White House Beckons A Kennedy Again

White House Beckons A Kennedy Again

By Maria Fotopoulos

Even a Kennedy from a long-term Democrat Dynasty has come to terms with the demise of the Democrat party. No Camelot, it’s a party unrecognizable from earlier times. Robert Kennedy Jr., who was running for the 2024 presidency as a Democrat, announced Monday, Oct. 9, to a large crowd in Philadelphia that he will continue his run, but as an independent. He intends to “wrest power from both parties and return power to the people” with a populist movement that cuts through left/right division.

This is a wise decision by Kennedy. Although some may see his exit from the party as slow in coming, no one can begrudge Kennedy the time to process his former party’s abhorrent treatment of him. Coming to terms with the reality of the moral collapse of the Democrat party that his family had been so closely connected to for 140 years surely requires processing. This was the party of his father, who might have been the 37th president of the United States, had he not been assassinated, and the party of his uncles, President John F. Kennedy, also assassinated, and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

One of the legacies of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy was a sense of unfulfilled promise and hope. What RFK’s son most definitely conveys in his campaign is hope – not the faux hope of Barack Obama’s “Hope,” but real hope to bridge the tremendous chasm in America and heal.

In watching many of the long-form interviews Robert Kennedy Jr. has given in recent months, he is grounded and centered. This may be the basis of his skill in addressing issues without attacking others. Given the frequency with which we hear Joe Biden attack those not bowing to party narratives, it’s a welcome change to hear Kennedy engage calmly, respectfully and with common sense. As well, like when listening to Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, there’s no disputing how smart Kennedy is. He peppers his responses with historical details that show a wide knowledge base, and he has many relatable lessons learned as a scion. Add on a very active and long career as an environmental lawyer committed to the protection of waterways and the rights of indigenous people, as a writer and as the founder of Children’s Health Defense and the Waterkeeper Alliance, and Kennedy has a commanding presence.

To a rational, thinking person, Kennedy would seem The Choice to be the Democrat nominee for the White House, similar to 2020, when Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard ran for the Democrat nomination. Of the long, weak list of Democrats running in 2020, Gabbard was also calm and respectful. Sharp as a tack, she exuded the most presence, composure and command, and she spoke common sense. Two strong Democrat candidates for the presidency in two different elections have been sidelined and maligned by their own party. Instead, the Democrat party’s new standard is to look for the least competent.

Not only did Kennedy’s party abandon him – Biden would not even provide Secret Service protection for this candidate – members of his family have been ugly. Apparently not the recipient of the brains in the family, sister Kerry Kennedy tweeted on the morning her brother announced his independence:

White House Beckons A Kennedy Again

Perhaps the fortunes of the Robert F. Kennedy siblings are so closely connected to The Borg that is today’s Democrat party that they had to toe the line for “the party.” Stay with us, comrades.

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything” might have been a better path for the siblings to take. With a family like that …

Of course, being family, they may know more. Kennedy has not been without his failings, including drug and sex addictions. We used to be more forgiving and open to redemption, but now all failings are used as weapons. Look for an increase in attacks on Kennedy’s personal failings as his popularity mounts. For those who commit to his candidacy, hopefully his demons are well at bay now at age 70, and he won’t disappoint followers.

Heading into the 2024 presidential election, anyone concerned about the direction of our country who is voting should listen to any of Kennedy’s long-form interviews with Tucker Carlson, The Joe Rogan Experience, Elex Michaelson, Russell Brand or others, and top it off with the Philadelphia speech. I considered recapping the Philly announcement, but decided it’s most impactful to listen to it in its entirety.

While media has downplayed the momentum of Kennedy – not surprising given the number of corporate media that act as the PR arm of the Democrat party – it’s clear there’s growing enthusiasm for Kennedy who is inspiring those beaten down by eight years of pronounced polarization in America. Kennedy believes, “The people are ready to take back power.”

