News Articles | June 12, 2022

June 12, 2022June 13, 2022 Robert Heston Afghanistan, Antarctic, Biden, covid 19, fascism, Global Warming, Russia, Saudi Arabia, The Environment, Ukraine, vaccine, War, World Economics, Yemen

June 7 was a bad day for Luis Almagro, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS). During the ninth Summit of the Americas, a young man declared to him what he is: an assassin and puppet of the White House, instigator of the coup in Bolivia. He said that Almagro cannot come to give lessons on democracy when his hands are stained with blood. In another room at the summit in Los Angeles, Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to be doing no better: several journalists rebuked him for using freedom of the press to provide cover for the murderers of journalists and for sanctioning and excluding certain countries from this meeting. “Democracy or hypocrisy?” could be heard over the loudspeaker that day.

In reality, this stormy summit began with a large diplomatic stumble for the United States, when several Latin American presidents announced that they would not participate in the summit because of the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, as dictated by the White House, while the U.S. State Department still claims the open and unrestricted nature of the meeting’s call. READ MORE

"The United States has lost its moral authority," said one critic, "to convene a summit about the promotion of democracy and freedom."

U.S. President Joe Biden was openly rebuked on Thursday by some of the Western Hemisphere's leaders over his decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from this week's Summit of the Americas, while outside, progressive activists continue to hold protests and teach-ins.

Shortly after Biden gave a speech exalting the virtues of democracy in the region, Belize Prime Minister John Briceno denounced his refusal to invite government officials from countries that reject Washington's dictates, calling the "illegal blockade against Cuba" an "affront to humanity."

"The time has come, Mr. president, to lift the blockade," Briceno said to Biden, who was seated just a few feet away.

Briceno was followed by Argentina's left-leaning president, Alberto Fernandez.

"The silence of those who are absent is calling to us," said Fernandez, who declared that the host country lacks the authority to impose "right of admission" to the semi-annual meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), held this year in Los Angeles. READ MORE

On February 24, as Russia invaded Ukraine, Guardian reporter Fiona Harvey posed the interesting question: “Is Putin’s Invasion About Fossil Fuels?” Indeed, modern warfare is enabled by fossil fuels. Historians have remarked on the decisive role that access to oil made in World Wars I and II. Defense analyst and author Michael Klare refers to wars over access to fossil fuels as “resource wars,” a term sometimes applied to the Iraq War. But Russia is already a hydrocarbon-rich country, having recently climbed to world class status as an oil producer.

Harvey concluded in her article that Europe’s dependency on Russian oil and gas exports had allowed Putin to weaponize those assets, but argued that this did not cause the war, a logic that recurs in media accounts. But the quandary remains: Why would a calculating politician like Putin put his lucrative oil and gas trade with Europe at risk by resorting to war? This article examines the chronic weaknesses of Russia’s own petro-state to offer an alternative context on Putin’s turn to war, as well as strategies that might help end the war. READ MORE

Cornel West has written that one of the greatest gifts of black music is the inspiration it gives to suffering people to look at the darkness and destruction surrounding them and walk into it “singing a sweet song.” John Mellencamp has operated according to that manual throughout his career, citing as his job description to “make people feel good about themselves.”

The decimation of the family farmer and ruination of the rich land, however, did not elicit sweetness in Mellencamp’s music. Resembling a monstrous storm system, the 1980s brought devastation to small and midlevel farmers via a convergence and confluence of factors from Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, the international export market, and Washington, D.C. Throughout the Midwest, by the early 1980s, the value of farmland had fallen by 60 percent because of a drop in agricultural need and increased production. Jason Manning, a historian at Southern Illinois University, summarizes the cruel jokes and awful coincidences that collaborated to kill the family farmer: READ MORE

US President Joe Biden has wrapped up his first trip to Asia. He met with new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to shore up the alliance between their two countries. He traveled to Tokyo to reinvigorate the Quad grouping with Japan, Australia and India. And he peddled the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an attempt by the United States to reinsert itself into the Asian economy after the Trump administration’s pullout from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The headlines in the United States have all been about Ukraine, inflation and gun violence. Biden’s trip was designed to prove that the United States is in fact focused on one thing above all: China, China, China.

The strengthened alliance with South Korea is a signal to Beijing that the more accommodating era of the Moon Jae-in administration is over. The Quad meetings are part of a strategy of countering China’s ambitions in the region including its ports and bases along the Asian littoral. And the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is a deliberate effort to roll back China’s considerable economic ties with its neighbors. READ MORE

On June 1, Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA7) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR4), along with forty other House members, introduced H.J. Res. 87: a new War Powers Resolution (“WPR”) for Yemen. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has said that he will introduce a companion WPR in the Senate.

