Tuesday, November 30, 2021

 


GEOPOLITICS OF ROMANIA


US army tanks and soldiers continued being deployed on Tuesday to an air base in southern Romania, after the first shipment of tanks had arrived the day before. The tanks were offloaded from a train in the village of Mihail Kogalniceanu, where they would be taken to a nearby military air base. The deployment, known as Operation Atlantic Resolve, is part of an American operation to reassure NATO allies and other partners concerned about Russia. Five hundred US soldiers will eventually be deployed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Constanta County. The operation foresees the continuous presence of an American armoured brigade combat team in Europe on a nine-month rotational basis.


US to Turn Romanian Airbase into NATO Black Sea Hub



A $152 million US-funded construction project will turn the former Soviet base of Campia Turzii in central Romania into new major hub for NATO aircraft in the Black Sea region.



A US Air Force F16 jet takes off during the joint Romanian-US military drill ‘Dacian Viper 2014’ at the Campia Turzii military airbase, April 2014. Archive photo: EPA/MIRCEA ROSCA

The US Air Force will this month start awarding contracts for construction work to upgrade the Campia Turzii base, enabling it to support heavy cargo aircraft and host fighter jets, boosting NATO’s capacities in the Black Sea area.

“We are getting ready to award four projects for construction between May and August 2021,” Darren Walls, a design and construction program manager at the European Deterrence Initiative launched by the US after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, said in a US Air Force statement quoted on Tuesday by Romanian media.

“The upgrade is important because Romania needs to boost its capacity to receive further NATO aircraft in case of a crisis or conflict that require a collective response,” former Romanian official and security expert Claudiu Degeratu told BIRN.

“Romania also needs a second major air base that meets NATO standards so it can serve its newly acquired F-16 jets,” Degeratu added.

He said that Russia’s buildup of troops around the Ukrainian border in April “shows that a quick renovation of the Campia Turzii base is needed”.

Romania and its US allies already have a large NATO airbase at Mihail Kogalniceanu near the Black Sea. The improvements at Campia Turzii will increase the US and NATO’s capabilities to respond to any potential threats and deter Russia in the region.

US Navy Captain Scott Raymont, the US European Command’s Logistic Directorate chief engineer, explained recently that the reconstruction works at Campia Turzii “include the construction of airfield infrastructure and supporting facilities necessary”.

This will enable the base “to sustain the [US] Air Force’s combat operation and surveillance missions while increasing logistics capabilities in the theatre”, he added.

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Black Sea has become a strategic priority for the US and NATO defence in Europe, as the Kremlin has heavily increased its activity and presence near the Western military alliance’s south-eastern flank.

As a result, the US and Romania have intensified their military cooperation. Former US President Donald Trump’s administration planned to redeploy some of the US troops he ordered out of Germany last year to Romania and Poland – a move welcomed by Romanian and Polish officials.

On May 10 this year, leaders of Central and Eastern European NATO member states met in Bucharest to discuss the recent mass deployment of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border.

“I advocated a bigger presence of the alliance and the US in the south of the [NATO] eastern flank,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he told his US counterpart Joe Biden, who took part in the summit remotely.

Security analyst Degeratu said this was “a message to Biden so he continues Trump’s policy to redeploy troops in the region”.

Romania Unveils Patriot Missile System on Black Sea


Romania has become the first country to have a Patriot surface-to-air missile system in the Black Sea region, an area where Russia is increasingly perceived as a growing threat by Romania, the US and their NATO allies.



The Patriot surface-to-air missile system unveiled today in the Cape Midia, Romania. Photo: BIRN

Romania on Thursday received the first Patriot surface-to-air missile system acquired from US defense giants Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin, which has been hailed as a crucial step towards strengthening the country’s air defences in the Black Sea region, where Russia is increasingly active.

“The set-up of the first Patriot system is only a first step towards building a formidable air defence capability for our country, which will significantly contribute to consolidating deterrence and the defence of NATO on its eastern flank,” Romania’s Defence Minister, Nicolae Ciuca, said at the unveiling ceremony at the Cape Midia military base near the Black Sea port of Constanta.

Following the arrival of the first Patriot missile system, the Romanian military will receive another three missile systems in future. The remaining three missile systems will be delivered from 2022, military sources told BIRN.

Speaking at Cape Midia, the US ambassador to Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman, saluted the acquisition of the Patriot system as a stride towards Romania becoming capable of defending itself and its NATO allies from threats. He singled out Russia and China among these threats.


Romania is the seventh NATO country to acquire Patriot missile systems, the first in the Black Sea region and the second in Eastern Europe after Poland.

Globally, Romania is the 17th country to buy this US-built defence technology – Patriot being the acronym of Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target – and which is capable of intercepting aircraft and both cruise and ballistic missiles.


“The acquisition of these systems solves a big problem for Romania’s national defence system,” military expert Claudiu Degeratu told BIRN. “We inherited only missile systems produced in the former USSR; Romania did not acquire anything of relevance in this field after [the advent of democracy in] 1990,” he added.

Degeratu explained that the purchase of the Patriot systems should be seen in the light of Russia’s “accelerated militarization of the peninsula of Crimea following its annexation of this region”, from Ukraine in 2014.

“The Russian Federation has deployed new fighter aircraft, new modern missile systems, and warships equipped with short, medium and long-range missiles, including supersonic and submarine missiles,” the same expert said.

In recent years, Romania has stepped up its defence capabilities in order to deter Russian advances in the region following the seizure of Crimea.

Since then, Russia has significantly increased its military might in the Black Sea, which Romania and its allies in NATO perceive as a threat.

