The Truth from Senator Bernie Sanders

Happy Holidaze from PNG!

 

Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year

Weekend Music: Little Feat

Thanks Norah, for reminding me! One of US Person's (aka Elf-on-a-Shelf) favorite music shows from the 70s was "Midnight Special".  Little Feat was not a hugely popular band, but it cut some classics like this one from '74 before it was disbanded by guitarist and lead vocalist Lowell George in 1979. He died of a heart attack in Arlington, VA hotel room while on tour. George was an original member of Frank Zappa's group Mothers of Invention. He wrote the folk-rock standard Willin', which was popularized by Linda Ronstadt on her hit album, Heart Like a Wheel. George claimed that the song's reference to drugs got him fired by Zappa. Surviving menbers reformed the group in 1987. The band continues to perform to this day--still Willin':

Syphyilis Found in Ancient American Bones

A debate has raged over the source of syphilis since it was first encountered in Europe in 1494 when the disease ravaged the army of French King Charles VIII returning from campaigns in Italy [image]. That epidemic is regarded as the first historical account. One camp believes it was transported to Europe from the Americas by Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1493. Another camp believes it the disease lurked undetected in Europe before Columbus sailed away.

New DNA evidence may help lay the argument to rest. Ancient human bones from the Americas that predate Columbus contain genomes of bacteria from the syphilis disease family say researchers. Three diseases including syphillis are caused by strains of the bacteria Treponema pallidum While syphilis disease is widespread, the others are restricted to the tropics (yaws and bejel) Molecular paleopathology researchers from Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology were able to reconstruct five genomes from a hip bone from Argentina, a lower leg bone from Chile, upper and lower leg bones from Mexico, and a tooth from Peru. Their results were published in the respected journal Nature. They traced back the bacteria genomes to a common ancestor that existed 9,000 years ago. Then, the New World was already widely populated by humans who had not yet interacted with European cultures. While the debate may continue in the light of this new evidence, it does explain a great deal about how the disease originated and spread to other parts of the world.

TWIT: No Immunity For You!

Still More: In one of the remaining criminal cases against the conspirators of the January. 6th Insurrection, the Arizona Attorney General's office  has obtained a large cache of communications by the perpetrators and Trump allies.  They cannot be released yet because the judge overseeing the case gave defense attorney an opportunity to filter extraneous information before it becomes public.  The evidence may contain yet unknown details of the plot to overthrow the democratic transfer of power,  

The Arizona case focuses on the "fake elector" scheme in that state.  Don the Con is not among the defendants, but is a co-conspirator.  Former chief of staff Mark Meadows is a named defendant. Prosecutors obtained the cooperation of one of the Trump electors earlier this year.

More:  The Georgia Appeals Court has effectively ended the RICO case against Don Trumpilini by deciding Thursday that Fani Willis would be removed from the case for improper conduct.  Although it allowed the indictments to stand, it is unlikely that a special prosecutor will be appointed anytime soon  to replace Willis and her office.  Willis' problems began when the defense unearthed a romantic relationship between her and one of her subordinates working on the case,  The appeals court found that situation constituted a substantial conflict of interest.  How that relationship conflicted with her decisions in the RICO can is not clear to US Person, who is allegedly out-of-bounds, but the appearance of impropriety was enough to taint the case according to the court. The Fulton County DA's office has filed a notice of appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Update:  In their desperate effort to defeat the conviction of the their client of 34 felonies in the hush-money case, Trump's lawyers are now alleging juror misconduct.  Justice Merchan has responded to their letter saying the allegation should be investigated, but he cannot rely on hearsay and unsworn allegations in deciding whether the case against Don the Con should be vacated. Manhattan prosecutors argued that Trump’s lawyers were trying to immune the verdict by airing their claims in a letter to the judge rather than a formal motion to dismiss the case. Prosecutors also questioned the defense’s resistance to having Merchan hold a court hearing where their juror misconduct claims could be examined more thoroughly. The defense strategy is to prevent sentencing before his inauguration as the first convicted felon in history to become president of the United States. The attorneys' heavily redacted letter of December 3rd was released to the public Tuesday.

On another front, the House Ethics Committee voted to release the ethics report on Matt Gaetz after the 118th House concludes its business at the end of the year.   Read the released report here.

