Politicians ‘north of Richmond’, corporate media outlets, climate crusaders like Greta Thunberg, and new and improved ‘Greta 2.0’ (Sophia Kianni) cheerleaded fuzzy ‘climate math’ at the peak of the Northern Hemisphere summer to warn heat and extreme weather events were alarming milestones of impending climate disaster. 

In mid-July, when the Northern Hemisphere summer began to peak, ABC, The New York Times, Axios, and Bloomberg cited questionable climate math from a computer model that enabled them to declare “hottest day ever.” However, the math was so fuzzy that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration couldn’t even stand behind the claim, telling AP News, “Although NOAA cannot validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognize that we are in a warm period due to climate change.”

Remember the flood of climate doom headlines in July? 

Such propaganda from corporate media would’ve had anyone believe the Earth was on the brink of a climate disaster — but it wasn’t. Just hysteria pushed with fake news. 

Bloomberg data shows temperature across the Lower 48 versus a 30-year mean didn’t deviate excessively higher than the norm — clearly a different story than what was pitched by corporate media and climate alarmists. In fact, temperatures have been sliding across the country since early August. 

We penned a note weeks ago titled Climate Experts Criticize Alarmist Rhetoric Over Summer Temperatures. Just last week, 1,609 scientists and professionals worldwide signed a declaration, including 321 from the US, to dismiss the existence of a climate crisis and insist that carbon dioxide benefits Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

One inconvenient truth the corporate media failed to cover this summer: wildfires across the US burned the lowest amount of acres in a decade. 

Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said where have you seen this reporting in the news? … nowhere. 

“Have you seen that reported anywhere?” he asked, referring to Copernicus’ wildfire data is absent from corporate presses. It’s an inconvenient truth that destroys the climate change narrative.

Data:

Fire has burned 𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙨𝙩 area in the US in a decade

Have you seen that reported anywhere?

Yes, Canada burned much more (constantly reported), but the US, Europe, Africa, Asia burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨

In total, world burned 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨

🧵 and refs belowhttps://t.co/scZCc2cFi9 pic.twitter.com/ZpxW6BokPI

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 23, 2023

Looking ahead, Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmer’s Almanac, published a note explaining the latest extended weather forecast for the winter 2023-24 season shows cold temperatures, snow, and damp conditions across the Lower 48. 

Geiger wrote in the note, “The ‘brrr’ is coming back! We expect more snow and low temperatures nationwide.”

Meanwhile, corporate media is responsible for producing a young generation that suffers from “climate anxiety.” 

“The cover of Newsweek tells ‘a generation gripped by climate anxiety.'”🙄

Brainwashed and brain-damaged young people ought to be suing Big Media not Big Oil.

Media should be our bulwark against BS. Instead, it is BS.https://t.co/ZKDpa4ROMQ

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) September 3, 2023

Don’t worry. Corporate media will attribute the changing of seasons from warm to cold to ‘climate change.’ For some context, these climate doomers once spewed the Earth would move into a new ice age by the 21st century.

It’s big businesses to spread climate misinformation. Just ask Al Gore. 

They’re routinely wrong and have zero accountability.

Remember Greta’s 2018 tweet?

Authored by Jonathan Turley, Op-Ed via The Hill,

Last year, at an event at the White House, former president Barack Obama jokingly referred to the current president as “Vice President Biden.”

At the time, it was described as the more popular politician “reminding Biden who’s boss.” Yet, this needling carried an added bite, given reports of Obama’s private doubts about Biden’s judgment.

In 2020, Obama had famously warned fellow Democrats, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”

Obama is now being asked to bail Biden out from another debacle of his own making, going back to his time in Obama’s administration. Various committees and private groups are seeking more than 5,000 emails from Biden in which he used an array of aliases during the Obama administration.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Obama has 30 days to bar the release of the emails and to help shield his former vice president in a growing corruption scandal over the influence-peddling operation run by Biden’s son, Hunter.

Recently, it was learned that Joe Biden went by a variety of code names and false names, including Robin Ware. Robert L. Peters, JRB Ware, Celtic and “The Big Guy.” House investigators believe that may only be a partial list. For many Americans, it is understandably unnerving to learn that their president has more aliases than Anthony Weiner. However, while the number seems unusual, the practice is not unprecedented.