Since 2015, the US has aided and abetted the Saudi-led coalition (“SLC”) at war in Yemen with intelligence sharing, logistics, target spotting, arms sales, replacement spare parts for coalition warplanes, and (until November 2018) in-flight refueling for coalition warplanes. Neither Obama, Trump, nor Biden sought congressional approval for the US role in the war. Jayapal and DeFazio wrote in The Nation in February that US involvement in Yemen is in “clear violation of Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which grants Congress the power to declare war and authorize US military involvement.” READ MORE

Ted Scambos, a polar scientist with 20 trips to Antarctica under his belt, makes a living trekking across glaciers, measuring the speed, thickness, and structure of ice. Dr. Scambos (University of Colorado/Boulder) recently penned an article: Why Antarctica’s Riskiest Glacier is Under Assault From Below and Losing Its Grip.

Scambos is a lead principal investigator for the Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (SCO project). How many glaciers in the world have a team of scientists dedicated to an international collaborative research effort?

Answer: Thwaites is the single most dominate factor influencing the integrity (survival) of every coastal city in the world, and it is clearly at risk.

According to Scambos: “Antarctica is a continent comprising several large islands, one of them the size of Australia, under a 10,000-foot-thick layer of ice… Its glaciers have always been in motion, but beneath the ice, changes are taking place that are having profound effects on the future of the ice sheet – and on the future of coastal communities around the world.” READ MORE

Flying over Antarctica, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Like a gigantic wedding cake, the frosting of snow on top of the world’s largest ice sheet looks smooth and unblemished, beautiful and perfectly white. Little swirls of snow dunes cover the surface.

But as you approach the edge of the ice sheet, a sense of tremendous underlying power emerges. Cracks appear in the surface, sometimes organized like a washboard, and sometimes a complete chaos of spires and ridges, revealing the pale blue crystalline heart of the ice below.

As the plane flies lower, the scale of these breaks steadily grows. These are not just cracks, but canyons large enough to swallow a jetliner, or spires the size of monuments. Cliffs and tears, rips in the white blanket emerge, indicating a force that can toss city blocks of ice around like so many wrecked cars in a pileup. It’s a twisted, torn, wrenched landscape. A sense of movement also emerges, in a way that no ice-free part of the Earth can convey – the entire landscape is in motion, and seemingly not very happy about it. READ MORE

The GOP, said the Democratic congresswoman, "has only grown more supportive and defending of what happened" on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned Thursday night that the U.S. stands "on the precipice... of fascism" and that an attack on the Capitol like the one that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021 could happen again.

Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) comments in an Instagram Live video followed the first prime-time hearing held by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

The first installment of the public hearing, she said, revealed "new information, shocking information" including that "Republican members of Congress were seeking pardons before the insurrection knowing what they were about to do."

"There is such a concerted ring-wing operation to try to convince everybody that [the Jan. 6 riot and attack] didn't happen, that it wasn't a big deal," Ocasio-Cortez said. But, she stressed, "This was an attempted coup of the United States of America." READ MORE

"We shouldn't have to live in fear just so gas executives like Michael Smith can get rich," said one local resident, referring to Freeport LNG's CEO.

An explosion at a major liquefied natural gas plant in Texas on Wednesday heightened fears of pollution and other impacts in nearby communities—and served as the latest example of the threat the booming LNG industry poses to the climate.

The blast at Freeport LNG's export terminal on Texas' Quintana Island was reported around noon local time, and no injuries have been disclosed. Authorities said the fire and "release" from the explosion were swiftly contained and that an investigation into the cause is underway, but local residents voiced concern that they're going to be kept in the dark.

"This is terrifying," said Melanie Oldham, founder of Citizens for Clean Air and Clean Water in Brazoria County, where the Freeport LNG facility is located. "We've been afraid of a disaster happening ever since Freeport LNG started exporting gas. We shouldn't have to live in fear just so gas executives like [company CEO] Michael Smith can get rich." READ MORE

Yesterday, People vs. Fossil Fuels launched a new online petition, directed to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding that Attorney General Garland end the DOJ's opposition to the children’s climate lawsuit, Juliana v. United States.

People vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of “hundreds of groups representing millions of people across the country fighting for climate, racial, and economic justice,” is spearheading this petition effort in support of the Juliana youth plaintiffs and their landmark constitutional climate case.

The petition notes that “For almost seven years, these 21 young people, from across the United States and including 11 Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth, have waited for their day in court, delayed again and again by tactics employed by the Department of Justice to impede or dismiss their case. And for almost seven years, young people like these 21 young Americans have suffered from increasingly severe climate harms.” READ MORE

The warning from a leading scientist came as more than 30 million people in Arizona, California, and Nevada brace for life-threatening temperatures.

As residents of the Southwestern United States prepare for dangerously high and potentially deadly temperatures in the coming days, a leading climate scientist is warning that there can be no reprieve from extreme heat until society ends its reliance on planet-scorching fossil fuels.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued excessive heat warnings and advisories for more than 30 million people in Arizona, Nevada, and California through the weekend.

Daytime temperatures around Phoenix, Las Vegas, and throughout Central and Southern California are projected to approach or surpass 110°F, with "little respite overnight as low temperatures are also expected to tie or break records across much of the region on Thursday and Friday nights," the NWS said.

