January 6, 2021
In News Uncategorized
December 4, 2020
CHINA CELEBRATES
Newsweek:
“China Celebrates Surpassing US in Trade with EU for the First Time / … The statistics, shared with Newsweek by the EU’s official European Statistical Office, showed that the volume of Chinese-EU trade from January through September of this year [was] 425.5 billion euros, or roughly $516.8 billion, overtaking the U.S. and EU’s 412.5 billion euros, or about $501 billion, from those same first three quarters of 2020.”
AUSTRALIA FRIES
NASA Earth Observatory:
“Australia has experienced its warmest spring on record, hitting a mean temperature of 24.53°C (76.15°F), which was 2.03°C above the long-term average. The season began with record warm daily maximum and minimum temperatures in early September and finished with an intense heat wave at the end of November. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) declared November 2020 the warmest November on record.”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 4, 2020, CO2 412.85 ppm
December 4, 2019, CO2 411.23 ppm
December 4, 2018, CO2 408.59 ppm
December 4, 2017, CO2 407.43 ppm
December 4, 2016, CO2 404.04 ppm
December 4, 2015, CO2 400.54 ppm
December 4, 2014, CO2 398.22 ppm
December 4, 2013, CO2 396.34 ppm
December 4, 2012, CO2 393.12 ppm
December 4, 2011, CO2 390.97 ppm
December 4, 2010, CO2 390.02 ppm
–
December 4, 1992, CO2 354.81 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 4, 1990, CO2 353.74 ppm
December 4, 1980, CO2 – no data –
December 4, 1970, CO2 324.77 ppm
December 4, 1960, CO2 315.79 ppm
December 7, 2020
THE WORLD FRIES
New York Times:
“… Record-Hot November / European scientists reported that November’s global temperatures were the highest ever, surpassing the previous record, set in 2016 and 2019. …”
Copernicus Climate Change Service (EU):
“Surface air temperature for November 2020 / Globally, November 2020 was the warmest November on record, by a clear margin. …”
EVIL
New York Times-Opinion/Achal Prabhala, Arjun Jayadev and Dean Baker:
“… [T]he United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, are blocking a proposal at the World Trade Organization that … calls on the W.T.O. to [allow] generic versions of any coronavirus vaccines and Covid-19 treatments. The idea was immediately opposed by the United States, the European Union, Britain, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil. … [On the other hand] nearly 100 countries favor the proposal, and yet because almost all decisions at the W.T.O. are made by consensus, a small number of countries can thwart the will of the majority, even a super majority. (The organization has 164 members.) … [T]he novel technology at the heart of the Moderna vaccine … was developed partly by the National Institutes of Health using U.S. federal funds. Moderna then received a total of some $2.5 billion in taxpayer money for research support and as preorders for vaccines; by the company’s own admission, the $1 billion contribution it received for research covered 100 percent of those costs. … Pfizer, for its part, received a $455 million grant from the German government to develop its vaccine, and then, by our count, nearly $6 billion in purchase commitments from the United States and the European Union. AstraZeneca … received a total of more than $2 billion from the United States and the European Union for both research and in purchase commitments. … In other words, the vaccines developed by these companies were developed … [by] taxpayer money. Those vaccines essentially belong to the people — and yet the people are about to pay for them again ….”
PITY
Newsweek:
“Chinese Exports Hit Record High Despite Donald Trump’s Trade War / … The Chinese trade surplus with the U.S. rose by more than half to $37.3 billion this November, the same month in which Donald Trump lost the election. … [A] YouGov-Cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research [survey] published Friday [December 4] indicated that more than 68% of the Chinese population felt their nation had become more united as a result of COVID-19 as compared to 24 other countries. The U.S. was last on the list, with just 19% saying that the virus had united their country. … Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Monday that Chinese officials were ‘following reports on the epidemic situation at home in the U.S. with a heavy heart. We feel for the American people and convey condolences and sympathy to them,’ Hua told a regular press conference in Beijing.”
“… AND A GIRL TEN YEARS OF AGE WAS KILLED FOR STUBBORNNESS.”