Top officials have used such aliases in the past for emails, including former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. During the Obama administration, the practice was defended by then-White House press secretary Jay Carney, who assured the public that any such emails would still be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and congressional inquiries. He added, “We do not use and should not use private email accounts for work.”

The problem is that there was “work” being discussed on some of these emails, including official foreign travel plans and the hiring of associates of Hunter for high-level positions. More importantly, some emails are relevant to the clients of Biden’s son. Biden has previously lied that he knew nothing of these dealings, but these emails could reveal even more about his knowledge and involvement.

Congress is investigating more than $20 million that was transferred to members of the Biden family from foreign sources through a labyrinth of shell companies and accounts. Even the Washington Post has been forced to admit that the president has lied in the past about aspects of Hunter’s dealings.  Devon Archer recently confirmed that Joe Biden’s long-standing denial of any knowledge of their business dealings is “categorically false.”

Most reporters now admit that Hunter was clearly engaging in influence-peddling, Washington’s favorite form of corruption. Yet in the face of this growing evidence, Democrats insist that Hunter and his associates were merely selling “the illusion of influence,” not actual access or influence over Joe Biden.

Obviously, these foreign clients believed that they were buying more than an illusion for the millions they spent. One corrupt Ukrainian figure said that Hunter Biden was dumber than his dog, but that he paid him anyway for access to his father.

There are indications that these clients did receive more than illusion. For example, Archer described how Burisma executives were worried about the anti-corruption investigation being conducted by Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin. Archer testified that Hunter immediately “called D.C.” in response to the plea. Shokin was later fired at Joe Biden’s demand.

The House Oversight Committee has hit a wall in trying to get material from the Bidens and the administration on these past dealings. It has also learned that the president communicated with this son through alias accounts. That led them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which has resisted the release of the emails. It has been over a year since a group requested these documents, and the NARA review is expected to take years at this pace — until after the next election.

Both Biden and Obama could easily allow the release of these emails to Congress. After all, the use of aliases has been defended on the basis that these emails are trivial or personal matters. If so, transparency will put all the allegations to rest. If it is not true, it would mean that Biden was using false names to convey important information to third parties, and the question would be why.

In one email from Hunter’s laptop, Biden associate James Gilliar explained the rules to Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter. He was not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions. “Don’t mention Joe being involved,” he wrote, “it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.”  Instead, they referred to the Big Guy or Celtic.

Likewise, a trusted FBI source said that a Ukrainian businessman had said that he paid a bribe to Joe Biden, but noted that they were told to avoid using his name and to transfer the money through a complex series of accounts.

Moreover, the request of Congress followed the discovery that staffers had used Biden’s fake government account, Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, to send a message about meeting then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko with a cc to Hunter Biden.

Once again, there may be innocent explanations for such emails and the use of the alias. However, given the other evidence of corruption and influence peddling, it seems obvious that the information must be reviewed.

That brings us to the confrontation with NARA.

The agency could rely on the PRA statute to enforce the refusal of Biden and Obama to allow Congress to review the evidence. Biden actually is supposed to be consulted twice under the law: as the former vice president and as the current president. Both Joe Bidens are likely to have the same negative reaction to exposing his emails.

However, special access to presidential records is expressly allowed under the PRA “to…Congress” and “to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction, to any committee…if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available.” A refusal would deny Congress critical evidence into a corruption scandal and also a possible impeachment inquiry.

The added resistance to the review of the emails only adds to an already strong case for an impeachment inquiry. Such an inquiry does not mean that impeachment is inevitable. Rather, there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation into whether the Bidens were selling the illusion or the reality of influence. By acting under its impeachment authority, the power of Congress would be at its apex in forcing these disclosures and finding answers on the alleged corrupt practices.

None of this should be necessary, of course. Biden could remove these obstacles instantly to assure the public that his aliases were innocent, even playful, pseudonyms. “JRB Ware” may be a pun, but it is not necessarily the next “Carlos Danger.” We simply do not know, but there should be no reason why the president would not want to clear the record, particularly in an election year.

Otherwise, the effort to withhold this evidence could itself prove damaging, if material evidence of corruption or false statements are found. As Obama would say, one should never underestimate that prospect when it comes to his former vice president.