In response to the alarming forecast, climate scientist Peter Kalmus warned on social media that this trend "is guaranteed to worsen every year until we end fossil fuels." READ MORE

"Everyone who cares about the future of U.S. domestic policy should pay attention to this effort in California to build a public option for prescription drug manufacturing," said one expert. "Potentially game-changing."

With insulin prices in the United States so astronomical that experts have accused the federal government and pharmaceutical industry of violating human rights, California is exploring a plan to produce its own generic version of the lifesaving medicine and make it accessible to millions of people with diabetes.

"Everyone who cares about the future of U.S. domestic policy should pay attention to this effort in California to build a public option for prescription drug manufacturing," Steph Sterling, vice president of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, said Tuesday.

As Kaiser Health News reported, California is "attempting to achieve what no other state has done: produce its own brand of generic insulin and sell it at below-market prices to people with diabetes."

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom "is asking state lawmakers to pump $100 million into an ambitious initiative to launch California's generic drug label, CalRx, and begin producing insulin in the next few years," the news outlet reported. "The state is also working to identify other generic drugs it could bring to market, targeting those that are expensive or in short supply." READ MORE

Under the current system, notes Sen. Bernie Sanders, billionaires pay "the same amount of Social Security taxes as someone making $147,000 a year."

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren led a group of lawmakers Thursday in unveiling legislation that would expand Social Security's modest annual benefits by $2,400 and ensure the program is fully funded for the next 75 years.

The benefit boost under the Social Security Expansion Act would be funded by lifting the cap on the maximum amount of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. This year the cap was $147,000—meaning millionaires stopped paying into the program in late February.

If passed, the expansion bill would apply the payroll tax to all income, including capital gains, above $250,000 a year, a change that would only raise taxes on around 7% of U.S. households.

"At a time when half of older Americans have no retirement savings and millions of senior citizens are living in poverty, our job is not to cut Social Security," Sanders (I-Vt.), head of the Senate Budget Committee and a co-chair of the Expand Social Security Caucus, said in a statement. READ MORE

I’ve been silent for some weeks. Forgive me.

The truth is: I’ve been rendered almost speechless — or the literary equivalent of that — because recently I’ve had the unenviable task of trying to announce to the world that indeed, a genocide — or what I’ve called, clumsily but urgently, a “baby die-off” — is underway.

The WarRoom/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Research Volunteers, a group of 3000 highly credentialled doctors, RNs, biostatisticians, medical fraud investigators, lab clinicians and research scientists, have been turning out report after report, as you may know, to tell the world what is in the 55,000 internal Pfizer documents which the FDA had asked a court to keep under wraps for 75 years.

By court order, these documents were forcibly disclosed. And our experts are serving humanity by reading through these documents and explaining them in lay terms. You can find all of the Volunteers’ reports on DailyClout.io.

The lies revealed are stunning.

The WarRoom/DailyClout Volunteers have confirmed:

that Pfizer (and thus the FDA) knew by December 2020 that the MRNA vaccines did not work — that they “waned in efficacy” and presented “vaccine failure.” One side effect of getting vaccinated, as they knew by one month after the mass 2020 rollout, was “COVID.” READ MORE

“What is most concerning, at no point did anyone from the Metropolitan police from December 20th 2021 up to and including the 22nd of February 2022 make contact with any of the victims, any of the witnesses, or any of the world renowned experts who were offering their evidence and expertise to assist The Metropolitan Police. It is also believed not one of the alleged offenders were spoken to or contacted.” – Mark Sexton, former police officer. Participant in the legal team filing a criminal complaint of Gross Negligence Manslaughter and Misconduct in Public Office.

Numerous lines of evidence detailed on numerous sites including Global Research from hundreds of medical and scientific sources around the world, including highly revered experts like Sucharit Bhakdi, Peter McCullough, Harvey Risch, and so on, have documented the severe injuries and deaths coinciding with the application of the COVID vaccine.

Citizens everywhere are taking note, and legions of lawyers are stepping up prepared to address a likely crime against humanity.

The legal firm PJH Law Solicitors came up with an interesting approach. They brought the case to the attention of the criminal investigators at the Hammersmith Police station and the Metropolitan Police Station. [2]

They claimed based on their evidence that the public office in the United Kingdom was responsible for corporate manslaughter, gross negligence causing injury and death, and serious misconduct. They alleged that the same people responsible for creating the SARS-CoV-2 virus containing a harmful spike protein also funded the solution, the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. READ MORE and LISTEN

In a recent statement, US government officials finally admitted that the country helped to build and maintain biolaboratories on Ukrainian soil over the last two decades. The declaration comes from the Pentagon, which reinforces the military importance of the program of biolabs abroad. However, US officials still insist on the evidently fallacious narrative that the laboratories were intended for “peaceful” use.

In an online statement on Thursday, June 9, US Defense Department’s representatives said that Washington has been involved in the activities of 46 biolabs within Ukrainian territory, whose objectives, according to them, would be to act cooperatively with local experts in order to improve Ukraine’s biological safety and human and animal health.