These and other geopolitical developments have turned Romania into a cornerstone of US and NATO defence strategy in Europe.

Following the withdrawal of nearly 12,000 US troops from Germany, US officials have announced an intention to redeploy some them to Poland and Romania, to reinforce deterrence of Russia on NATO’s eastern flank.

The US already has two military bases in Romania and is planning to invest in turning the former Soviet airbase of Campia Turzii in Transylvania into a major hub from which to boost reconnaissance patrols over the Black Sea.





Monday, November 29, 2021

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The Philippines is a frontline of another cold war






Like in the Cold War, the United States is attempting to contain the influence of a great power rival in Southeast Asia. To counter China, the United States' approach to its relationship with the Philippines invokes déjà vu. Despite the passing of decades, the players, strategy and results remain the same.

First, the players. Many who have studied U.S.-Philippines relations during the Cold War focus on the relationship between President Reagan and the infamous Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This is because Ronald Reagan was the quintessential "cold warrior" whose administration attempted to counter communist influence by supporting U.S.-aligned dictators the world over.



What gets less attention is President Carter's own complicity in propping up the Marcos regime. Carter, often categorized as a human rights-focused president, supported the Marcos regime after the declaration of martial law in the Philippines in an effort to keep U.S. access to military bases on the archipelago. While it is debatable whether Joe Biden is the new Jimmy Carter, he is a Democratic president who is claiming that his administration prioritizes human rights while navigating relationships with regimes that have dubious human rights records.

On the Philippines side, the comparison of President Rodrigo Duterte to Ferdinand Marcos is obvious: Duterte's drug war, encouragement of extrajudicial killings, shuttering of critical media and scoffing at international law echo the Marcos regime's myriad abuses. What's more, the children of both Marcos and Duterte are running on both parents' legacies in the Philippines presidential election.

Second, the strategy. The Philippines is, once again, seen as a geopolitically necessary bulwark against a superpower that threatens U.S. hegemony in the region. And again, the U.S. approach to containment is a prioritization of military superiority against China through access to bases on the Philippines.

To maintain access to these bases, the U.S. buys off the Philippine government with a steady stream of security assistance, turns a blind eye when atrocities are committed with said security assistance and reassures the Philippine government of lasting support whenever international or domestic criticisms are made.

Like in the first Cold War, the Philippine government is being given materials to engage domestic enemies, not foreign aggressors. Even with the most recently proposed arms sale of 10 F-16 fighter jets and a Harpoon Block II anti-ship missile system, the Philippines is no match for full-scale combat with the Chinese military and must rely on the military might of the U.S. to protect it. This approach does not foster sovereignty and self-determination; it leads to dependency and lackeyism.





Lastly, the results. In both cold wars, ordinary citizens at the crossroads of conflict were sacrificed. During the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, it is estimated that 3,257 people were murdered and 35,000 were tortured by the U.S.-backed Philippine security state. As of now, estimates put Duterte and his security forces' body count at approximately 30,000; this does not figure in the recent spate of killing human rights defenders. Along with Duterte's killings, his crackdown on critical media and political opposition mirrors Marcos's approach to dissent. As with most reigns of terror, we will not know the gravity or magnitude of the abuses committed until the regime has long disappeared.

What happened after Marcos's ouster was a critical reevaluation by the Filipino people of the Philippines' relationship with the United States due to the United States' unwavering support of Marcos.

As a result, the reawakened democracy voted in 1991 not to ratify a treaty that allowed the U.S. access to bases in the Philippines. It wasn't until 2014, with the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, that the U.S. was allowed to fully station bases in the Philippines. If the U.S. is determined to follow the exact same approach in the new cold war with regards to the Philippines, a similar backlash is bound to occur.

Setting aside the questionable utility of participating in another cold war, the United States owes it to the people of the Philippines not to repeat the mistakes we made in the first Cold War. This starts with distancing ourselves from human rights abusers who will cause more harm than good in the long term, and taking steps to demonstrate that human rights are a priority.

One substantial way to do this is to limit U.S. military aid to the armed forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police. By withholding security assistance until perpetrators of human rights violations are held accountable for their actions, the U.S. creates an incentive for the government of the Philippines to develop a framework to address human rights concerns and gives the U.S. moral consistency when criticizing other states of human rights abuses.






Monday, November 22, 2021

 






Did George H.W. Bush Coordinate a JFK Hit Team?

 



This is not the first time and surely will not be the last that George H.W. Bush, former Director of the CIA and the 41st President of the United States, has been implicated in the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th president.  In an earlier study, for example, “Was George H.W. Bush involved in the assassination of JFK?”, John Hankey and I both address this question, where he provides a great deal of evidence supporting a role for GHWB in the Dealey Plaza turkey shoot. In this new study, Richard Hooke substantiates that claim and advances additional proof of his own.  I believe that they are right.

That GHWB knew Malcolm “Mac” Wallace from Yale is especially stunning.  ”Mac” Wallace was LBJ’s personal hit man and murdered as many as a dozen persons for Lyndon, including one of his own sisters, who was talking too much about his business to allow her to continue to speak.  There is substantial proof that LBJ was involved in the assassination, where his life had been dedicated to becoming “the president of all the people”.  As Phil Nelson, LBJ: Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination (2nd revised edition, 2011) documents, he was relentless in its pursuit.  Madeleine Duncan Brown, Texas in the Morning (1997), Barr McClellan, Blood, Money & Power (2003), and Billy Sol Estes, A Texas Legend (2004), have also identified LBJ as the pivotal player, which has been confirmed by E. Howard Hunt, “Last Confessions” (2007), who identified LBJ, Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey and David Sanchez Morales as in “the chain of command”.