In his famous anti-Vietnam War speech, the late senator from South Dakota George McGovern told fellow Congressional leaders, “This chamber reeks of blood.” On Saturday, journalist Max Blumenthal opened a hard-hitting talk at the Ron Paul Institute’s “Which Way America…?” conference in D.C. by quoting those words, but applied them to the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Blumenthal said that in Ukraine, Washington continues “wasting the lives and bodies of over 150,000 men, and that’s according to the Pentagon.” Citing recent studies on the immense numbers of Ukrainians who have lost limbs after a year-and-a-half of fighting (which could be surpassing WWI rates), he said the true Ukraine casualty count could be closer to 500,000 – which marks a monumental tragedy and disaster.

The GrayZone journalist then said of today’s Congress that “this chamber” not only “reeks of blood” but.. “they have wasted Ukrainian society on the mantle of anti-Russia hysteria” – as lawmakers in lockstep with the Biden administration continue to sink billions into Kiev.

Beltway liberal elites, Blumenthal asserted, still think Russia must be punished given they see Moscow as having brought the “bad orange man” to power in 2016. This is a big ideological aspect to what motivates the hawks, he said.

Further, Blumenthal explained that what’s happening here is that the US ruling class has “militarized the culture wars while depicting Ukraine as the ‘woke side’ vs. Russia as backwards and oppressive.”

But more importantly, the real “victors” are the major US defense contractors and their appendages like the K street neocon lobbying firms. Blumenthal highlighted that these, and the Biden administration, are operating with the bigger vision in mind of turning Ukraine into Europe’s “big Israel”. 

By this is meant a permanently militarized ‘Spartan’ wartime state, which is funded and weaponized by Washington in perpetuity, and possesses all the latest cutting edge Western defense tech. But like with the state of things long evident inside Israel (in particular oppression of both Palestinians and Israeli political dissenters), democracy must be eroded at home for this to happen. Still, the defense tech peddlers in the military-industrial complex will ‘win’ no matter how much Ukrainian society and its people are sacrificed. 

“In order to defend democracy in Ukraine, democracy must be curtailed at home,” Blumenthal emphasized, drawing lessons from current examples of oppression of free speech in the West, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He noted here that his own investigative media outlet, The GrayZone, has had the bulk of its funding frozen by the popular platform GoFundMe. The outlet explained days ago [emphasis ZH]:

By this point, we had raised over $90,000 from over 1100 contributors. The generous contributions from our audience were accompanied by hundreds of messages of effusive support for our factual journalism holding imperial power to account.

And now, Gofundme is holding the donations hostage, refusing to transfer them to us, while failing to inform donors that it has effectively seized their money. The for-profit site has similarly refused to explain its freezing of their donations, issuing nothing more than a vague allusion – “some external concerns” – to pressure from powerful outside forces.

Gofundme’s financial sabotage follows the de facto sanctions imposed by Venmo and Paypal on our managing editor, Wyatt Reed, after he reported on the Ukrainian military’s targeting of civilians from the separatist side of the Donbas region.

Again, this is why Blumenthal could draw on recent personal experience in telling the Ron Paul conference audience that “democracy must be curtailed” in America in order to keep unlimited taxpayer dollars flowing into the Zelensky government’s coffers.

Blumenthal continued… but “now Russia has no incentive to negotiate” given they have the clear military momentum amid a failing Ukraine counteroffensive. The US and UK likely had a window of opportunity in the initial months of the war to more easily open up serious diplomatic peace negotiations, but this was actively thwarted. 

“We cannot have peace negotiations while war is being incentivized [by Washington interests] to this point,” he continued while also referencing neocons like Bill Kristol, who has been leading a charge to silence any dissenting views from among Republican nominees and politicians on Ukraine.

“These operatives need constant opportunities” which a permanent proxy war in Europe enables, Blumenthal continued – just like with the constant and historic billions in aid flowing to Israel, which serves to cyclically fuel the accompanying global reach and outsized influence of the Israel lobby.

On this question of whether negotiations are possible even from Kiev’s perspective, Zero Hedge asked Blumenthal what he thinks would happen in the unlikely scenario that Zelensky himself suddenly pursued peace talks with the Russians. Blumenthal responded as follows:

“If Zelensky were to pursue peace talks now before he’s re-elected… due to the kind of social forces that have been unleashed by Maidan, he will face a far-right Nazi insurgency in his own country, and he will become public enemy number one among some of the most violent and militarized forces.

