Jose Pagliery, Political Investigations Reporter - Daily Beast
Stephan: Echoing the point I made in the previous story, Michael Cohen, says to the Manhattan AG, act or count me out. I think millions of Americans feel the same. No high-ranking Republican is being held to account for anything, however egregious.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
If Manhattan prosecutors don’t indict former President Donald Trump with the grand jury they’ve got in the next nine days, the key witness investigators have used to build their entire case says he won’t help revive it in the future.
Michael Cohen, the New York lawyer Trump used for years as his family company’s trusted consigliere, told The Daily Beast he’s already wasted too much of his time on a case that slowly and then suddenly doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Prosecutors only have until the current grand jury’s term expires on April 30 to issue charges, at which point they must ask jurors who’ve already done this for six months to continue hearing evidence—or call the whole thing off and awkwardly make the entire presentation all over again in front of another 23 jurors.
If this grand jury is let go, Cohen won’t play ball. Asked if he’d be willing to sit down again with investigators or testify at a future trial against Trump, Cohen responded with utter exasperation.
Tim Newbold and Charles Outhwaite, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Environment, UCL | Postdoctoral Researcher in Biodiversity Change, UCL - The Conversation / Raw Story
Stephan: We have been warned over and over that we must make radical changes in the way humans live and interact with the other beings on the planet or else we will face dire consequences. Instead, we vote liars and grifters into office, and wonder who lost or won the weekend's baseball game.
Credit:Yuri Kadobnov / AFP
Insects are critical to the future of our planet. They help to keep pest species under control and break down dead material to release nutrients into the soil. Flying insects are also key pollinators of many major food crops, including fruits, spices and – importantly for chocolate lovers – cocoa.
The growing number of reports suggesting insect numbers are in steep decline is therefore of urgent concern. Loss of insect biodiversity could put these vital ecological functions at risk, threatening human livelihoods and food security in the process. Yet across large swathes of the world, there are gaps in our knowledge about the true scale and nature of insect declines.
Most of what we do know comes from data collected in the planet’s more temperate regions, especially Europe and North America. For example, widespread losses of pollinators have been identified in Great Britain, butterflies have experienced declines in numbers of between 30 and 50% across Europe, and a 76% reduction in the biomass of flying insects has been reported in Germany.
Stephan: Thom Hartmann has it right. The data supports what he says. I keep waiting for the Democrats to move decisively as both parties did with Nixon and his cronies but it never seems to happen. The Democrats this time don't seem to have the same clarity of intent. I hope that very soon the January 6th committee will begin holding public hearings, that's what changed the nation in the previous Republican assault on American democracy, Watergate. And we need it like a spring tonic. They must make the case at least several weeks before the November elections so that it has really sunk in. I do not see how an ethical person can be Republican. Just look at today's news. Oh, and don't forget to notice Mark Meadows was registered to vote in three states.
Credit: Tumisu
Hunter Biden traded on his father’s name to get positions on boards of directors that paid him millions, but there’s no evidence he ever harmed American foreign policy or American interests. Jared Kushner, though, appears to have been paid $2 billion by the Saudis for steering his father-in-law’s administration away from the Khashoggi murder and toward millions in congressionally banned weaponry to further destroy Yemen.
Now the Saudis, apparently still collaborating with the Trump family, are refusing to increase oil production so that high prices at the pump will politically damage President Biden and Democrats in the elections this fall.
There’s not even proportionality here. Three million versus 2 billion dollars and massive political sabotage? And another billion from the Saudis for Steve Mnuchin, and who knows how much more went into one of Donald’s untraceable offshore money bins? We’ll probably never know, as there’s not a single congressional investigation into Jared, and the DOJ appears to have no interest in Trump family corruption.
So why is it that Republicans tolerate breathtaking levels of corruption and criminality among their […]
Stephan: There is so much bad news today, so many lies, scams, and cheats by Republicans that have suddenly become public showing how democracy hangs by a thread in America. If you haven't already heard it listen to Kevin McCarthy's private real opinion about 6 January compared with his public lies, for instance, that I thought I would start with some good news. The Biden administration has done something serious and good about remediation of climate change.
The Biden administration plans to resurrect requirements of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald J. Trump. Credit: Pete Marovich / The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is restoring parts of a bedrock environmental law, once again requiring that climate impacts be considered and local communities have input before federal agencies approve highways, pipelines and other major projects.
The administration has resurrected requirements of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald J. Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects.
The final rule announced Tuesday would require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the greenhouse gases that could be emitted over the lifetime of a proposed project, as well as how climate change might affect new highways, bridges and other infrastructure, according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The rule, which takes effect in 30 days, would also ensure agencies give communities directly affected by projects a greater role […]
Stephan: When I look at the polls and surveys what stands out for me is how ignorant and uninterested most Americans are about climate change unless it is immediately impacting their personal lives. And it is all going to get worse, much worse. Yet when do you see these kinds of stories on the news channels or discussed on the floor of either house of Congress? We are sleepwalking into catastrophe.
Americans’ water supply now increasingly reflects the daily reality of a worsening climate crisis.
Why it matters: Many of America’s cities and farms rely on water supplies whose future availability can’t be guaranteed.
The big picture: The entire Colorado River has been named the most endangered river in the country for the first time since 2013, Axios Denver co-author John Frank reports.
More than 40 million people in seven states and 30 tribal nations rely on the Colorado for drinking water, according to a report by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy group.
Its waters irrigate 15% of the America’s farmland and produce 90% of its winter vegetables, according to Ceres, a sustainable investment advocacy group.
“There is no other river in the nation that is as at risk right now when it comes to climate change,” Amy Souers Kober, a spokesperson for American Rivers, the group that published the report, said.
State of play: Rising temperatures and increasing droughts, coupled with outdated river management, threaten the river.
“We’re still operating the Colorado River as if there’s […]