Even Jack Ruby, who was in the position to know, asserted that, if someone else had been Vice President, the assassination would never have occurred.  McClellan concluded that Texas oil men, such as Clint Murchison and H. L. Hunt, had provided financing for the assassination in order to preserve the oil depletion allowance at 27.5%, which remained unchanged under LBJ.  I had over 100 conversations with Madeleine Duncan Brown, who began an affair with Lyndon in 1948 and bore him a son, Steven, in 1950 (who was not his only child out of wedlock but was his only male offspring), who told me about their renderzvous at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX, on New Year’s Eve, only six weeks after the assassination, when she confronted him with rumors that he had been involved, since no one stood to gain more personally, whereupon Lyndon blew up and told her that the CIA and the oil boys had decided that JFK had to be taken out.  And that Mac Wallace was involved is not in serious doubt.

Wallace went to work for Harry Lewis and L & G Oil. In 1970 he returned to Dallas and began pressing Edward Clark for more money for his part in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. According to Barr McClellan it was then decided to kill Wallace. “He had to be eliminated. After driving to see his daughter in Troup, Texas, he went by L & G’s offices in Longview, Texas. There his exhaust was rigged for part of it to flow into his car.”On 7th January, 1971, Malcolm Wallace was killed while driving into Pittsburg, Texas. He appeared to have fallen asleep and after leaving the road crashed his car. Wallace died of massive head injuries.

Soon afterwards Clifton C. Carter died aged 53. 1971 was also the year Billie Sol Estes was due to leave prison. According to Clint Peoples, a Texas Ranger based in Austin, Billie Sol Estes had promised to tell the full story of the death of Henry Marshall when he obtained his freedom.

On 9th August, 1984, Estes’ lawyer, Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Wallace, Billie Sol EstesLyndon B. Johnson and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry MarshallGeorge KrutilekHarold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman WadeJosefa JohnsonJohn Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: “Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders.”

This is consistent with Billy Sol’s interview with French investigative reporter, William Reymond, during which he explained that Lyndon had sent his chief administrative assistant, Cliff Carter, down to Dallas to make sure that all the arrangements for the assassination were in place, which he reaffirms in A Texas Legend (2004).  Billy Sol knew both Cliff Carter and “Mac” Wallace personally, inferring their involvement from personal conversations. A copy of email correspondence between John Simkin of The Education Forum and Douglas Caddy may be found on amazon.com, which substantiates Lyndon’s use of Cliff Carter to convey instructions to “Mac” Wallace to commit those crimes.  I am therefore stunned to discover that GHWB and “Mac” Wallace were both members of Skull & Bones at Yale.

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Why the Dal-Tex Matters

According to The Warren Repor (1964), three shots were fired during the assassination.  The FBI and the Secret Service concluded that day that the first had hit JFK in the back, the second had hit John Connally in the back, and the third had hit JFK in the back of the head, killing him.  It would later surface that one shot that had been fired had missed and injured a distant bystander, James Tague.  For those who believed more than three shots had been fired, this was not especially problematic, where it turns out that eight, nine or ten shots appear to have been fired from six different locations.  (See, for example, “Dealey Plaza Revisited: What happened to JFK?”)  But for those who are committed to only three, it posed a delicate predicament, which led to the fabrication of the “magic bullet” theory that the back shot had actually hit the back of his neck, exited his throat, and entered the back of Connally.

All of the evidence is against it; indeed, it is not only provably false but not even anatomically possible, insofar as cervical vertebrae intervene, as I explain in “Reasoning about Assassinations”.  It nevertheless became the fulcrum of the “official account”, since otherwise the throat wound and the wounds to Connally have to be explained on the basis of other shots and other shooters.  Extensive, meticulous and detailed examination of the medical, ballistic and eyewitness testimony supports the conclusion that JFK was hit four times–once in the back (from behind); once in the throat (from in front); and twice in the head (once in the back of the head from behind and once in the right temple from the right/front).  None of those shots appear to have been fired from the 6th floor “assassin’s lair” but three from the Dal-Tex, where the acoustics were such that they sounded as though they could have been fired from the Texas School Book Depository.  Richard’s study suggests that GHWB was at that window of the Dal-Tex:


Let me emphasize that this is my analysis of the shot sequence, which I have elaborated in several places, including “What happened to JFK–and why it matters today” (UW-Madison, 22 November 2011), where Richard does not necessarily agree with me, even though we both believe three shots were fired from the Dal-Tex, which is the subject that he addresses in his study below. One appears to have missed and injured James Tague. Another appears to have hit the chrome strip above the windshield. And the third appears to have hit JFK in the back of his head. In particular, Richard believes that another shot was fired from behind the picket fence, which Ed Hoffman, among others, supports. And I agree that there may have been yet another shooter.

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George H.W. Bush Coordinated the Dal-Tex Hit Team

GHWB at the TSBD: a Houston oil man

by Richard Hooke

George H.W. Bush was working for the CIA at least as early as 1961; more than likely he was recruited in his college days, at Yale, when he was in the Skull and Bones Society. He and his wife Barbara moved to Houston where he ran an offshore oil drilling business, Zapata Offshore Co., which was a CIA front company with rigs located all over the world, making it very convenient for him to vanish for weeks at a time on CIA business where one would suspect what he was doing. Bush was a major organizer and recruiter for the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was codenamed Operation ZAPATA. Col. Fletcher Prouty, former Pentagon high ranking official, who was the basis for the “Col. X” character in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, obtained two Navy ships for the operation that were repainted to non-Navy colors and then renamed HOUSTON and BARBARA.