…Which is why he went and met with Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Azov. Zelensky was elected on a platform of peace by 73% of the population because you still had the ethnic Russian population participating in Ukrainian society. They have been completely driven out and the constituency he’s working with is completely different now.”

Below: Last month, Ukrainian President Zelensky held court with one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history, Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.

Turning Ukraine into “a big Israel” will involve long-term funding to shape and place “America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier not in the Middle East but in Europe,” Blumenthal said.

But as Ukrainians continue to be slaughtered, it won’t be a happy situation for a country to become a “big Israel”, Blumenthal concluded.

* * *

Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (from 2011 to 2017) is helping to push this Ukraine as “big Israel” concept forward, Blumenthal pointed out.

A partial list of key elements of Shapiro’s road map for Ukraine was previously published by The Atlantic Council as follows:

• Security first: Every Israeli government promises, first and foremost, that it will deliver security—and knows it will be judged on this pledge. Ordinary citizens, not just politicians, pay close attention to security threats—both from across borders and from internal sources— and much of the public chooses who to elect by that metric alone.
• The whole population plays a role: The Israeli model goes further than Zelenskyy’s vision of security services deployed to civilian spaces: Most young Israeli adults serve in the military, and many are employed in security-related professions following their service. A common purpose unites the citizenry, making them ready to endure shared sacrifice. Civilians recognize their responsibility to follow security protocols and contribute to the cause. Some even arm themselves (though under strict supervision) to do so. The widespread mobilization of Ukrainian society in collective defense suggests that the country has this potential. In his comments, Zelenskyy reflected this reality when he said security would “come from the strength of every house, every building, every person.”
• Self-defense is the only way: If there’s any single principle that animates Israel’s security doctrine, it’s that Israel will defend itself, by itself—and rely on no other country to fight its battles. The tragedies of Jewish history have embedded that lesson deep in the nation’s soul. Ukraine’s own trauma, forced to fight alone against a larger aggressor, reinforces a similar conclusion: Don’t depend on the guarantees of others.
• But maintain active defense partnerships: Self-defense doesn’t mean total isolation. Israel maintains active defense partnerships, chiefly with the United States, which provides generous military assistance, but also with other nations with whom it shares intelligence, technology, and training. While Ukraine will probably not join NATO any time soon, it can deepen security partnerships with Alliance members and receive aid, weaponry, intelligence, and training to bolster its self-defense.
• Intelligence dominance: From its earliest days, Israel has invested deeply in its intelligence capabilities to ensure that it has the means to detect and deter its enemies—and, when needed, act proactively to strike them. Ukraine will need to upgrade its intelligence services to compete against Russian capabilities and ensure that it’s prepared to prevent and repulse Russian attacks.
• Technology is key: Although it relies on US assistance, Israel also chooses homegrown technology solutions for many of its greatest challenges. Multi-layer rocket and missile defenses, counter-drone systems, and tunnel detection technology are just recent examples. Ukraine—already home to bright technological minds—will know what threats it faces more than any partner; investing in its own solutions will allow it to be most responsive and adapt to new threats.

The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, on behalf of the US Air Force, is serious about decarbonizing a military base in Alaska. Surprisingly, the focus is on something other than solar or wind but on mini-nuclear reactors.

According to a press release from Santa Clara-based Oklo Inc., the USAF issued a Notice of Intent to Award a contract for micro-reactors to supply power and heat to Eielson Air Force Base. 

“This project represents a significant stride towards ensuring a clean and resilient energy supply for critical national security infrastructure,” the company said

The timeline for the installation wasn’t specified, and Oklo’s design still awaits the green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):

This selection initiates the acquisition process to potentially award a contract to Oklo. Oklo would obtain a license for its power plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, construct the power plant, and operate it to deliver both electricity and steam to the Eielson Air Force Base under a long-term power purchase agreement executed by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy. –Oklo

“We are honored to be at the forefront of increasing resilience and reducing emissions, while driving national security forward,” said Jacob DeWitte, Co-Founder and CEO of Oklo.

USAF previously announced Eielson AFB would be the preferred location to pilot next-generation energy technology, such as micro-reactors, to supply upwards of 15 megawatts of power. 

Because of its small size, micro-reactors can be constructed cheaper and faster than traditional, giant, light-water reactors, such as the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia that opened this summer, where delays and cost overruns were in the years and billions of dollars. 

