the idea that fossil fuels are vital to global energy secuirty.  US oil production reached a record high in 2023, the hottest year on record.

Keeling and his researchers' work would lead to the continuous carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Current CO₂ levels are at 442 ppm or a third higher than they were in 1958. They are 50% more than pre-industrial levels, higher than ever experienced by human civilization. Backers of the Air Pollution Foundatoin included the American Petroleum Institue, the main industry lobby, and eighteen car companies including Ford, GM, and Chrysler. The unearthed documents came from Cal Tech archives, US archives, the Universitiy of California at San Diego and Los Angeles, and newspapers from the 1950's. This newest revelation will add impetus to efforts to hold industry legally responsible for the impacts of climate change.