San Francisco Chronicle:
… The Wikipedia entry for Serranus Clinton Hastings, the law school’s namesake [University of California’s Hastings School of Law], tells a story of uncommon personal and professional success:
A young lawyer is elected to Congress, becomes chief justice to the Supreme Court of first Iowa and then California, and then parlays a small fortune into a post-Gold Rush real estate empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
What you won’t read is the story of how the mutton chop-bearded judge promoted and financed the killing of hundreds of Native Americans in Mendocino and surrounding counties and stole their land. Those who were not slain were imprisoned in labor camps [where] they were starved, sexually assaulted and brutalized. …
To run his ranch, Hastings hired H.L. Hall, or ‘Texas Boy Hall,’ as he was known. … Hall recruited a group of pals and ‘commenced killing all the Indians they could find in the mountains,’ a local rancher recalled. As a parting gift, they poisoned the food they discovered in the natives’ rancherias with strychnine. …
Hall was queried in 1860 about the treatment of women and children captured during a Native American hunt that resulted in the deaths of all the adult males. …
‘… I think all the squaws were killed because they refused to go further. … [T]he infants were put out of their misery, and a girl 10 years of age was killed for stubbornness.’ (Indian War Files of the California Archives.)
… By 1860, there were so few natives left in Mendocino County that local farmer Benjamin Arthur told officials the whites could not find enough to kill.
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 7, 2020, CO2 413.03 ppm
December 7, 2019, CO2 411.40 ppm
December 7, 2018, CO2 408.34 ppm
December 7, 2017, CO2 406.26 ppm
December 7, 2016, CO2 403.48 ppm
December 7, 2015, CO2 401.01 ppm
December 7, 2014, CO2 – no data –
December 7, 2013, CO2 396.53 ppm
December 7, 2012, CO2 393.71 ppm
December 7, 2011, CO2 391.37 ppm
December 7, 2010, CO2 – no data –
December 7, 2009, CO2 387.08 ppm
December 7, 2008, CO2 384.38 ppm
–
December 7, 2000, CO2 369.03 ppm
December 7, 1992, CO2 354.91 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 7, 1990, CO2 353.44 ppm
December 7, 1980, CO2 – no data –
December 7, 1970, CO2 324.62 ppm
December 7, 1960, CO2 316.27 ppm
December 9, 2020
FATOU BENSOUDA – PART ONE: MURDER, TORTURE, RAPE…
International Criminal Court, The Office of the Prosecutor [Fatou Bensouda], “SITUATION IN IRAQ/UK FINAL REPORT 9 December 2020”:
“In particular, as set out below, there is a reasonable basis to believe that from April 2003 through September 2003 members of UK armed forces in Iraq committed the war crime of wilful killing/murder pursuant to article 8(2)(a)(i) or article 8(2)(c)(i)), at a minimum, against seven persons in their custody. The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that from 20 March 2003 through 28 July 2009 members of UK armed forces committed the war crime of torture and inhuman/cruel treatment (article 8(2)(a)(ii) or article 8(2)(c)(i)); and the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity (article 8(2)(b)(xxi) or article 8(2)(c)(ii)) against at least 54 persons in their custody. The information available further provides a reasonable basis to believe that members of UK armed forces committed the war crime of rape and/or other forms of sexual violence article 8(2)(b)(xxii) or article 8(2)(e)(vi), at a minimum, against the seven victims, while they were detained at Camp Breadbasket in May 2003.”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 9, 2020, CO2 413.98 ppm
December 9, 2019, CO2 411.07 ppm
December 9, 2018, CO2 409.73 ppm
December 9, 2017, CO2 405.94 ppm
December 9, 2016, CO2 404.05 ppm
December 9, 2015, CO2 401.63 ppm
December 9, 2014, CO2 398.46 ppm
December 9, 2013, CO2 395.89 ppm
December 9, 2012, CO2 394.22 ppm
December 9, 2011, CO2 391.94 ppm
December 9, 2010, CO2 389.68 ppm
–
December 9, 2000, CO2 370.04 ppm
December 9, 1992, CO2 354.94 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 9, 1990, CO2 354.92 ppm
December 9, 1980, CO2 337.65 ppm
December 9, 1970, CO2 324.96 ppm
December 9, 1960, CO2 315.92 ppm
December 10, 2020
FATOU BENSOUDA – PART TWO
Middle East Eye:
“… [Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor at the] International Criminal Court on Wednesday said [she] would not open a full investigation into alleged war crimes committed by British forces during the invasion and occupation of Iraq, despite finding there was a ‘reasonable basis’ to believe that war crimes were committed.”
Note: The Rome statute which defines the work of the ICC says it can’t take a case if it’s in someone else’s jurisdiction “unless the State is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution.” In her December 9 decision not to investigate, Bensouda acknowledged (in paragraph 6):
“The outcome of the more than ten year long domestic [UK] process, involving the examination of thousands of allegations, has resulted in not one single case being submitted for prosecution: a result that has deprived the victims of justice.”
