Sweden Blocks Wolf Hunt

A Swedish court gave animal right activists a temporary victory and saved the lives of countless wolves when it ordered a temporary ban on wolf hunting in parts of the country.  Activists were fighting a decision to authorize the culling of 46 wolves.  Two courts in Karlstad and Falun must evaluate whether the hunting permits are in conformity with EU environmental protections.  The country's EPA estimates there are 400 wolves in Sweden and recommends the population be controlled at that level by regulated hunting.  The season was set to begin January 2 and end on February 15th. Hunters argue the wolves are decimating other game animals such as moose and killing domestic animals.

The wolf has been protected in Sweden and is making a healthy resurgence.  So much so, farmers are fearing for their livestock.  The government compensates farmers for their losses and subsidizes protective (electric) fencing.  The dispute over wolves and their place in modern Sweden is prominent enough to reach televised political debates.  When Sweden went ahead with its most recent cull of 44 wolves, it received a warning letter from the European Commission.  The EU's executive body says Sweden has not adequately considered alternatives and failed to show controlled hunts do not pose a threat to the species long-term survival.

Two intrepid wolves from Russia made the arduous journey from Finland or Russia looking for a suitable home in the 1980s.  They were joined by others in 2007 or 2008.  Their numbers grew over the years from just five animals to the point farmers began protesting their presence.  The first hunt began in 2010.  EPA officials maintain that only the genetically weak are culled; they claim they have DNA from about 90% of Swedish wolves, but such reassurances are dismissed by advocates who say a sustainable wolf population should number 1500 to 3,000 to insure healthy genetic diversity.  They refer to stories of  wolf threat as "Little Red Riding Hood" tales; a human has not been killed by a wolf in 200 years in Sweden.  A spokesman for the Wolf Association of Sweden says, "the hate against the animal, a species such as the wolf, is like racism in people--it is absolute the same process of mind."  Indeed.

File Under Global Warming Myth

Why the box office earnings of the latest computerized fantasy from Hollywood should be making the national news is a bit of a paradox for US Person when stories like this are buried in the back pages. But then he is insolent! Forty-three people lost their lives in violent storms over the holidaze. States of emergency have been declared in several Midwestern states. Eleven were killed in Texas by tornadoes. Dallas County was particularly hard hit with more than 100 homes damaged or destroyed by winds in excess of 200mph. Thirteen people are dead from flash floods in New Mexico. Bad weather is expected to continue Monday with heavy snow forecast from New Mexico to Iowa along with high winds, rain and ice storms.

COTW: The Middle Class Squeeze, Continued

This map shows the shocking amount of hourly wage, considering the federal minimum is just $7.25/hr., needed to afford a two-bedroom rental in each of the fifty states:

You would think that a working class in such dire straits would naturally gravitate toward a socialist presidential candidate offering the chance for real structural reform instead of the inflammatory bigotry of a faux-populist business man running interference for the plutocracy (Trump: 'the minimum wage is already too high'). The key to understanding the disconnect between Bernie Sanders and poor white workers is its historical context as thoroughly explained by Theodore W. Allen in his Invention of the White Race. to combat any natural class solidarity between slaves and poor working whites, plutocrats embedded white workers (often bond servants themselves) with a sense of inbred superiority using a combination of legal and social policy preferences as well as racist propaganda. A similar technique was successfully employed previously in Ireland by British overlords to suppress Irish Catholics' campaign for Ireland's separation by giving preferential treatment in industrial employment and landowning to Irish Protestants to engender their loyalty to the Crown Of England.

'Toontime: Schlongfest 2016

credit: John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune
Wackydoodle sez:  Takes one to know one!

The quality of political debate in 'Merica has reached a new nadir with the candidacy of Donald Trump. One thing he is good at besides making lucrative real estate deals with local politicians, is he knows how to manipulate the attention of the CMM that will substitute anything, including insults, for informed policy debate. For example, Bernie Sanders proposed reforming the private Federal Reserve which serves the interests of Wall Street banksters in a New York Times editorial. For all the attention it received in the mainstream press, he might as well have been handing out resumes on a street corner.

credit: John Coe, Scranton Times-Tribune
BC Idonwanna sez:  Too much beer and football rot brain!

PNG wishes its readers season's greetings!

Japan To Restart Two More Reactors

Despite protests from residents, Japan has decided to restart two of its nuclear reactors in the quake-prone country. Kansai Electric Power company will restart Takahama No.3 and 4 early next year. The Fukui District Court removed an injunction preventing the restarts on Thursday. The two units will be the third and fourth plants to resume operations after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi meltdowns. Kyushu Electric Power's Sendai No.1 and 2 on Kyushu Island have already resumed operations under the new rules. The company announced it will begin loading MOX fuel into Takahama No.3 on Christmas Day. The restarts will be a big boost to the company's bottom line since Kansai is the utility most dependent on nuclear power generation. Reuters found in a survey that of the other 42 operable reactors, about seven are likely to be restarted in the next few years. Nine are unlikely to be put back into service according to the news service. Companies have applied to the nation's nuclear regulatory authority to restart twenty-five plants. Japan has been relying on record imports of liquefied natural gas to make up for its 26% loss in capacity during the nuclear moratorium. The Abe government has yet to find an acceptable site for disposal of highly-radioactive spent fuel waste.

2015 Was Hot!

a future possibility?

Right now New York City is fourteen degrees above normal and the entire east coast is expected to experience record setting warm temperatures this holidaze weekend. A fitting exclamation mark to the hottest year on record according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Last November was a record setter for warm temperatures, the seventh month in a row for records; thirteen of the fourteen hottest years have occurred in the 21st century.  Record keeping began in 1880. Certainly this data is not mere coincidence, but is consistent with the predicted effects of climate change. This year is one of the strongest El Niños recorded, so that is also contributing to the strange winter weather affecting the US. When asked by the New York Times Bill McKibben, a well-known climate activist, said "We're are living through history, and not of a good kind."

One only has to travel to the Greenland ice sheet to know climate change is a reality. Greenland's ice sheet, supported by land, is literally melting away and rushing into the sea in fast rivers of flowing water.[video]  A complete melt down could raise sea levels by twenty feet. The federal government spends about $1 billion a year studying the changing conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. It is money well spent because computer modeling of climate cannot give scientists a full understanding of the phenomenon that will affect the world for centuries. Incredibly that relatively modest amount of funding is under attack from climate deniers in Congress. Representative Lamar Smith of Texas is leading the fight to cut NASA climate research budget by $300 million, and began an investigation into fifty National Science Foundation grants. We will pay the price of deliberate ignorance.