It’s always interesting to read the comments after video, and Kennedy’s Philly speech is no exception. People are encouraged by Kennedy and see possibility of shifting the current trajectory of ever-growing rancor, division and ugliness in the country, which would be a significant achievement in our current environment. In one interview, Kennedy was asked what leadership lesson he’d learned from family. Kennedy responded that his dad wanted his children to understand that the path to happiness is through service to others. Kennedy is committed to service, and this is one reason people are drawn to his campaign.

As well, from his uncle and former U.S. President JFK he learned: “The primary job of a president of the United States is to keep our country out of war.” Kennedy in his Philly announcement said, “Peace and diplomacy first.” This is essential for the 2024 election, as current U.S. leaders – after dumping more than $124,000,000,000 into the Ukraine war – want more money for the proxy war and undoubtedly will start asking for more money for Israel (on top of that country’s annual $3 billion they receive from the U.S.). A Biden official said the U.S. can address the needs of the Ukraine, Israel and – should China make a move – Taiwan. Big talk for a country with $34 trillion in debt

America cannot stand four more years of the tyranny and totalitarian rule of this corrupted, broken iteration of the Democrat party that is completely disassociated from its name, headed by a mentally incapacitated puppet. The power in Robert Kennedy Jr.’s run for the U.S. presidency can be assessed in a number of ways. On a numbers level, 63 percent of Americans want a third party, the highest percentage in 20 years of Gallup asking that question, and Kennedy appears to be the one who can deliver. Most telling for me is the view from my partner, a man who has never voted for a Democrat. He told me he’d consider voting for Robert Kennedy Jr. Now that’s something!

Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals and givesendgo.com/calliescathouse.

White House Beckons A Kennedy Again

White House Beckons A Kennedy Again

Illegal Immigration And Illicit Wildlife Trade

Illegal Immigration And Illicit Wildlife Trade

Increasingly Rare Jaguars Targeted for Fangs, Bones, Pelts

By Maria Fotopoulos

Converging and growing criminal operations in human and drug trafficking, money laundering, and wildlife trade – legal and illegal – add more pressure to animal species already under threat of extirpation in Central and South America, according to new research from the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy in Florida.

Incredibly rich in biodiversity, Central and South America are home to 17 percent of Earth’s wildlife, as well as crime and violence – Latin America has more than 40 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world. The combination makes the region ripe for environmental exploitation. 

In “Triads, Snakeheads, and Flying Money: The Underworld of Chinese Criminal Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the authors of the research, Leland Lazarusand Alexander Gocso, write: “China is, by far, the largest market for illegal wildlife products.” Lazarus and Gocso describe several Chinese criminal groups that were infiltrated by an NGO, ELI, to obtain information and evidence in order to disrupt illicit activities in the wildlife trade in Latin America.

Among the criminal operators are the M2 Network (Mexico-2) which operates in the United States, Mexico and China, with a base in Baja California; M3, located in Central Mexico and run by Cantonese Chinese nationals; Bolivian-based SA4 (South America-4); SA1 in Suriname, with Brazilian, Guyanese and French Guianan operatives, and SA8 operating in many countries. All are names most Americans likely have never heard of. These bad actors traffic in a variety of off-limits sea creatures, including abalone, sea cucumber, seahorses, sharks and totoaba. The criminal organizations operating in Latin America also traffic in jaguars for their body parts. Weighing in between 220 and 350 pounds, the jaguar (Panthera onca) is one of the world’s five big cats, an apex predator who plays a major role in keeping ecosystems in check.

The range of the jaguar in the past included all of Mexico and Central America, most of South America and parts of the United States, but now has shrunk by approximately 50 percent, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Except for an occasional lone male who may migrate possibly seeking a mate, there are no jaguars in the United States or Canada, and they are no longer found in El Salvador and Uruguay. 