Oklo is one of a dozen companies developing micro-reactors. Earlier this year, NRC cleared NuScale Power’s design for light-water small modular nuclear reactors for a carbon-free future. 

Besides these small reactors potentially powering a military base, basically a small town, there has been a push for huge data centers to be powered by this on-demand reliable ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) friendly power source. 

The push for nuclear power comes as a new Pew Research Center survey shows that most Americans now want atomic power. 

We presented a bull nuclear thesis to readers in December 2020, recommending uranium on the belief that nuclear power would eventually be incorporated into the ESG framework, as highlighted in our article “Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze,” which is proving to be accurate.

With home prices and mortgage rates both rising, the U.S. is now witnessing the biggest numerical gap in the monthly cost between owning a home and renting in over 50 years.

Americans, however, have seen similar scenarios occur since the early 1980s.

Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Sam Parker created the following chart, using data from Reventure Consulting, to highlight the cost of buying vs. renting a single-family residence in the U.S. since 1970, adjusted for inflation.

Mortgage Rates Jump to New High

In August 2023, mortgage rates rose to the highest level in 23 years, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage hitting 7.48%.

As a result, the median rent in America is approximately $1,850 per month, about 30% cheaper than the median cost to buy, standing at $2,700 per month. This gap represents the largest difference between renting and buying in U.S. history.

While the difference was less than $200 in 2022, in 2023 the gap surpassed $800.

Many buyers, particularly those seeking their initial home purchase, have now been priced out of the market with concerns that they cannot afford home ownership. As a result, mortgage applications for home purchases have hit their lowest point in 20 years:

Rent costs have also seen an uptick, but not at the same pace, as the market adjusted following a steep rent spike witnessed during the pandemic.

Will Mortgage Rates Drop in 2023?

Increases in interest rates affect long-term home loans, such as 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. And starting in 2022, the Federal Reserve began to hike rates from their near-zero level to the current range of 5.25-5.5%.

Recently, the Federal Reserve unveiled new projections, indicating that the interest rate could potentially reach 5.6% by the end of 2023, implying at least one more rate hike in 2023.

As a result, numerous experts are anticipating that mortgage rates will likely remain above 6% for the rest of this year.

Authored by Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,

Fighting and serious tensions have continued between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Deir Ezzor Military Council (DEMC), two US backed militias in east Syria. The US military has urged an end to the tensions, the mainstay which lasted for four days, which have left at least 40 people dead.

Clashes, which began early last week, have pitted the SDF against the Arab-led DEMC, its former ally, as well as some regional Arab tribesmen who have aligned with them.

Hostilities were sparked after the SDF arrested Abu Khawla, the head of the DEMC and a senior SDF commander. Khawla and four other militia leaders were accused of “multiple crimes and violations,” such as drug trafficking. Khawla and his fellow detainees have since been dismissed.

The SDF and the council agreed on Wednesday that Khawla will no longer command the DEMC over his “coordination with external entities hostile to the revolution,” a reference to his alleged contacts with the Damascus government.

The SDF surged forces into Deir Ezzor province as tensions were brewing over Khawla’s arrest. As Middle East Eye reported, “armed Arab tribal fighters burnt [tires], ambushed vehicles and shelled SDF positions in towns across the province, as well as taking over several checkpoints and attacking SDF patrols.”

By Thursday, both sides were said to be bringing in reinforcements as clashes took place near the shared border with Iraq. Helicopters belonging to the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve could be seen flying over the locations of the previous day’s fighting, according to local news outlet DeirEzzor24.

Washington has about 900 troops and an undisclosed number of contractors embedded with the SDF. The US illegally occupies eastern Syria and controls roughly a third of the nation’s territory including most of the war-torn country’s oil and wheat resources.

The US-led coalition put out a statement urging an end to the fighting because it may allow the Islamic State (IS) to regain a foothold if Washington’s partner forces are increasingly divided.

The terrorist group took over large swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq as a result of a failed regime change operation which saw the CIA arming and funding rebel groups including al Qaeda affiliates. The proxy war killed hundreds of thousands of people but failed in its attempt to overthrow the Syrian government.

IS has been all but destroyed by Damascus with its Iranian and Russian allies. The US occupation is instead designed to deprive Syria of vital resources amid Washington’s economic war.