George H.W. “Poppy” Bush is one of the few who could never recall where he was or what he was doing when JFK was assassinated; as a matter of fact, for over 20 years, he could not recall any details at all. He was 39 years old at the time and chairman of the Harris County (Houston) Republican Party and an outspoken critic of JFK. But on 21 November 1963, GHWB was staying at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas and spoke that very evening to the American Association of Oil Drilling Contractors. Some time later,he was reportedly at “the ratification meeting” at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., receiving last minute instructions and toasting JFK’s murder the night before it happened. [NOTE: Madeleine Duncan Brown has written about this event in her book, Texas in the Morning (1997). It was corroborated by Nigel Turner in Part 9, "The Guilty Men", of "The Men who Killed Kennedy".]

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Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig reported to Jim Garrison he knew of twelve arrests made in Dealey Plaza that day. One, in particular, was made by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department, was of a man coming out of the Dal-Tex Building, who said he was “an independent oil operator from Houston, Texas.” The prisoner was taken from Vaughn by Dallas Police detectives, and that was the last he saw of him:  no mug shot, no interview, no fingerprints, or name is in existence of this mystery man. “Independent oil operator from Houston” was always George Bush’s (CIA) cover. Exactly why was he arrested? Garrison reported the man came running out of the Dal-Tex building and authorities could hardly avoid arresting him because of the clamor of onlookers. He was taken to the Sheriff’s Office for questioning, although there is no record of it. Afterward, two officers escorted him out of the building to the jeers of the waiting crowd. They put him in a police car and he was driven away; presumably right back to Dealey Plaza, because that is where he would be photographed with USAF Gen. Edward Lansdale.

Ed Landsdale was identified walking past “the three tramps” (center) by no less authorities than L. Fletcher Prouty, the liaison between the Pentagon and the CIA for covert activities–who was the basis for the figure, “Col. X”, in Oliver Stone’s “JFK”, and Victor Krulak, former Commandant of the Marine Corps, both of whom knew him well.

As for the identity of GHWB, we have these observations from Ralph Cinque, a professional chiropractor, who is an expert in dealing with person’s bodies and clothing, “The case for George HW being there is cinched. What’s the serious alternative? That a simply amazing coincidence occurred in which a man who  looked strikingly like him just happened to be there? How many times does V (for Vendetta in the film, “V for Vendetta”) have to tell us that he, like God, does not play dice and does not believe in coincidences? Neither do I or any other serious student of murder,  especially not when it involves the JFK assassination.” We have a photo of him standing in front of the Texas School Book Depository; we have photos of Ed Lansdale in Dealey Plaza at the time; and we have yet another in which Lansdale, who was famous for arranging assassinations around the world, is waiting to speak to him.  In this case, it may justifiably be said that “these pictures really are worth more than a thousand words”.





The Phony Alibi

The next that we hear of George H.W. Bush on 22 November 1963 comes from an FBI Memorandum according to which GHWG, having been cut loose from his anonymous interrogation at the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, called into SAC Graham W. Kitchel of the FBI Office in Houston alleging was establishing a phony alibi in saying he recalled hearing, in recent weeks, a man named James Parrott talking of killing the President when he came to Houston. Shortly after Bush made this call, FBI agents were dispatched to the Parrot house. In another FBI memo Parrot’s mother said James, who was not home when the FBI arrived, had been home all day helping her care for her son Gary.

Mrs. Parrot advised that shortly after 1 PM a Mr. Reynolds came by and talked to her son about painting some signs at Republican Headquarters on Waugh Drive. The net effect was Kerney Reynold’s, George Bush’s assistant, gave Parrot an alibi and Parrot was Bush’s alibi; everyone’s ass was covered. A bogus phone call reporting a would-be assassin who was one of Bush’s Republican Party sign-painters; who himself is also freed by an alibi from one of Bush’s buddies, really doesn’t cut it; this is CIA Alibi 101. This type of stuff cannot be allowed to stand in history; if Bush was so concerned about his sign painter, why didn’t he call in to alert the FBI before President Kennedy came to Dallas?

Bush has handed us his head on a silver platter with this memo; that’s why he always said he didn’t remember what his was doing on 11/22/63; he was hoping this incredibly stupid memo never surfaced. Bush was worried he had been seen and subsequently panicked and stupidly called the FBI, thinking he was being clever by providing evidence that it wasn’t him that was arrested in front of the Dal-Tex building that day. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, but he was actually creating a permanent record of his involvement. The memo identifies Bush as an oil man from Houston placing a long distance call from Tyler, Texas. Bush was trying to establish he was not in Dallas during, or shortly after, the assassination. He must had been worried that someone would identify him as the oil man detained running out of the Dal-Tex building and being ushered in and out of the Dallas Sheriff’s office.

This FBI memo, dated 22 November 1963, states that Bush called from Tyler, Texas but there is no proof he was actually there. For over 20 years after the assassination, Bush said he did not remember where he was when the assassination took place at 12:30 PM in Dallas.  The only other person of whom I hae heard such a story was Richard Nixon, who flew out of Love Field just two hours before JFK flew in.

Conspicuously, this FBI memo fails to provide an answer to where George Bush actually was. The memo, however, does tell us that the first moment Bush was free to create a phony alibi was at 1:45 PM. Bush was staying in downtown Dallas at the Sheraton Hotel, just few blocks from Dealey Plaza, yet he’s trying to tell us he was in Tyler, Texas at 1:45 PM.