“The United States has also worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health, providing support to 46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades (…) “This work, often conducted in partnership with outside organizations, such as the WHO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), has resulted in safer and more effective disease surveillance and detection (…) Ukrainian scientists have acted consistent with international best practices and norms in publishing research results, partnering with international colleagues and multilateral organizations, and widely distributing their research and public health findings”, Pentagon’s spokespersons said.

READ MORE

A leading peace group on Monday said a new report detailing the depth of U.S. support for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen—hundreds of which have been called war crimes by international legal experts—shows the need for Congress to pass a recently introduced measure to end American complicity in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

According to The Washington Post—which along with the Security Force Monitor (SFM) at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute analyzed thousands of news reports and images to identify warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have attacked Yemen—”a substantial portion of the air raids were carried out by jets developed, maintained, and sold by U.S. companies, and by pilots who were trained by the U.S. military.”

This, despite a February 2021 pledge by President Joe Biden to end U.S. support for “offensive operations” in the Saudi-led war—a promise that has been repeatedly sidestepped via arms sales and a $500 million maintenance contract. READ MORE

What is at stake is an integrated system of waterways which connects the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea to the Baltic and the Northern Sea Route.

In this regard the narrow Kerch Strait in Eastern Crimea is strategic.

The 2014 Union of Crimea with Russia Redefines the Geography and the Geopolitical Chessboard of the Black Sea Basin

Since 2014, the reunion of Crimea to the Russian Federation, represented a major setback for US-NATO, whose longstanding objective was to integrate Ukraine into NATO, while extending Western military presence in the Black Sea basin. (See details below)

Brief Observations on the Ukraine War: The Sea of Azov is Strategic. Ukraine Has No Maritime Access.

In regards to the Ukraine War, Russia’s control of the Kerch Strait plays a key role. In recent developments (June 2022), Russia now controls the entire basin of the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has no maritime access to the Sea of Azov and Eastern Ukraine, nor does it have naval power in the Black Sea. READ MORE

“The World Health Organization has started drafting a Global Pandemic Treaty on pandemic preparedness that would grant WHO absolute power over global biosecurity, such as the power to implement digital identities / vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations, travel restrictions, lockdowns, standardized medical care and more.

This Pandemic Treaty, if implemented, will change the global landscape and strip you and me of some of our most basic rights and freedoms.

Make no mistake, the WHO Pandemic Treaty is a direct attack on the sovereignty of its member states, as well as a direct attack on your bodily autonomy.” (Peter Koenig)

The Pandemic Treaty is the “Back Door” towards “Global Governance” and Digital Tyranny. It is the End of “Representative Democracy”

“In the words of the late David Rockefeller:

“…The world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” (quoted by Aspen Times, August 15, 2011, emphasis added)

The Global Governance scenario imposes an agenda of social engineering and economic compliance. It constitutes an extension of the neoliberal policy framework imposed on both developing and developed countries.

It consists in scrapping “national auto-determination” and constructing a Worldwide nexus of pro-US proxy regimes controlled by a “supranational sovereignty” (World Government) composed of leading financial institutions, billionaires and their philanthropic foundations.” (Michel Chossudovsky)

WATCH the VIDEO

This video by the late Dr. Andreas Noack pertains to graphene hydroxide contained in the Covid vaccine vial.

Dr. Noack explains the devastating impacts of graphene hydroxide on the cardiovascular system.

“These nanoscale structures can best be described as razor blades.

These razor blades are injected into the body”

The video was recorded on the 23d of November 2021.

Shortly thereafter Dr. Andreas Noack was reported to have been murdered.

His wife made a video presentation confirming that he had been assassinated. See video below.

The mainstream media has remained totally silent as if nothing had happened.

No police investigation? The circumstances of his assassination have not been disclosed.

Our thoughts today are with Andreas Noack, his wife and his family.

The Legacy of Andreas Noack will Live.

Michel C, Global Research, December 5, 2021

WATCH

A Joint Statement, representing 17,000 Physicians and Medical Scientists to End the National Emergency, Restore Scientific Integrity, and Address Crimes Against Humanity

To Restore Scientific Integrity

17,000 Physicians and Medical Scientists Declare that the State of Medical Emergency must be lifted, Scientific integrity restored, and crimes against humanity addressed.

We, the physicians and medical scientists of the world, united through our loyalty to the Hippocratic Oath, recognize that the disastrous COVID-19 public health policies imposed on doctors and our patients are the culmination of a corrupt medical alliance of pharmaceutical, insurance, and healthcare institutions, along with the financial trusts which control them. They have infiltrated our medical system at every level, and are protected and supported by a parallel alliance of big tech, media, academics and government agencies who profited from this orchestrated catastrophe.