Joe Rogan and ‘old school Democrat’ Bill Maher have had it with progressive policies towards crime and policing, and the hypocrisy over ‘black lives’ when blacks are killing each other.

“Murders have been happening way out of control in Chicago among the African-American Community for far too long and not really reported in the same way they should be,” lamented Maher in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience which aired on Saturday, adding “It’s amazing how black lives don’t seem to matter when they’re taken by black lives,” pointing to the MSM’s asymmetric reporting.

“Their idea was like go in arrest the big kingpins and then we’ll clean up the city. It didn’t work at all.“

Maher then asks ‘where are the leaders of the community? The people who have such cache among those young African American men, to say ‘cut it out! What the fuck are you doing to each other?’

(Yes Bill, it would be nice if everything was an episode of the A-Team where ex-gangsters are high-fiving each other over paint rollers as they clean up the graffiti they just made & drug dealers flush their stashes because kingpins finally spoke out).

According to Rogan, “Austin defunded the police and refunded it far more than they defunded it because they course corrected,” adding “They realized this was not working, and we have to do something to fix it. Which makes me happy because there’s a lot of crime.” (via KanekoaTheGreat).

“Liberalism was never ‘shoplifting is progressive,'” Maher responded. “And we weren’t interested in legalizing shoplifting, but after the George Floyd murder and riots, there was a movement to disband a lot of the police… And what happened was, of course, crime went up in certain areas, and a lot of the officers who were fired or let go, were hired as private security by the rich people, and their neighborhoods stayed safe. That wasn’t exactly a victory for Liberalism.”

Watch:

Bonus: Rogan goes off on the anti-Ivermectin crowd…

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The one and only enemy of UAW president Shawn Fain are the companies that employ 350,000 UAW workers, 150,000 for the big three.

Meet the Man Who Has Detroit on Edge

The Wall Street Journal says Meet the Man Who Has Detroit on Edge

When Shawn Fain glances at the wall of executive portraits at the United Auto Workers’ historic Black Lake conference center in Northern Michigan, there is one photo that always catches him off-guard. His own.

In recent weeks, he has been unusually outspoken about his frustrations with labor talks—at one point, making a public show of throwing Stellantis’s bargaining proposals in the trash—and has embraced fiery rhetoric that has riled up workers for a potential walkout and taken many auto executives aback.

At an event in March he said the union was fighting its “one and only true enemy: multibillion-dollar corporations.”

“How far are you willing to go to get the contract you deserve?” Fain yelled to a roaring crowd at a recent rally, after walking on stage to Eminem’s “Not Afraid.” Fain says he is a fan of ’90s hip-hop.

Circle September 14, On Your Calendar

The New Republic reports Labor Chief Shawn Fain Worries the Big Three—and the White House

If negotiators don’t agree on a contract by September 14, says UAW President Shawn Fain, 150,000 workers will walk off the job.

I asked Fain about reports that the UAW is withholding its expected endorsement of President Joe Biden, with whom Fain met in July. “It was a good meeting,” Fain said, but “we’ve made it clear that our endorsements are going to be earned, not freely given.”

UAW Files Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against GM, Stellantis

Reuters reports UAW Files Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against GM, Stellantis

The United Auto Workers union said on Thursday it filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis, saying they have refused to bargain in good faith.

“We’re going to fight like hell to get our equitable share of justice for workers,” he said. “We can get there – but these companies better buckle down and they better get serious.”

GM manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson said the company strongly refuted the unfair labor charge. “We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees. We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress,” Johnson said.

Why a Big Union Is Snubbing Biden

Politico comments Why a Big Union Is Snubbing Biden, Doing Industry’s Dirty Work and Creating an Opening for Trump

On one key issue, the UAW has aligned itself closely with the executives it otherwise denounces: resistance to the crucially needed clean energy transition. It’s an embarrassing move that highlights the union’s short-term thinking, not just in light of the climate crisis, but because of the union’s own environmentalist roots and clear understanding that an electric future is coming.

The union’s ambivalence toward a clean energy future was made strikingly clear when the historically pro-Democrat UAW refused to endorse, for now, President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

The decision came after the White House’s announcement of a $9.2 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee to Ford Motor Co. to help build a massive battery plant, BlueOval City, in Stanton, Tennessee, a so-called right-to-work state. The loan contains no language requiring Ford or its joint venture partner, South Korea’s SK On, a unit of a Korean chemical company, to ensure union involvement.