George Bush’s CIA assignment was obviously in Dallas, that’s why he was staying there, so what would he have been doing in Tyler? JFK had just been shot at 12:30 PM. Would  Bush not have been in Dallas at 12:30 PM as well, like everyone else, which was presumably the reason for him having been in town at the Dallas Sheraton Hotel? Would Bush not have driven down the road to Parkland Hospital, to check on the President’s condition; like everyone else? Except Bush was being interrogated at the Sheriff’s Office.

The FBI Memorandum

Bush appears to be a candidate for prosecution for treason: his alibis for 22 November 1963 are fabricated and we have evidence that shows he was there. An FBI memo of a call from Tyler Texas does not prove his location, except that he had concocted a textbook CIA alibi, that he was lying and probably was an accessory to JFK’s murder. Bush maintained for over twenty years after the assassination that he simply did not remember what he was doing at the time of the assassination. As a matter of fact, he had no explanation even in his autobiography; and then, all of a sudden, he concocted a story that he was speaking in Tyler, Texas to The Rotary Club. Aubrey Irby said Bush was speaking when the bellhop came over and informed Aubrey that JFK was dead. Mr. Aubrey passed the info on to Mr. Wendell Cherry Irby, who passed it onto Bush, who stopped his speech. According to Irby, Bush explained he thought a political speech was inappropriate under the circumstances, concluded speaking and simply sat down.

It is inconceivable that George Bush could not have recollected this event for more than 20 years. Walter Cronkite’s announcement to the world that JFK was dead came on TV at 1:38 PM. Does anyone think that Bush was making a speech at that time, in Tyler, Texas, to the Rotary Club, after the President and Governor Connally were known to have been shot at 12:30 PM? President Kennedy had been scheduled to give a speech for lunch at the Dallas Trade Mart, after he passed through Dealey Plaza. Everyone who was anyone around Dallas was going to attend that speech; and after JFK was shot, most rushed to Parkland Hospital to find out the latest news concerning the gravely wounded President and Governor. A speech being given in Tyler, Texas, inside a building owned by right wingers, to a group of Republican JFK haters, hardly qualities as evidence Bush was not in Dallas, where the available evidence suggests that he was on assignment for the CIA and was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team, from which three shots appear to have been fired with a Mannlicher-Carcano, which appears to have been the the only non-silenced weapon that was used:

Bullet hole/Doorway Man/Dal-Tex window/Danny Acre and Johnny Rosselli(?)

Next, George Bush can be seen in photos of Dealey Plaza, next to the TSBD doorway and Ed Lansdale, shortly following the assassination (see below). These photos, unmistakably George Bush, tell us where he went after he left the Dallas Sheriff’s Office: back to the crime scene to get an update on all that he had missed. He must have made his call to the FBI reporting James Parrot from the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, at 1:45 PM, because Bush is seen in Dealey Plaza with Lansdale, who would leave the plaza at about 2 PM and walk past “the three tramps” toward the parking lot. Bush obviously had to go straight back to Dealey Plaza for him to be photographed with Lansdale, who remained around Dealey Plaza until Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater at 1:50 PM. If Lee had not been arrested, then Lansdale, as “Plan B”, might have framed the three tramps–Charles Rogers, Charles Harrelson and Chauncey Marvin Holt (often misidentified as E. Howard Hunt)–who had been directed to go to a boxcar and the assassination have been blamed on them. Holt (CIA), the tramp with the hat, reported that they were found in the box car and taken through the plaza right after Oswald was arrested, which he knew because he was listening in, on a CIA provided radio concealed inside the paper bag that he is carrying in the familiar photos.

An Incriminating Memorandum

An FBI Memo from director J. Edgar Hoover (to the right), discovered by John McBride in 1988 but written just seven days after the assassination, provides verification George H.W. Bush was an officer of the CIA in 1963 and was provided updates on the anti-Castro Cubans. George Bush has said this memo was referring to another “George Bush” because he wasn’t in the CIA at the time.  But while there was another man by that name, he was a file clerk and would not have been receiving a memorandum about the Bay of Pigs operation.  And other information has surfaced showing the George Bush in the document was indeed George H.W. Bush and had the same address. In 1976, President Ford appointed George Bush as the Director of the CIA, replacing William Colby. Bush served in this role for 357 days, from 30 January  1976 to 20 January 1977. Bush falsely testified before Congress that he had never worked for the CIA, and it was widely reported that this was the first time that a civilian would be appointed to run the agency.  But that was more poppycock from Poppy. George Bush appears to have been a CIA lifer, probably recruited right out of Yale.

George H.W. Bush (CIA) was also a close friend with George De Mohrenschildt (CIA), including they were both members of the Dallas Petroleum Club. After De Mohrenschildt was found shot to death the day before he was to be questioned by Gaeton Fonzi for the HSCA reinvestigation of the deaths of JFK and MLK in the late 1970s, Bush’s name and address were found in De Mohrenschildt’s address book: “Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland.” CIA documents reveal that during the planning of the Bay of Pigs Operation (Operation Zapata), De Mohrenschildt made frequent trips to Mexico and Panama and gave reports to the CIA. His son-in-law also told the Warren Commission that he believed De Mohrenschildt was spying for the planned Cuban invasion. George De Mohrenschildt, notably, was Lee Harvey Oswald’s best friend and appears to have been his handler after Oswald was brought to Dallas in the fall of 1963 and would find work at the TSBD.