It’s not breaking news that wildlife numbers continue to drop as human numbers increase. The human population in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased from 168 million in 1950 to 665 million today. The jaguar population is now estimated to be only 163,000 (2017), across 18 countries, with the majority of jaguars in Brazil, Columbia and Peru, down from an estimated 300,000 in 1960. Habitat loss due to ever-encroaching land appropriation by humans is the primary cause of diminishing wildlife. For big cats, farmers and ranchers are another threat. Poaching is another significant threat to this cat and other animals, with environmental crimes now accounting annually for an estimated $110 billion to $281 billion “industry” worldwide.

From the murders of these stunning sentient beings, Chinese buy jaguar skins for decoration and jaguar fangs for jewelry. Chinese also want jaguars for “traditional Chinese medicine,” or what others might call bogus drugs. The jaguar’s body is boiled and turned into a paste that is promoted for healing joint pain, pumping up sexual potency and improving health. A jar of jaguar paste in China reportedly sells for $3,000. As well, a “bone wine” is concocted from jaguars. 

Per the Lazarus-Gocso research, Mexican criminal organizations sell “legal and illegal wildlife products to Chinese traders in exchange for fentanyl and methamphetamine, which they send to the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.” In a piece for the Brookings Institution, “China-linked wildlife poaching and trafficking in Mexico,” author Vanda Felbab-Brown writes that, more so than in other areas of the globe, in Mexico, “poaching and wildlife trafficking for Chinese markets is increasingly thickly intermeshed with drug trafficking, money laundering, and value transfer in illicit economies.”

With the deadly example of the current fentanyl-fueled drug crisis in the U.S., what happens south of the border clearly doesn’t stay south of the border. In 2022, with no mitigation of Biden’s Border Crisis, more than 110,000 people died in the U.S. from fentanyl, according to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also from CDC data, from 2016 to 2021, fentanyl drug deaths in the U.S. increased by 279 percent. Certainly when the federal government responsible for ensuring the safety and security of our border willfully opens it to 8 million illegal aliens in under three years, any pretense of upholding law and order is gone. The net impact is an administration that is enabling and enriching drug cartels, human traffickers and other criminal organizations, encouraging them to continue and grow illegal activity.

Lazarus-Gocso outline broad policy prescriptions for policymakers in China, Latin America and the U.S. But with criminal operators essentially aided and abetted by the current iteration of the U.S. government, and as multiple criminal activities converge, it’s reasonable to expect an increase in wildlife crime until there is a major change in leadership with responsible priorities.

For a reversal, strong countermeasures need to be developed, working with the multiple involved countries, and then deployed. Don’t expect much from China, the major recipient of the illegal wildlife trade from this area. First, thanks again to the Biden administration, U.S.-China relations are strained. So until there is a change in U.S. leadership, working together seems unlikely.

Second, systemic corruption in China’s government shields operators who traverse both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. Lazarus-Gocso reference a Chinese approach to business which stresses “harmony and tolerance, even in illicit activities like extortion.”

Third, China deflects responsibility, most evident in its response to the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., taking the position that it’s the responsibility of the U.S. and Mexico to keep the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from illicit drugmakers.

Needed too is a much-more educated and engaged body politic who understands the implications of wildlife loss and will pressure leadership to develop the policies and working relationships that will provide for the safety and security of jaguars and other wild living beings.

*****

How can you help?

Work for the safety and security of the jaguar: panthera.org

Support commonsense immigration policies: numbersusa.com

*****

Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals and givesendgo.com/calliescathouse.