This corrupt alliance has compromised the integrity of our most prestigious medical societies to which we belong, generating an illusion of scientific consensus by substituting truth with propaganda. This alliance continues to advance unscientific claims by censoring data, and intimidating and firing doctors and scientists for simply publishing actual clinical results or treating their patients with proven, life-saving medicine. These catastrophic decisions came at the expense of the innocent, who are forced to suffer health damage and death caused by intentionally withholding critical and time-sensitive treatments, or as a result of coerced genetic therapy injections, which are neither safe nor effective. READ MORE

Over One Thousand Scientific Studies Prove That the COVID-19 Vaccines Are Dangerous, and All Those Pushing This Agenda Are Committing the Indictable Crime of Gross Misconduct in Public Office

Just over 12 months from deployment of the COVID 19 emergency use experimental vaccines, scientific studies in the thousands, and reports of criminal complaints of assault and murder from the illegal, unlawful use of biochemical poisons made to police forces around the country, verify an assault on an unsuspecting UK population. Irrefutable science shows that the COVID 19 vaccine is not safe and not effective in limiting transmission or infection from the SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus pathogens.

The “safe and effective” false propaganda, put out by public officials who now are continuing to push this vaccine, is a clear breach of duty. A public office holder is subject to, and aware of, a duty to prevent death or serious injury that arises only by virtue of the functions of the public office.

Many have breached that duty and, in doing so, are recklessly causing a risk of death or serious injury, by carrying on regardless of the now-confirmed dangers associated with COVID 19 injections. Some of these risks are blood clotting, myocarditis, pericarditis, thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, anaphylaxis, Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barre, cancer including deaths, etc.

Links to all of them are listed here.

READ MORE

Journalists who receive some funding from foreign governments are at risk of committing offences under a bill that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The risk also applies to individuals working for civil society organisations such as human rights groups.

It would be an offence to disclose leaked information that would prejudice the “safety or interests of” the UK. What constituted such prejudice would be entirely a matter for ministers to decide and there would be no defence to argue that the publication was in the public interest.

The sweeping new threat to freedom of expression is contained in the National Security Bill which MPs are due to vote on for the first time today. The Bill is being championed by home secretary Priti Patel.

Although the government has claimed the measure is designed to prevent new types of spying, the bill is much broader, wider even than the much criticised section 1 of the 1911 Official Secrets Act it would replace.

The 1911 Act refers to the obtaining or communication of information “calculated to be or might be or is intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy” (emphasis added).

Also under the bill, ministers and spies would be given immunity from collusion in serious crimes overseas. READ MORE

Do you remember the iconic Union Carbide image from the 1950s or early 1960s? The one with the giant hand coming from the sky, pouring pesticides onto Indian soil.

The blurb below the image includes the following:

“Science helps build a new India – India has developed bold new plans to build its economy and bring the promise of a bright future to its more than 400 million people. But India needs the technical knowledge of the western world. For example working with Indian engineers and technicians, Union Carbide recently made available its fast scientific resource to help build a chemicals and plastics plant near Bombay. Throughout the free world, Union Carbide has been actively engaged in building plants for the manufacture of chemicals, plastics, carbons, gases and metals.”

In the bottom corner is the Union Carbide logo and the statement ‘A HAND IN THINGS TO COME’.

READ MORE

By now, few people question the reality that humans are altering Earth’s climate. The real question is: How quickly can we halt, even reverse, the damage?

Part of the answer to this question lies in the concept of “committed warming,” also known as “pipeline warming.”

It refers to future increases in global temperatures that will be caused by greenhouse gases that have already been emitted. In other words, if the clean energy transition happened overnight, how much warming would still ensue?

Earth’s Energy Budget Out of Balance

Humans cause global warming when their activities emit greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the lower atmosphere, preventing it from escaping out to space. READ MORE

A tight labor market created a rare moment of leverage for low-wage workers last year. But Corporate America took no great leap forward on pay equity.

A new Institute for Policy Studies report, “Executive Excess 2022,” reveals how low-wage corporations have continued to pump up CEO pay during the pandemic while workers are struggling with rising costs.

The report zeroes in on compensation trends at the 300 publicly held U.S. corporations that reported the lowest median worker wages in 2020. At over a third of these firms — 106 in all — median worker pay either fell or failed to rise above the 4.7 percent average U.S. inflation rate in 2021.

By contrast, CEO pay at these same 300 low-wage firms soared 31 percent to an average of $10.6 million. This stunning increase drove the average gap between CEO and median worker pay at these companies to 670-to-1, up from 604-to-1 in 2020. At 49 of the 300 firms, pay ratios topped 1,000-to-1. READ MORE

Fears of a growing totalitarian tendency in the US have swelled during 2020–22. But how close are we really to a totalitarian state? How have such regimes come about historically and what are the warning signs? This article will answer these questions by examining totalitarian regimes in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and the pattern by which they came to power.

Stage 1: Discontent and Rumblings

Every new order rises on the ruins of the old.

Those who would establish a new regime must tap into or generate dissatisfaction with the status quo. However much those desiring a reset may despise the old order, they can’t accomplish much without harnessing or fabricating a similar attitude in the public. Then the revolutionary totalitarian appears as the solution to these problems.