Was Bush in the Window?

In The Killing of a President (1994), Robert Groden observes that a dark-complected man was seen in the window whom James Richards has identified to Jim Fetzer as having been Nestor “Tony” Izquierdo, for whom there is a statue in Freedom Park of “Little Havana”, Miami, Florida.  He was an anti-Castro Cuban, whom GHWB may have known from the Bay of Pigs.  I have built upon the prior research of Duncan MacRae, “Dal-Tex Shooter 2nd floor”, which provides the most suggestive interpretation of the location from which three rifle shots appear to have been fired:

Given that Bush was in the building at the time, I infer that he was there in the background, inside the window of a broom closet of a uranium mining company on the second floor of the Dal-Tex building (which was a CIA asset). My interpretation is that someone with GHWB’s preppy haircut, large left ear, tall height, body language (head tilt), hairline part and forehead profile, was supervising the Dal-Tex hit team (see collage below). He was in Dallas for a reason, which was not to watch the presidential motorcade, and appears to have been a supervisor rather than a shooter, were it is very likely he was communicating using a radio device with a spotter. That spotter may have been Danny Arce (CIA), who can be seen speaking into a walkie-talkie, out on Houston Street (in the Altgens6 photo above), standing next to Johnny Roselli (CIA/Mafia). Arce was talking with someone as multiple shots were fired. Ruth Ann (CIA) was reported (by complicit witness Loy Factor) to have been counting down a cadence and to have been receiving information by walkie-talkie from the 6th floor of the TSBD.

Umbrella Man’s companion, possibly Orlando Bosch (CIA) [NOTE: or Filipe Vidal Santiago], was not talking on his radio as limousine passed the Stemmons Freeway sign and the Umbrella man pumped his umbrella up and down, which appears to have been a signal to “keep firing” because the target was still alive.  [NOTE: It was at a location that was visible from all of the shooting locations that I have identified above.] Chauncey Holt (CIA), the oldest of the tramps, said he had a CIA supplied radio, concealed in his brown paper bag that kept him updated on events even from inside the Rock Island Railroad boxcar. Holt had delivered 15 sets of fake Secret Service ID and left them in a red pick-up truck parked in the lot behind the  grassy knoll, which was used by the Dallas Police Department, earlier that morning, facilitating the escape of the grassy knoll shooters. And Lee Bowers, the railway tower switchman, also testified to the Warren Commission that he observed strange people driving behind the picket fence and noticed one using a walkie-talkie.

Proof Sketch GWHB was there

(1) The FBI report (memo) Bush called in at 11/22/63 1:45 PM identified him as an oil business man from Houston, Texas and the FBI office he called was the Houston office.

(2) The man arrested running out of the Dal-Tex building at approximately 12:35 PM on 11/22 was said (per Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig) to have identified himself as “an oil man from Houston”. Bush was arrested by R.E. Vaughn of the Dallas Police Department.

(3) Bush called his FBI warning about James Parrot by long distance to his friend, FBI Special Agent Graham W. Kitchel, at the FBI office in Houston.

(4) James Parrot had no history as a subversive but was a sign painter for George Bush’s Republican Senate campaign.

(5) James Parrot was quickly provided an alibi by another friend, who was also an assistant of Bush, Kerney Reynolds.

(6) George Bush was staying in Dallas at the downtown Sheraton Hotel and had spent the previous night (of the 21st) there.

(7) There are at least two photos of George Bush (CIA) in Dealey Plaza speaking with police shortly after JFK was shot at 12:30 PM.

(8) One of those photos has Bush (CIA) standing next to Ed Lansdale (CIA).

(9) One of the photos shows Bush near the TSBD doorway in a zone police had cordoned off, which would have taken special ID (CIA).

(10) The photo next to Lansdale most likely was taken between 1:45 PM, when Bush called in his bogus FBI memo, and 2 PM, when Lansdale is pictured exiting the plaza passing the three tramps. The tramps were taken from the boxcar at approximately 1:50 PM, when Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater.

(11) For over 20 years, George H.W. Bush said he did not remember what he was doing during the assassination, then he suddenly remembered he was giving a speech to the Rotary Club in Tyler at 1:38 PM, while his FBI call reporting James Parrot was placed at 1:45 PM.

(12) His attendance with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace at Yale, when “Mac” was LBJ’s personal hit man, and his attendance at the ratification meeting at the home of Clint Murchison, Sr., are powerful circumstantial evidence of his complicity in the assassination of JFK.

POSTSCRIPT

Remarkably, there is a figure (in the DCA film) walking off the corner of Houston & Elm and toward the Dal- Tex building, where “the oil man from Houston” (George H.W. Bush) had been arrested minutes earlier, who looks a great deal like his son, 17 year old George W. Bush.  This figures ear, nose (where a crude effort to change the nose has been made in the second of these three images), bridge indent and jawline are a very close match to George W. Bush, where the preppy loafers and white sox he’s wearing are cheerleader appropriate.  It looks like W. was there, too.

Richard M. Hooke, a student of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and former computer systems analyst for Bank of America, is also a writer and researcher regarding the death of President John F. Kennedy.
Jim Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer, is McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth and a columnist and editor for Veterans Today.









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Sunday, November 21, 2021










Temperatures and sea levels are rising all over the world. Low-lying coastal cities are already dealing with disastrous floods and are desperately trying to find innovative ways to combat rising sea levels. Here are ten sinking cities that will soon be underwater.

The climate
disaster is here



Earth is already becoming unlivable. Will governments act to stop this disaster from getting worse?








b


The enormous, unprecedented pain and turmoil caused by the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.