Illegal Immigration And Illicit Wildlife Trade

Illegal Immigration And Illicit Wildlife Trade Illegal Immigration And Illicit Wildlife Trade

Mayor Pete Goes to Missouri

Mayor Pete Goes to Missouri

By Maria Fotopoulos

Mayor Pete, now called the Secretary of Transportation for all of the U.S., a cabinet level position in the Biden regime, visited Kansas City, Mo., recently, enjoying one of the perks of his job. That is, getting to pose in grip and grin photos and take some of the credit for a big transportation project, the new Kansas City airport. Having flown into KCI numerous times over the years, a new airport is a huge, much-needed upgrade for the area. The old airport’s Soviet Bloc look was past due for a revamp. So, great news for Kansas City and for travelers, and kudos to those who made the project happen. As to Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (BOOT-ə-jəj) …

Mayor Pete Goes to Missouri
Kansas City airport

It’s good to celebrate successes, but Buttigieg’s most recent history shows a failure to respond meaningfully to the continuing crisis in East Palestine, Ohio. So that’s where his energy should be focused. Playtime comes after dealing with the tough stuff.

In his two years as transportation secretary, Pothole Pete – his moniker for his lukewarm performance as mayor of South Bend, Ind., because he couldn’t get the streets’ potholes fixed – has delivered the mediocre level of performance that’s the standard for members of Team Biden. In the first year of his transportation gig, Buttigieg was absent for two months on paternity leave during a transportation crisis. He was then criticized for his response to multiple airtravel problems. He called a nationwide flight shutdown a “data point” from which learning could come. 

The East Palestine environmental disaster that began in February has been Buttigieg’s most defining event of who the transportation secretary is. While the crisis called for strong, coordinated actions from the government, Buttigieg was a no-show, revealing his lack of commonsense and empathy. He blew an opportunity to take the lead in addressing a horrible situation.

Pothole Pete Buttigieg

More than a day late and a dollar short, Buttigieg finally visited East Palestine on February 23, 20 days after the Norfolk Southern train derailment, and a day after former President Trump visited. The current president hasn’t traveled to East Palestine, but Biden did fly to one of the world’s most corrupt countries, Ukraine, to deliver more American dollars to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, displaying where the U.S. president’s priorities are – not with Americans enduring an environmental disaster in Ohio. Since the people in the Biden administration appear to walk in lock-step on the worst path, Buttigieg, a good soldier, is perhaps just following orders.

It would be good to see even one Democrat step up and do the right thing. Pete could have done that in Ohio. It should have been crisis communications 101 – if only he could have executed a plan. Presumably, emergency response and crisis communications plans are in place at the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, FEMA, the EPA, NTSB, Norfolk Southern, National Guard, the Secretary’s office and with first responders and state & local officials. Whoever the players are, assemble all relevant parties in a virtual “war room” and go through everything that needs to get done, anticipate questions and needs that will arise, determine the lead organization and spokesperson, etc., etc. Get the people of the community taken care of and get the area cleaned. And overcommunicate to all stakeholders. Communications, communications, communications.

Residents of the community and the American public didn’t see that happen. But things that made no sense to the layperson happened, most strikingly setting fire to all the chemicals in the derailed cars, sending dangerous, toxic material into the air, ultimately to land on ground and water. With animals dying, there was no confidence in the community if residents were safe now or in the future. And as to Pete, he tried to blame former President Trump – the default response among Dems remains: it’s Trump’s fault. (Given Trump has been out of office for more than two years, how long will Democrats try to use him as the catchall answer to anything gone wrong?)

Buttigieg may be “book smart,” but he has a poor sense of the right thing to say and when to show up. In the face of people in Ohio suffering and uncertain as to the health, safety and economic impacts on their lives and those of their families as a result of the environmental disaster in East Palestine, Buttigieg said, “There are roughly 1,000 cases a year of a train derailing,” seemingly minimizing the impact of the February 3 derailment.

One thousand derailments sounds like a lot. Two years into his transportation gig, wouldn’t Buttigieg be “all over this?” Rail transportation is not exactly a new invention. It’s reasonable to think railroads and trains should be operating efficiently and safely. On a priority scale, safe railways and rail transportation that don’t kill or harm people, wildlife and the environment should rank much higher than one of Pete’s favorite topics: ending “racist” roads.