READ MORE

The story began in 1951, when DuPont started purchasing PFOA (which the company refers to as C8) from 3M for use in the manufacturing of Teflon. 3M invented PFOA just four years earlier; it was used to keep coatings like Teflon from clumping during production. Though PFOA was not classified by the government as a hazardous substance, 3M sent DuPont recommendations on how to dispose of it. It was to be incinerated or sent to chemical-waste facilities. DuPont’s own instructions specified that it was not to be flushed into surface water or sewers. But over the decades that followed, DuPont pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA powder through the outfall pipes of the Parkersburg facility into the Ohio River. The company dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA-laced sludge into ‘‘digestion ponds’’: open, unlined pits on the Washington Works property, from which the chemical could seep straight into the ground. PFOA entered the local water table, which supplied drinking water to the communities of Parkersburg, Vienna, Little Hocking and Lubeck — more than 100,000 people in all. READ MORE

A new Trafalgar poll finds that a majority of Americans believes the Biden administration is letting gas prices rise intentionally in order to get the country off of fossil fuels and on to green alternatives.

Perhaps people believe this because members of the Biden administration keep coming right out and saying that we are “transitioning” off of oil and gas.The Daily Caller has some details on the poll:

Poll: Majority Of Americans Think Biden Is Intentionally Sending Gas Prices Sky High To Fuel Green Agenda

Over half of American voters believe President Joe Biden is intentionally allowing gas prices to skyrocket in order for the people to use less fossil fuel, a Friday poll found.

A Trafalgar Group poll found that 53% of Americans believe the president is intentionally allowing prices to rise in order to make people rely on clean energy, according to the poll. Another 39% countered saying he is not doing so. Over half of Independent voters, 56%, agreed soaring gas prices are the president’s intention, while 37% disagreed.

Nearly one-quarter of Democrats, 24%, believe the president is intentionally allowing prices at the pump to rise, while 68% do not believe he is having any impact. The vast majority of Republicans, 77%, believe the administration wants gas prices to soar, while 12% disagree.

The poll surveyed 1,091 adults between May 25-29 with a 2.9% margin of error.

Seems pretty straightforward.

READ MORE

Former Google head has assembled a secretive fund with Washington insiders to help direct US national security investments—potentially to his own benefit.

Eric Schmidt has been quietly building an investment vehicle blending public and private funds that could grant the former Google CEO unusual influence over U.S. national security policy and, potentially, the opportunity to steer taxpayer money to his own bets.

The blandly named America’s Frontier Fund—which has so far received no media attention—will be led by a who’s who of the defense establishment combined with close associates of Schmidt’s ventures in business, finance and public policy. The high-powered investment vehicle appears to be modeled on In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency that has faced allegations of serious conflicts of interest among its trustees.

In fact, AFF will be helmed by the former chief executive of In-Q-Tel, Gilman Louie, and a former executive at Schmidt Futures, Jordan Blashek. A roster of well-connected defense insiders will populate the board and serve as its anchor funders, including Michèle Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense under President Barack Obama, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and H.R. McMaster, U.S. national security advisor at the Trump White House. READ MORE

One of the great sources of distress in people’s lives is that we don’t get to be the narrator of other people’s stories about us. That we don’t get to control what other people are thinking and saying about the things we do and the kind of person we are.

We’ve all been there in some way at some point.

“If he really knew me he’d like me.”

“If they’d understood what I meant by that joke they wouldn’t have gotten offended.”

“If she could see my heart and my intentions she’d understand why I did what I did.”

“No no, that’s not what happened; they’re getting it all wrong and it’s making me look like the bad guy.”

It’s pretty normal to feel misunderstood or mischaracterized by the people in our lives from time to time. But there are some people who take that experience to very unhealthy extremes and respond to it in very unhealthy ways.

People with an underdeveloped sense of empathy, like those with narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders, don’t experience other human beings the way normal people do. To whatever extent they lack empathy for others, they see them not as sovereign people but as tools to be used to get whatever it is they want, whether that’s power, wealth, sex, respect, etc. READ MORE

IN THE MIDST of the humanitarian disaster triggered by the Biden administration’s decision to seize Afghanistan’s $7 billion in banking reserves, an unlikely coalition of family members of 9/11 victims, Afghan diaspora organizations, and diplomats appointed by the former Afghan government are calling for the U.S. government to take urgent steps to help the Afghan economy. Meanwhile, the largest beneficiaries of President Joe Biden’s action are likely to be lawyers rather than 9/11 victims.

Releasing some of the funds to the Afghan central bank, those calling on the administration argue, would be a means of mitigating the catastrophe now playing out. Though billions of Afghan reserves are now earmarked for the potential benefit of a group of 9/11 victim families who had previously filed lawsuits against the Taliban, other families say that confiscating the savings of ordinary Afghans would be an inappropriate way of obtaining justice for their loved ones. READ MORE

AFTER FAILING TO convince the Biden administration to ship NATO fighter jets to Ukraine, the military-industrial complex is now trying to coax the White House into sending what are, essentially, unmanned fighter jets to counter Russia’s invasion. Kyiv reportedly met with the major defense contractor General Atomics about obtaining the “Hunter-Killer” MQ-9 Reaper drone, armed with Hellfire missiles, which the U.S. has infamously used in botched airstrikes that killed and maimed civilians in Afghanistan, Somalia, and other countries around the world. The company and Kyiv’s allies in Washington are appealing to policymakers to greenlight the export, despite the high risk of escalation that could turn the devastating war nuclear.