These temperature thresholds will again be the focus of upcoming UN

climate talks at the COP26 summit in Scotland as countries variously dawdle or scramble to avert climate catastrophe. But the single digit numbers obscure huge ramifications at stake. “We have built a civilization based on a world that doesn’t exist anymore,” as Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, puts it.

The world has already heated up by around 1.2C, on average, since the preindustrial era, pushing humanity beyond almost all historical boundaries. Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe this much within little more than a century is, in fact, extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.

When global temperatures are projected to hit key benchmarksthis century
Average global surface temperature relative to a 1850-1900 baseline



Worst-case scenario

An unlikely pathway

where emissions

are not mitigated


Intermediate

A pathway where

emissions start

declining around 2040


Best-case

An unlikely pathway where

emissions start declining now and

global temperatures peak at +1.8C


Projected

to increase

by +1. 5C

+2.7F


2021


2050





2080


9 years


In 6


to 8 years


+2.0C

+3.6F


In 20


to 30 years


+2.5C

+4.5F


In 32


to 56

years


+3.0C

+5.4F


In 43 years

at the earliest

Guardian graphic. Source: IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. Note: The IPCC scenarios used for best-case, intermediate and worst-case scenarios are SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5.

Until now, human civilization has operated within a narrow, stable band of temperature. Through the burning of fossil fuels, we have now unmoored ourselves from our past, as if we have transplanted ourselves onto another planet. The last time it was hotter than now was at least 125,000 years ago, while the atmosphere has more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in it than any time in the past two million years, perhaps more.

Since 1970, the Earth’s temperature has raced upwards faster than in any comparable period. The oceans have heated up at a rate not seen in at least 11,000 years. “We are conducting an unprecedented experiment with our planet,” said Hayhoe. “The temperature has only moved a few tenths of a degree for us until now, just small wiggles in the road. But now we are hitting a curve we’ve never seen before.”

No one is entirely sure how this horrifying experiment will end but humans like defined goals and so, in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, nearly 200 countries agreed to limit the global temperature rise to “well below” 2C, with an aspirational goal to keep it to 1.5C. The latter target was fought for by smaller, poorer nations, aware that an existential threat of unlivable heatwaves, floods and drought hinged upon this ostensibly small increment. “The difference between 1.5C and 2C is a death sentence for the Maldives,” said Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, president of the country, to world leaders at the United Nations in September.

There is no huge chasm after a 1.49C rise, we are tumbling down a painful, worsening rocky slope rather than about to suddenly hit a sheer cliff edge – but by most standards the world’s governments are currently failing to avert a grim fate. “We are on a catastrophic path,” said António Guterres, secretary general of the UN. “We can either save our world or condemn humanity to a hellish future.”

Heatwaves

Earth’s atmosphere, now saturated with emissions from human activity, is trapping warmth and leading to more frequent periods of extreme heat
Oregon, US
June 2021: A cooling shelter
Yokohama, Japan
July 2021: Staff sprinkles water to cool down patrons
Seville, Spain
August 2021: A billboard shows 47C (117F)
Karachi, Pakistan
September 2021: A zookeeper bathes an elephant

Photographs: Clockwise from top-left, Maranie Staab/Reuters, Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images, Rizwan Tabassum/AFP via Getty Images, Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images


This year has provided bitter evidence that even current levels of warming are disastrous, with astounding floods in Germany and China, Hades-like fires from Canada to California to Greece and rain, rather than snow, falling for the first time at the summit of a rapidly melting Greenland. “No amount of global warming can be considered safe and people are already dying from climate change,” said Amanda Maycock, an expert in climate dynamics at the University of Leeds.

A “heat dome” that pulverized previous temperature records in the US’s Pacific northwest in June, killing hundreds of people as well as a billion sea creatures roasted alive in their shells off the coast, would’ve been “virtually impossible” if human activity hadn’t heated the planet, scientists have calculated, while the German floods were made nine times more likely by the climate crisis. “The fingerprint of climate change on recent extreme weather is quite clear,” said Michael Wehner, who specializes in climate attribution at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “But even I am surprised by the number and scale of weather disasters in 2021.”

Frequency and intensity of once-a-decade heatwave events



Global

warming

level


Increase in

heatwave

temperature


Heatwave

frequency


Historical

1850-1900


A once-a-decade event ...


-


+1.0C

Present


... now happens 2.8x a decade


+1.2C


+1.5C

In 6-8 years


4.1x


+1.9C


+2.0C

In 20-30 years


5.6x


+2.6C


+4.0C

Unlikely this

century


9.4x


+5.1C

Guardian graphic. Source: IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. Note: The projected year ranges for when warming thresholds will be hit are based on IPCC scenarios SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5.

After a Covid-induced blip last year, greenhouse gas emissions have roared back in 2021, further dampening slim hopes that the world will keep within the 1.5C limit. “There’s a high chance we will get to 1.5C in the next decade,” said Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

For humans, a comfortably livable planet starts to spiral away the more it heats up. At 1.5C, about 14% of the world’s population will be hit by severe heatwaves once every five years. with this number jumping to more than a third of the global population at 2C.

Beyond 1.5C, the heat in tropical regions of the world will push societies to the limits, with stifling humidity preventing sweat from evaporating and making it difficult for people to cool down. Extreme heatwaves could make parts of the Middle East too hot for humans to endure, scientists have found, with rising temperatures also posing enormous risks for China and India.