To give Pete some credit, on the mediocrity scale, for example, he is much less mediocre than Vice President Kamala Harris. Perhaps in an effort to bolster her dismal image, Politico recently wrote a puff piece on first gentleman Doug Emhoff. Maybe Pete can follow the example – an image-bolstering interview with Pete’s husband, Chasten James Glezman Buttigieg, telling us what a great husband and dad Pete is. 

These types of pieces may reinforce support from the Kool-Aid drinkers, but the rest of us just want to see elected officials do their jobs well. Failing that, resignation would be in order.

On March 1, a train crash in Greece resulted in the deaths of 36 people. The Greek Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, saying he felt it was his duty to step down “as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly.” Karamanlis said he had made “every effort” to improve a railway system that had been “in a state that doesn’t befit the 21st century.”

That’s a notable difference between officials in the Biden Administration who never resign and seldom are fired. The rare exception has been the luggage thief, party it-girl and now former DOE official, Sam Brinton, and two U.S. Air Force commanders and four of their subordinates who were fired from a nuclear base in North Dakota.

But after the debacle of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, did the “woke” General Mark A. Milley, or any of his Joint Chiefs of Staff brethren, resign out of protest or acceptance of personal responsibility? That would be a “no.” What of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has overseen the opening of U.S. borders and the mass importation of more than 5 million illegal aliens? No. And certainly not the Secretary of Transportation, Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg.

Officials who don’t fulfill the duties of their jobs will not resign under a Biden regime. They have no sense of honor and duty to the citizens of the country. Their only duty is to protect the power of the collective – the Borg. Protect it, and it protects them.

Sidebar

More than 50 years after another major environmental disaster, Ohio takes a hit again when train cars derail spilling vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate chemicals. The 1969 event was one of multiple fires on the Cuyahoga River that had been contaminated for years with debris, chemicals and oil. A polluted Cuyahoga River, along with a major oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., served as focal points for a developing environmental movement and the first Earth Day in 1970, as well as the creation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Richard Nixon in 1970.

Mayor Pete Goes to Missouri

Vehicle remains line the Cuyahoga River shore near Jaite, Ohio, 1968.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals.

Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents’ Day

Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents’ Day

By Maria Kay Fotopoulos

In 100 years, assuming truth prevails as the standard in history and life, hopefully an historian, in writing about the failed Biden presidency of 2021 to ????, tells the story of how an 80-year-old mentally decrepit president chose to fly to the Ukraine on Presidents’ Day.

Again, depending on what prevails in 100 years, the historian might have to remind the reader of what Presidents’ Day is (or was) – a day to commemorate the lives of former U.S. presidents (not foreign presidents). It was the first federal holiday, designated in celebration of the first U.S. president, George Washington. Over time, the day centered around Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents' Day

But Biden, and his minions or masters (it’s unclear how things are managed in this installed regime), chose not to honor those who came before, but to take the day to fly 4,864 miles across the pond to honor another country’s president. Biden made an appearance as second banana to Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, the actor, and talented piano man who plays with his penis, another installed president, this one of the Ukraine, a man likely unknown to 99 percent of Americans until the U.S. proxy war ensued in 2022 with the Ukraine and Russia.

Now, who doesn’t know the man named Time’s Man, uh, sorry, Person of the Year? Zelenskyy is the media darling, who manages to always find time in his war-time schedule to make appearances at the Golden Globe AwardsCannes Film FestivalGrammy’sUnited Nations and with the leadership of various countries that support this disaster and devastation in the Ukraine, usually demanding more money to destroy his country and the citizens, as he makes references to a coming WWIII. And, Zelenskyy does it all with only one change of clothes!

When Zelenskyy isn’t making virtual appearances at high-profile events, he’s at them in spirit, for instance at the 2022 Oscars. The ever-dramatic and overwrought actor Sean Penn actually gave his Oscar to Zelenskyy. Drama queen to drama queen.