Take retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the influential and General Atomics-funded Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, who penned an op-ed in Forbes advocating for the U.S. to give Ukraine Reapers in March, before Kyiv’s interest was publicly known. He blasted skeptics who voiced concern about offering Poland’s MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying they’re “being cowed by Putin,” the Russian president. READ MORE

A PANEL OF three Trump-appointed judges this week upheld an excessive eight-year prison sentence handed down to climate activist Jessica Reznicek, ruling that a terrorism enhancement attached to her sentence was “harmless.”

The terror enhancement, which dramatically increased Reznicek’s sentence from its original recommended range, set a troubling precedent. Decided by a lower court in 2021, it contends that Reznicek’s acts against private property were “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government.” The appellate justices’ decision to uphold her sentence, callously dismissing the challenge to her terrorism enhancement, doubles down on a chilling message: Those who take direct action against rapacious energy corporations can be treated as enemies of the state. READ MORE

Hiking through the emerald green canopy of the bosque, or riverside cottonwood forest, near downtown Albuquerque, Tricia Snyder, an advocate for WildEarth Guardians, believes zero hour has arrived for the Rio Grande. Though the river this day is high and a rich chocolatey-red color, water levels are historically low and dropping precipitously. Experts predict the Rio Grande will dry up completely all the way to Albuquerque this summer for the first time since the 1980s.

The story of the Rio Grande is similar to that of other desert mountain rivers in the U.S. Southwest, from the Colorado to the Gila. The water was apportioned to farmers and other users at a time when water levels were near historic highs. Now, as a megadrought has descended on the West, the most severe in 1,200 years, the flows are at crisis levels. READ MORE

A new report details a flurry of business activity and the potential impact on the climate. President Biden supports increased LNG exports, eager to support European allies desperate to replace Russian gas.

War has been good for U.S. companies that liquefy natural gas and send it overseas in giant, ocean-going vessels, raising the possibility of a significant climate liability, according to an environmental nonprofit that’s been tracking LNG trends across the country.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 14, there has been a bustle of business activity, as American companies have secured at least nineteen agreements to supply nearly 24 million tons of LNG per year, the Environmental Integrity Project reported in a report released on Thursday.

At least a quarter of that would go to European buyers facing an energy market in turmoil caused by Russia’s aggression. In addition to those 19 agreements, construction continues on four new LNG export terminals expected to begin operating by 2026. READ MORE

Cataclysmic Alignment

Record high carbon dioxide

The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere just broke two records. CO₂ was 421.46 in the week starting May 22, 2022, at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, while CO₂ was 420.99 ppm in May 2022.

Earlier, very high daily and hourly measurements were recorded at Mauna Loa, as illustrated by the image below, showing one hourly measurement of 424 ppm (on May 28, 2022), as well as sequences of daily measurements in the green insets.

The image below shows carbon dioxide concentration rising over the past few years, with surface flask measurements well above 422 ppm at Mauna Loa recently.

Carbon dioxide concentration is even higher over the Arctic. The image below shows carbon dioxide approaching 430 ppm at Barrow, Alaska.

To get an idea how much greenhouse gases have risen, a 2021 study points at concentrations of 190 ppm for CO₂, 370-375 ppb for CH₄ and 200-245 ppb for N₂O some 18 ka to 21 ka. By comparison, the MetOp image below shows a global mean methane level of 1951 ppb, which is more than five times as high, while the image also shows a peak of 2405 ppb, at 293 mb on June 7, 2022 pm.

The MetOp image below shows a lot of methane over the Arctic on May 30, 2022 pm, at 742 mb, which is much closer to sea level.

The NOAA 20 image below shows high nitrous oxide levels over the Arctic on June 3, 2022 pm at 1000 mb.

Greenhouse gas levels are very high and there are many further indications that a huge temperature rise could take place over the next few years.

Cataclysmic alignment of El Niño and sunspots

The trigger for such a huge rise could be a cataclysmic alignment of the upcoming El Niño with a high number of sunspots, which look set to reach maximum impact around July 2025.

We are currently in the depths of a persistent La Niña, as illustrated by the image on the right, adapted from NOAA. This suppresses the temperature rise.

El Niños typically occur every 3 to 5 years, according to NOAA and as also illustrated by the NOAA image below, so the upcoming El Niño can be expected to occur soon.

The above NOAA image indicates that going from the bottom of a La Niña to the peak of an El Niño could make a difference of more than half a degree Celsius (0.5°C or 0.9°F).

A huge temperature rise looks set to unfold soon, first of all in the Arctic, triggered by the combined impact of an upcoming El Niño and a peak in sunspots.