But, as anyone acquainted with Bensouda’s record might have expected, she concluded (496 paragraphs later, in paragraph 502):
“[T]he Office cannot conclude that … the [UK] proceedings … were or are being conducted in a manner which, in the circumstances, is inconsistent with an intent to bring the person concerned to justice.”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 10, 2020, CO2 413.71 ppm
December 10, 2019, CO2 410.88 ppm
December 10, 2018, CO2 409.48 ppm
December 10, 2017, CO2 405.90 ppm
December 10, 2016, CO2 404.29 ppm
December 10, 2015, CO2 401.33 ppm
December 10, 2014, CO2 398.66 ppm
December 10, 2013, CO2 396.17 ppm
December 10, 2012, CO2 394.90 ppm
December 10, 2011, CO2 391.67 ppm
December 10, 2010, CO2 389.68 ppm
–
December 10, 1992, CO2 355.79 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 10, 1990, CO2 354.56 ppm
December 10, 1980, CO2 337.95 ppm
December 10, 1970, CO2 324.81 ppm
December 10, 1960, CO2 316.08 ppm
December 16, 2020
THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF SUPERDASZAK
Sam Husseini in Independent Science News:
“For much of this year, [Peter] Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance garnered a great deal of sympathetic media coverage after its $3.7 million five-year NIH grant was prematurely cut when the Trump administration learned that EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research at the WIV.”
“The temporary cut was widely depicted in major media as Trump undermining the EcoHealth Alliance’s noble fight against pandemics. The termination was reversed by NIH in late August, and even upped to $7.5 million. But entirely overlooked amid the claims and counter-claims was that far more funding for the EcoHealth Alliance comes from the Pentagon than the NIH.”
“… [A]lthough it is called the EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak and his non-profit work closely with the military. … [T]he EcoHealth Alliance attempts to conceal these military connections. … [And] Daszak himself, as the Godfather of the Global Virome Project, stands to benefit from the likely outlay of public funds.”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 16, 2020, CO2 413.99 ppm
December 16, 2019, CO2 411.75 ppm
December 16, 2018, CO2 409.31 ppm
December 16, 2017, CO2 407.08 ppm
December 16, 2016, CO2 405.07 ppm
December 16, 2015, CO2 402.28 ppm
December 16, 2014, CO2 399.35 ppm
December 16, 2013, CO2 396.95 ppm
December 16, 2012, CO2 394.48 ppm
December 16, 2011, CO2 – no data –
December 16, 2010, CO2 389.21 ppm
–
December 16, 2000, CO2 369.42 ppm
December 16, 1992, CO2 355.44 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
December 16, 1990, CO2 354.08 ppm
December 16, 1980, CO2 338.45 ppm
December 16, 1970, CO2 326.00 ppm
December 16, 1960, CO2 316.43 ppm
December 17, 2020
JOHN LENNON: “THEY’RE STARVING BACK IN CHINA SO FINISH WHAT YOU GOT!”
UN News:
“UNICEF supporting emergency food aid for UK children over holidays … It is the first time in the organization’s more than 70-year-history that it has stepped in to help the country’s most vulnerable, said Anna Kettley, director of programmes at unicef UK.”
Barron’s (Dow Jones):
“China’s Pandemic Recovery Accelerates While the U.S. Economy Rolls Over / … The latest data out of China show an economy firing on all cylinders. … China’s exports have jumped to the highest level ever, more than 21% above the level last year. … It’s a big contrast to the U.S., where industrial production excluding energy extraction and refining is still running well below pre-pandemic levels …. The really standout numbers, however, come from the data on Chinese retail spending … thanks to a surge in what local commentators have been calling ‘revenge consumption.’ Spending on cellphones and cosmetics both increased by a staggering 50% compared to last year, while spending on motor vehicles and jewelry were both up around 20% compared to November 2019. Perhaps most impressive has been the recovery in restaurant spending [emphasis added] ….”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
December 17, 2020, CO2 414.22 ppm
December 17, 2019, CO2 411.80 ppm
December 17, 2018, CO2 408.67 ppm
December 17, 2017, CO2 406.53 ppm
December 17, 2016, CO2 404.78 ppm
December 17, 2015, CO2 402.07 ppm
December 17, 2014, CO2 399.29 ppm
December 17, 2013, CO2 – no data –
December 17, 2012, CO2 394.35 ppm
December 17, 2011, CO2 392.47 ppm
December 17, 2010, CO2 389.16 ppm
–
December 17, 2000, CO2 369.42 ppm
December 17, 1990, CO2 353.99 ppm
December 17, 1980, CO2 338.42 ppm
December 17, 1970, CO2 325.77 ppm
December 17, 1960, CO2 316.16 ppm
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