At the most recent photo opp on Monday, Biden fell short of pulling out an oversized check prop showing $500,000,000, made out to Zelenskyy, or kneeling at the feet of Zelenskyy, but he may as well have. America is not bound to the non-NATO country of Ukraine by treaty, and we’re most certainly not “fighting for Democracy” there, despite the massive messaging campaign – heck, much of current U.S. “leadership” doesn’t even support the idea here at home. Yet, we’ve handed over more than $100,000,000,000 (and more going back to 2004) to the Ukraine and now to the man who played a president on TV – and then became the president, heading a party named after the TV show, “Servant of the People.” Additionally, as we hear repeatedly from Biden, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby and others, the checking account from the U.S. for the Ukraine has an unlimited balance.

If it appears like we’re living a movie or TV plot, it may be we are. Shades of “Wag the Dog,” “Argo” and “BrainDead,” with some “Dr. Strangelove” thrown in.

The Ukraine may serve some purpose for the busy dark forces in the U.S. that we peasants may never be able to even imagine. While that might have sounded like “crazy talk” a few years ago, not so much now. Maybe the very bad, greedy and corrupt are in charge – those who want to destroy Russia and carve her up for her resources – or maybe there are bigger forces at play. I talk with more and more people who frame what’s being played out as something of more epic proportions – something Biblical – a good vs. evil battle. Whatever the case, we regular folks are on edge, because we don’t really know what’s going on.

One of the most important underpinnings to a functioning United States has been journalism and the practitioners of it committed to one thing – the truth. That’s dead amongst the big players. Since we now have a failed Fourth Estate, it’s difficult to get to truth. What’s really happening? Who the f _ _ _ knows! Is Biden really a Manchurian candidate? Who is actually calling the shots? How come there’s barely a breath of an anti-war movement in America now? Why do so many Americans apparently no longer care that people are dying for no reason?

To sift through the tons of propaganda and ferret out real news is a major workout. Few citizens have the time for that.

A year into the Ukrainian shit-show, there’s essentially no on-the-ground reporting. While, for instance, FOX was on the ground early on with regular reporting, that quickly got the kibosh. We see stories that the mainstream media works to slap down hard – reports of bio labs, money laundering, corruption, nazis and plans long in the making to destroy Russia, driven by the Wicked Victoria Nuland, the U.S. under secretary for political affairs with the State Department, and a long-time hand in the Ukraine, well-versed in colour revolutions. Nuland pretty much stays out of public view, except when called in for the Congressional hearing here and there, where she drops a bomb or two.

A lot of theater. But we want theater to actually be theater, as in entertainment only. We don’t want this madness to be reality and in our actual lives!

A brief note on the corruption. Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world – human trafficking, drugs and money laundering. And, the Biden family has dipped their toes in it. That Hunter Biden – son of the U.S. president – received $50,000 a month, for no particular skillset, from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma stinks to high heaven on the face of it. What better way to get access to Joe, and funnel money to him, than through his drug-addicted, amoral son. And we can’t forget Uncle Joe’s direct action when, as vice president of the U.S., he strongarmed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 to fire a prosecutor, whose investigations were about to include Hunter Biden. Hrrrrm.

The game is afoot, Watson!”

Biden is either so daft or so beyond any comprehension, after a lifetime of lies, of right and wrong that he bragged about putting the hammer to Poroshenko at a Council of Foreign Relations gathering, two years after the deed.

That Biden chose to go to the Ukraine on a day he should have been in his own country is probably not surprising then. There’s money to be made and plunder to be done in the Ukraine. Must have priorities. Biden has spent more time in the Ukraine than in the crisis zones of the U.S. – the southwest border where more than 5 million illegal aliens have been allowed to cross in a tsunami and, now, the environmental and health crisis in East Palestine, Ohio, a community of 4,700.