The jobs in Stanton will be “low road,” UAW president Shawn Fain predicted; Ford responded that wages paid will be “competitive,” which in a right-to-work state promises to be less encouraging than it’s meant to sound.

Trump himself has seen enough of an opening that he was moved to make a 3-minute campaign video where he inveighed with characteristic eloquence, “I hope United Auto Workers is listening to this, because I think you better endorse Trump because I’m going to grow your business and they are destroying your business. They are absolutely destroying your business.”

“EPA must recognize,” the union insisted in its plea to ease the proposed regulations, “that the current domestic auto assembly footprint is heavily weighted towards the profitable light-duty truck and SUVs that are tasked with funding the EV transition.”

Much of the Politico article is environmental fearmongering.

At the same time, all of this is hugely inflationary. EVs are more expensive, the need for minerals does not scale, and the push does not do a damn thing for the environment.

“I want to be very clear about this: our goal is NOT to strike. Our goal is to bargain a fair contract. But if we have to strike to win economic and social justice, then we will.”
— #UAW President Shawn Fain#1u #solidarity #StrikeReady pic.twitter.com/AA4QFoIwcG

— UAW (@UAW) September 1, 2023

What a hoot. Fain’s demands are so preposterous that a strike appears unavoidable. Social and economic justice is another hoot.

How Likely is a Strike?

CNBC comments : A brief survey of 99 investors by Morgan Stanley found 58% believe a strike is “extremely likely.” That’s followed by 24% who said it’s “somewhat likely.” Just 16% said a strike was unlikely, while 2% said it was “neither likely not unlikely.”

I put the odds at 90 percent. The sides are too far apart, Fain is the most militant UAW leader ever, and the push for EVs will definitely cost jobs because EV engines have about 20 moving parts vs 2,000 or so for a standard internal combustion engine.

Jobs will vanish. Fain wants to stop that. He can’t no one can. And the faster the transition, the faster the jobs go.

This all plays into Trump’s hands. I expect a long, nasty strike. If the big three give into the preposterous demands of Fain, they are all headed for bankruptcy, GM for a second time.

Environmental Side of Things

• Two Elephants in the Climate Change CO2 Production Room

• Climate Stupidity Canadian Style

• The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards

The third link above is another big hoot.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA did an impact assessment of 4 fuel standard proposals and compared them to the cost of doing nothing.

Guess what.

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Food and fuel are running low for the tens of thousands of attendees (and tech bros) trapped at the Burning Man festival located in one of the harshest environments on earth (high desert, on a dried-up alkaline lake bed) in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The situation deteriorated early Saturday when a rainstorm drenched the lake bed, transforming the area into a ‘mudpocalypse.’ 

Since early Saturday, all entry and exit points of the Burning Man festival remained closed due to the thick, alkaline mud. As of 0900 ET Sunday, event organizers said, “The gate and airport in and out of Black Rock City remain closed. Ingress and egress are halted until further notice. No driving is permitted except emergency vehicles.” 

Organizers continued to advise the 73,000 attendees to “conserve food and water, and shelter in a warm space.” 

The gate and airport in and out of Black Rock City remain closed. Ingress and egress are halted until further notice. No driving is permitted except emergency vehicles. If you are in BRC, conserve food and water, and shelter in a warm space. More updates to come. Stay safe!

— Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) September 3, 2023

The Independent confirmed local officials had reported at least one death but have not released details on the suspected cause of death. A major concern is that the toxic alkali dust that makes up the lake bed is now three inches of mud, and if attendees aren’t wearing socks and closed shoes, it can cause chemical burns called “Playa Foot.” 

All fun & games until that alkaline rich mud sucks the moisture right out of the skin. Those porta johns are filthy and can’t be emptied. On a sunny day it takes 11hrs to commute into this remote barren lake.
Burning Man 2023 pic.twitter.com/qrwsSQMSH2

— Mr. Maverick (@TheMan2Day) September 3, 2023

This person really explained burning man so well..like that is a legit safety hazard.. pic.twitter.com/uWNs7VDBHw

— UghGiveRespect 🇨🇩🇿🇦 (@KANA9371) September 3, 2023

More footage of the geniuses who decided to party in a toxic dry lakebed only to find out it occasionally rains in the desert. 