Sunspots are currently well above what NOAA predicted, as illustrated by the image on the right, adapted from NOAA.

The more sunspot, the more the temperature goes up. The rise in sunspots from May 2020 to July 2025 could make a difference of some 0.15°C (0.27°F).

The next El Niño looks set to line up with a high peak in sunspots, in a cataclysmic alignment that could push up the temperature enough to cause dramatic sea ice loss in the Arctic, resulting in runaway temperature rise by 2026.

A huge temperature rise in the Arctic

There are many further indications that we're on the brink of a huge temperature rise in the Arctic.

Ocean heat that enters the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean keeps rising.

As a result, several tipping points threaten to be crossed in the Arctic soon, as described in an earlier post, including the latent heat tipping point and a Blue Ocean Event (starting when Arctic sea ice extent will fall below 1 million km²), which would further speed up the temperature rise in the Arctic.

[ from the Extinction page ]

As temperatures keep rising in the Arctic, changes to the Jet Stream look set to intensify, resulting in loss of terrestrial albedo in the Arctic that could equal the albedo loss resulting from sea ice decline.

Further feedbacks include permafrost degradation, both terrestrial and on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, which looks set to cause huge releases of greenhouse gases (particularly CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O).

Global temperature riseThis would in turn also cause more water vapor to enter the atmosphere, further speeding up the temperature rise, especially in the Arctic, where vast amounts of methane are contained in sediments at the seafloor and where there is very little hydroxyl in the air to break down the methane.

Temperatures looks set to rise further, due to falling away of sulfate aerosols, while there could be a further temperature rise due to releases of other aerosols that have a net warming impact, such as black and brown carbon, which can increase dramatically as more wood burning and forest fires take place.

As the temperature keeps rising, further self-reinforcing feedbacks will kick in with more ferocity such as an increase in water vapor globally combined with a decrease in lower clouds decks, further increasing the temperature, as described at the clouds feedback page.

Altogether, the global temperature could rise by more than 18°C above pre-industrial, as illustrated by the image on the right from the Extinction page.

[ from earlier post ]

Human extinction by 2025?

[ from earlier post ]

An April 2022 analysis found that the temperature rise from pre-industrial to March 2022 could be as much as 2.35°C. When adding 0.65°C for the joint impact of the upcoming El Niño and a peak in sunspots, the rise could be as much as 3°C by 2025, as also depicted in the image on the right, from that same analysis.

A 2018 study (by Strona & Bradshaw) indicates that most life on Earth will disappear with a 5°C rise. Humans, who depend for their survival on many other species, will likely go extinct with a 3°C rise, as illustrated by the image below, from an earlier post.

Rise beyond 2026

As said, a temperature rise of 3°C from pre-industrial could be reached by 2025 just due to the combined push of the upcoming El Niño and a peak in sunspots, i.e. without change in other forcers.

What would happen if just methane kept rising, i.e. without change in other forcers? The image below shows methane with a trend added that points at a rise that could represent a forcing of 780 ppm CO₂e in 2028, which means that the clouds tipping point at 1200 ppm CO₂e would be crossed by methane and carbon dioxide alone (assuming no change in other forcers and with carbon dioxide remaining at 421 ppm), which would cause an additional 8°C rise in temperature.

The above image shows that such a trend is contained in existing methane data. When also adding a large eruption of methane from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, the situation would be even worse, further underlining the potential for a rise of more than 18°C by 2026.

Conclusion

In conclusion, temperatures could rise strongly soon, driving humans extinct as early as in 2025, while temperatures could skyrocket in 2026, making it in many respects rather futile to speculate about what will happen beyond 2026. At the same time, the right thing to do now is to help avoid the worst things from happening, through comprehensive and effective action as described in the Climate Plan.

In the video below, Jennifer Hynes and Sandy Schoelles discuss the situation.

Links

• NOAA - Global Monitoring Laboratory, Recent Daily Average CO₂ at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, U.S.
https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends

• NOAA - Global Monitoring Laboratory, at Barrow, Alaska, U.S.
https://gml.noaa.gov/dv/iadv/graph.php?code=BRW&program=ccgg&type=ts

• Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum - by Matthew Osman et al. (2021)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03984-4

• Arctic Hit By Ten Tipping Points
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2020/04/arctic-hit-by-ten-tipping-points.html

• NOAA - ENSO: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

• NOAA - El Niño
https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/weather-atmosphere/el-nino#:~:text=An%20El%20Ni%C3%B1o%20condition%20occurs,every%203%20to%205%20years.

• NOAA - Monthly Temperature Anomalies Versus El Niño
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202204/supplemental/page-4

• MetOp satellite
https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/atmosphere/soundings/iasi

• NOAA 20 satellite
https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/atmosphere/soundings/nucaps/NUCAPS_composite.html

• Ten temperature rise indications

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/ten-temperature-rise-indications.html

• Sunspots
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/sunspots.html• NOAA - sunspots
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression

• Latent heat
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/latent-heat.html

• Blue Ocean Event
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/blue-ocean-event.html

• Feedbacks
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html