For as bad a form as it was on Monday that Biden shunned his own country by failing to commemorate those who came before him, that he went on a European tour without having traveled to East Palestine in a show of support – and with actual support – for the residents who are suffering there is an affront to every American citizen.

On 3 February, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed. Among the chemicals were butyl acrylate, which can cause eye, respiratory and skin irritation, and the carcinogenic vinyl chloride. A decision was made to burn the chemicals, thus releasing more toxic material into the air. Could this turn out to be one of the worst environmental disasters in recent U.S. history? Could be, but no one is on the job to tell us. It took Biden’s people two weeks to even put out any statement, and as of 22 February, Biden had made no direct statement, according to a Newsweek report. The mayor, many in the community and many across the country were appalled by the unpresidential behavior of the sitting president of the United States. More abdication of duty.

Likely former President Trump, if he were still in office, would have been onsite early. Unlike the man who holds the job now and his no-show transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg (who has to be sure he gets his personal time), President Trump did actually show up in Ohio. In addition to bringing water, Trump reassured the people of the community that “they were not forgotten.” The contrast between the competence of Trump and the unrivaled incompetence of Biden, Buttigieg, et al is, to say the least, stark.

Biden claimed he would be a “uniter,” but he’s in dereliction of duty in Ohio, at the border and in so many ways to the citizens he is supposed to be representing. Trump took Ohio in 2020 with 53 percent of the vote. Is Biden’s AWOL status in Ohio his payback to the people? That too would not be surprising, as Biden comes across as a mean and vengeful old man. “You cross me, man, why I’m going to throttle you!!!”

Biden has not been held to account for any of his many failures in his two years in office. He’s not going to straighten up and fly right now. Biden’s regime will continue to print money for the Ukraine and arms makers as fast as it can, with no end in sight, in line with Biden’s plan which has been revealed: Put America Last.


Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals. You can find her Substack here and other articles here.

Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents’ Day Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents’ Day Failed Presidents Cuddle On Presidents’ Day

Too Many People Destroys Nature

Too Many People Destroys Nature

By Maria Fotopoulos

Wildlife populations have plummeted 69 percent since 1970. That’s the major takeaway from the recent Living Planet Report 2022 released by the nonprofit organization, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The dismal report is a follow-up to the equally shocking 2014 report that Earth lost 50 percent of wildlife in 40 years.

“Despite 30 years of policy interventions to stop biodiversity loss we continue to observe similar declines to those shown in previous reports,” says the WWF. The report notes that conservation is helping, but urgent action is needed to reverse loss of the natural world.

You think?

All biodiversity – wild living plants, animals, insects, marine creatures – is essential to human survival. Healthy ecosystems mean food, balance on the planet and well-being for all. As the WWF report puts it, “Terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems – for example forests, grasslands, wetlands, mangrove swamps and the oceans – provide us with services essential for human well-being such as food and feed, medicines, energy and fibers. They regulate climate, natural hazards and extreme events, air quality, the quantity and quality of fresh water, pollination and the dispersal of seeds, pests and diseases, soils, ocean acidification, and the creation and maintenance of habitats.”

So it’s not just about saving the “pretty animals” – although, that is reason enough.

Too Many People Destroys Nature

The Living Planet Report 2022, authored by 89 contributors, looked at populations of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles, analyzing almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species worldwide. The findings showed that the hardest hit wildlife are freshwater species, declining by an average of 83 percent since 1970. From a regional view, the most devastated area is Latin America and the islands of the Caribbean, which have seen a 94 percent decline in wildlife populations, followed by Africa, with a 66 percent decline. Wildlife of the Asia-Pacific region declined by 55 percent; North America, 20 percent and Europe, 18 percent.

WWF proposes an ambitious and probably unrealistic goal, given the current state of humanity: creating a world that is “nature positive by 2030.” This means ensuring there’s more natural world by decade end than in 2020.