Burning Man is a mess. Upward of 60,000 people are literally stuck in mud and have been ordered to stay put.

Food and water running low. pic.twitter.com/HKRZSwkTCY

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 2, 2023

🔥☔ Mudpocalyptic at Burning Man!

A challenging situation unfolds as the desert festival site turns into a sea of mud due to unexpected rain, leaving Burning Man attendees trapped. Stay safe, resilient, and support one another, Burners! 🌄🌧️ #BurningMan #RainyDesert… pic.twitter.com/QCVPCeFg3D

— FlashFactsHub (@FlashFactsHub) September 3, 2023

⚠️BREAKING: More than 73,000 people are trapped in mud at Burning Man in Nevada due to major flooding pic.twitter.com/t7asFadYnK

— Everything you need to know (@Everything65687) September 3, 2023

Not everyone’s feeling sorry for all the rich folk stuck in the mud at Burning Man [via @YahooNews] https://t.co/zZi3Cu9ONM pic.twitter.com/9CQsTlSIfN

— Ńasser 1️⃣ Million Tweets 🐦 (@nasser_mo3gza) September 3, 2023

And who attends this drug-infested event? The rich tech bros. 

… rich white tech bros. 

Surely, these ‘informed’ folks who are now stuck in a swamped toxic lake bed understood it was an El Nino year… 

Probably not. They were fixated on the corporate media headlines hyping a non-existent climate crisis (well, that’s according to these 1,600 scientists). 

Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) likely overstepped its authority when it told Americans to “stop” using ivermectin against COVID-19, a federal court ruled on Sept. 1.

“FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine,”  U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the ruling.

The FDA has authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to convey information to consumers.

The FDA during the COVID-19 pandemic has issued multiple statements discouraging people from taking ivermectin against COVID-19.

Accompanied by a picture of a horse and a link to an FDA webpage on ivermectin, the agency wrote in one social media post: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

The page it linked to is titled, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.”

Three doctors sued the FDA over its statements on ivermectin, arguing the agency cannot advise doctors on which drugs to prescribe.

Ivermectin is approved by the agency as an antiparasitic drug for both humans and animals.

Federal law gives the government immunity against legal actions, with some exceptions. One exception, known as ultra vires, is when an official acts outside their authority. Plaintiffs challenging the acts must show that the official was “acting ‘without any authority whatever,’ or without any ‘colorable basis for the exercise of authority,'” according to an earlier court ruling.

The FDA does have the authority to share data and facts, the parties agree. But they diverge on whether the FDA can issue recommendations on medical matters, such as treatments.

The FDA has claimed that the posts do not contain advice, stating in one brief that they were “informational statements” that “do not ‘direct’ consumers, or anyone else, to do or refrain from doing anything.” At the same time, the FDA acknowledged that the statements “provided recommendations” and “advise[d] consumers.”

“Despite these concessions, FDA never points to any authority that allows it to issue recommendations or give medical advice,” Judge Willett wrote.

“Rather, FDA argues that some posts included a hyperlink that leads to the update. The update, in turn, directs consumers to “[t]alk to your health care provider.” But not all of the social-media posts included such a link. And even for those posts that did include a link, the posts themselves offer advice, not mere information.”

The update itself is problematic because of its title, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19,” the judge said. Even though it later says that people can take ivermectin if prescribed by a health care provider, “the trailing qualifier does not lessen the opening instruction’s imperative character,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled against the doctors in 2022, finding that doctors had not proven an exception to sovereign immunity and that there was no indication the FDA acted outside of the authority conferred by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Judge Brown erred on the second point as well, according to the new ruling.

“Nothing in the Act’s plain text authorizes FDA to issue medical advice or recommendations,” Judge Willett said.

The judge, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was joined by U.S. Circuit Judges Edith Brown Clement and Jennifer Walker Elrod.

Judges Willett and Brown were appointed under President Donald Trump. Judges Clement and Elrod were appointed under President George W. Bush.

The appeals court panel remanded the case back to Judge Brown to decide on whether the doctors have standing. The ruling followed oral arguments before the panel.

Dr. Robert Apter, one of the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a big win for doctors and for patients!”

The U.S. government has not yet reacted to the ruling.