{17.12.2024}  Justice Juan Merchan of New York's Supreme Court issued his ruling on Don the Con's immunity claim on Monday. It was not good news for the Boss. Merchan found that the 34 criminal acts for which he was convicted by a jury occurred before he became president, and communications by White House personnel during his presidency about the illegal payments to 'Stormy' Daniels presented in evidence were not consequential, i.e. harmless error. Don Olde reacted on-line with predictable fury calling Merchan's ruling "psychotic".

The case is still alive for now, but the trial judge has yet to rule on the motion for dismissal in "the interests of justice" because Trump won the election.  His lawyers did not address the required factors for such a dismissal established under New York law in their motion. Their client hardly has "clean hands" to demand such extraordinary equitable relief; calling the trial judge, "corrupt" and "psychotic" is not a good thing. Sentencing is also still pending after Merchan postponed it twice in consideration of political events.  Merchan's rulings will be appealed through the two levels of state judicial review, and if necessary to the US Supreme Court where a MAGA majority awaits. 

Popock agrees!--suspend his sentence, which should include some jail time, pending his return to private life.  Meanwhile™the appeals can go forth. 

credit: M. Ramirez
Wackydoodle sez: He does tricks too!

Jungle Airstrips Hide in Logging Concessions

Mongabay.com in conjunction with Latam and Earth Genome has conducted a survey of Peruvian rain forest in Ucayali Department, Peru. Assisted by AI the survey found 45 clandestine airstrips in the forest.   Nine of these are located in logging concessions and some within native reserves; six are located in the middle of cocoa fields. Analysis of the data shows 67 acres of illicit crops within a 1.2 mile radius of an airstrip. Undoubtably the reason for these airstrips existence is narco-trafficking. Law enforcement officials also found labs associated with landing strips and think that the installations are part of the drug cartels' modus operandi. Some logging concessionaires have reported the installations, but their complaints have been ignored. 

In one case from nine years ago, the concession owned by Ucayali Wood, reported existence of an illegal airstrip to the Peruvian criminal investigation division. Evidence was provided to authorities including pictures of an airplane and the landing strip. Nothing was done about the report.  The company owns a 22,000 acre concession in Atalaya Province, an area ravaged by drug trafficking. Despite being virtual no-man's land, the landscape is littered with evidence of drug manufacturing. Ucayali Wood made repeated complaints through its agent in Atalaya, but a preliminary investigation was not launched until this year. It was shelved after authorities could not identify the perpetrators. The agent told Mongabay he will continue to make reports about illegal cocoa crops and other drug activities so not to lose his license to log which is valid until 2042.

Drug traffickers managed to build these strip during the pandemic years when officials were absent from the remote area. A leader of Ucayali indigneous people told Mongabay interviewers that they no longer report drug trafficking activity because local authorities, "don’t listen to us and can’t be trusted.” Neither the national police anti-narcotics unit (DIRANDRO) or the Ucayali Special Prosecutor's Office are currently investigating the establishment of illegal landing strips in forest concessions.  Often the strips appear on land for which there is no registered owner.They can be destroyed, but that is about all that can be done in the circumstances of official corruption.  All nations have their own problems.

Ocean Temperature Rise Killed 4 Million Birds

An estimated 4 million common murres in Alaska were killed by a marine heat wave.  That number represents about half of the murres' total population. The catastrophe is thought to be the largest die-off of a single animal species in recorded history. About a decade ago  Pacific surface temperatures shot up eleven degrees as a high pressure system stalled over the ocean and circulating currents died down.  They called it the "blob", and it convulsed marine ecosystems.  The blob lasted for three years, and humans began to see evidence of the damage done as carcasses washed up on beaches.  The effect on murres, a black and white seabird that spends most of its life at sea except for breeding, was discussed in a journal article recently published in Science.  What scientists learned about the die-off is that it was a lot worse than estimated, and that the birds have not yet begun to rebound [photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife] Previous estimates of the death toll ranged from a half to one million murres. 

The warming ocean temperatures led to a die-off of the birds' main fish prey. Ocean surface temperatures breached records last year and into this year.  Scientist are worried that the high temperatures and its disastrous impacts on marine wildlife may be a harbinger of the future,  Murres are normally resilient to changes in their environment, but impact of prolonged ocean heat seems to have overwhelmed the birds.  A similar type of disastrous population decline occurred when Atlantic cod off of Newfoundland were overfished.  Once thought to be an inexhaustible source of protein, Atlantic cod have failed to recover despite a ban on cod fishing in Newfoundland waters.