Amidst so much bad news, there are some positives. The report emphasizes the importance of connectivity, a theme emerging in the U.S. and in other countries. While we have been good in America, for example, about establishing national and state parks and wildlife sanctuaries, what we missed was the importance of connecting these spaces for wildlife. Conservationists and environmentalists are increasingly talking about this and working to build in more connectivity, because animals gotta move!

The WWF report also has encouraging news about mangroves, the “forests of the sea” that are important reservoirs of biodiversity. While they still are being deforested, the destruction has been “reduced dramatically since the 1980s,” writes WWF, with “plausible scenarios where the global mangrove area may stabilize or even increase by 2070.”

Nonetheless, the few positives the report indicates are far outweighed by persistent losses. And unfortunately, WWF focuses heavily on climate change to make its arguments for dramatic changes in all aspects of how we live, including changing to more “plant-based products in our diets,” even while referencing that, at this point, the loss of wild living things continues to be driven primarily by habitat loss, or what WWF refers to as “land use.” (According to WWF, “Yet every year we lose roughly 10 million hectares of forests …” Words matter; we don’t “lose” them; they’re taken down by human processes for the most part.) “While climate change has not been the dominant driver of the loss of biodiversity to date, unless we limit warming to less than 2C, and preferably 1.5C, climate change is likely to become the dominant cause of biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services in the coming decades,” per the report.

Large numbers of people tune out as soon as they hear the words “climate change,” so if powerful organizations want to convince everyone of the need to preserve biodiversity, using climate change as the cudgel is not a winning strategy. “Climate change” or “climate” is used more than 90 times in the 115-page report, while “population” in the context of too many people is barely mentioned – called only an “indirect driver” of biodiversity loss – and “overpopulation” isn’t mentioned.

Overpopulation is not an indirect driver of biodiversity loss; it is a prime driver. The dramatic increase in human population parallels the loss of biodiversity. That WWF ignores the fact of an Earth overpopulated with humans – 8 billion potentially headed to 11 or 12 billion – is a stunning omission. Any serious effort to create a sustainable planet and reverse the tremendous loss of biodiversity must address human population growth.

The report talks about agricultural expansion, water scarcity, timber extraction, mining, infrastructure development and overgrazing, among other impacts, but fails to emphasize that these all are human-driven activities. The rate of those activities increasing is all driven by ever-increasing numbers of humans. The greater the number of people, the more impact. Yes, better practices and reduced consumption will help, but if there’s no real drive to stabilize human population and then reduce it (by noncoercive and nonviolent means) to sustainable numbers, loss of biodiversity will continue. Incremental gains from better practices and reduced consumption will be lost as more and more people are added to the planet.

As with most of the large, mainstream environmental nonprofits, WWF appears, based on this report, to be driven by the mantra of reducing global warming, now called climate change, and the sister mantra of diversity, inclusion and equity. The climate change/DIE agenda is the goal that cannot be questioned with the World Economic Forum, the Davos crowd, a majority of corporations and Western governments occupied by progressives and leftists, committed activists and eco-terrorists, along with others – groups, organizations and individuals committed to the destruction of our current energy system.

In the mania and aggression of these folks to destroy the petroleum industry, they’ve failed to explain how extractive industries for copper and lithium, for example – necessary raw materials for EVs – will not be extremely damaging to the environment, or if there are even sufficient raw materials to drive the change they want. On a planet with 1.4 billion primarily petrol-driven vehicles, the climate change prophets also fail to explain how shifting to EVs, on the short timeline proposed, can occur without major chaos and disruption. And vehicles are just one part of the petroleum-based economy. Other than continually repeating that fossil fuels have to “stay in the ground,” there’s little real discussion on what will power a world of 8 billion or more people.

Yes, we’re in a pickle. But ignoring the elephant in the room – human overpopulation – will only add to decades of failure and not serve the rapidly declining populations of the wildlife we love.

Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals

Too Many People Destroys Nature