A severe heatwave historically expected once a decade will happen every other year at 2C. “Something our great-grandparents maybe experienced once a lifetime will become a regular event,” said Rogelj. Globally, an extra 4.9 million people will die each year from extreme heat should the average temperature race beyond this point, scientists have estimated.

At 2C warming, 99% of the world’s coral reefs also start to dissolve away, essentially ending warm-water corals. Nearly one in 10 vertebrate animals and almost one in five plants will lose half of their habitat. Ecosystems spanning corals, wetlands, alpine areas and the Arctic “are set to die off” at this level of heating, according to Rogelj.

Change in fraction of land annually exposed to heatwaves:




+1.5C

+2.7F

We'll reach this threshold





In 6


to 8 years






Change from 1986-2006
0+61.8%
Insufficient model agreement

Guardian graphic. Source: Climate Analytics. Note: In the data, a heatwave is when a relative indicator based on air temperature and an absolute indicator based on the air temperature and relative humidity are projected to exceed exceptionally high values, according to an analysis of four climate models. When the two of the four models don’t agree, they are not visualized.


In the next decade, heatwaves could make the American South, Central America, Cuba and coastal regions of Mexico much less livable.








By the end of the century, the hottest regions of North America may be unlivable without major adaptions.

Floods

Earth’s hotter climate is causing the atmosphere to hold more water, then releasing the water in the form of extreme precipitation events
Kolkata, India
September 2021: A woman exits a bus onto a flooded street
Agen, France
September 2021: Firefighters inspect a flooded street
Al Khaburah, Oman
October 2021: Flooded streets after Cyclone Shaheen
Ayutthaya, Thailand
October 2021: A boy walks through floodwaters

Photographs: Clockwise from top-left, Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images, Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images, Jack Taylor/AFP via Getty Images, Oman News Agency via AP


Across the planet, people are set to be strafed by cascading storms, heatwaves, flooding and drought. Around 216 million people, mostly from developing countries, will be forced to flee these impacts by 2050 unless radical action is taken, the World Bank has estimated. As much as $23tn is on track to be wiped from the global economy, potentially upending many more.

Some of the most dire impacts revolve around water – both the lack of it and inundation by it. Enormous floods, often fueled by abnormally heavy rainfall, have become a regular occurrence recently, not only in Germany and China but also from the US, where the Mississippi River spent most of 2019 in a state of flood, to the UK, which was hit by floods in 2020 after storms delivered the equivalent of one month of rain in 48 hours, to Sudan, where flooding wiped out more than 110,000 homes last year.

Frequency and intensity of once-a-decade heavy precipitation events



Global

warming

level


Heavy precipitation

frequency


Increase in

wetness


Historical

1850-1900


A once-a-decade event ...


-


+1.0C

Present


... now happens 1.3x a decade


+6.7%


+1.5C

In 6-8 years


1.5x


+10.5%


+2.0C

In 20-30 years


1.7x


14.0%


+4.0C

Unlikely this

century


2.7x


+30.2%

Guardian graphic. Source: IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. Note: The projected year ranges for when warming thresholds will be hit are based on IPCC scenarios SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5.

Meanwhile, in the past 20 years the aggregated level of terrestrial water available to humanity has dropped at a rate of 1cm per year, with more than five billion people expected to have an inadequate water supply within the next three decades.

At 3C of warming, sea level rise from melting glaciers and ocean heat will also provide torrents of unwelcome water to coastal cities, with places such as Miami, Shanghai and Bangladesh in danger of becoming largely marine environments. The frequency of heavy precipitation events, the sort that soaked Germany and China, will start to climb, nearly doubling the historical norm once it heats up by 2C.

Change in the mass of precipitation:




+1.5C

+2.7F

We'll reach this threshold





In 6


to 8 years






Change from 1986-2006
0+36.0%-2.6%
Insufficient model agreement

Guardian graphic. Source: Climate Analytics. Note: The data shows where rainfall and snowfall are projected to change compared to the 1986-2006 average, according to an analysis of four climate models. When the two of the four models don’t agree, they are not visualized.


The earth's warming in the next decade will likely cause less rainfall in the northwest region of the US, as well as central America and the Caribbean islands.








The southern parts of the continent will likely experience periods of severe drought by the end of the century, while the north-east US in particular gets increasing amounts of extreme rainfall.

Wildfires

Earth’s hotter atmosphere soaks up water from the earth, drying out trees and tinder that amplify the severity of wildfires
Woololoo, Australia
February 2021: A wildfire destroyed over 30 homes
Ogan Ilir, Indonesia
August 2021: Indonesian firefighters try to extiguish a peatland fire
Chefchaouen, Morocco
August 2021: A woman looks at wildfires tearing through a forest
California, US
September 2021: Flames consume a house in the Fawn Fire

Photographs: Clockwise from top-left, Greg Bell/DFES via AP, Muhammad A.F/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, Ethan Swope/AP, Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images


Virtually all of North America and Europe will be at heightened risk of wildfires at 3C of heating, with places like California already stuck in a debilitating cycle of “heat, drought and fire”, according to scientists. The magnitude of the disastrous “Black Summer” bushfire season in Australia in 2019-20 will be four times more likely to reoccur at 2C of heating, and will be fairly commonplace at 3C.

A disquieting unknown for climate scientists is the knock-on impacts as epochal norms continue to fall. Record wildfires in California last year, for example, resulted in a million children missing a significant amount of time in school. What if permafrost melting or flooding cuts off critical roads used by supply chains? What if storms knock out the world’s leading computer chip factory? What happens once half of the world is exposed to disease-carrying mosquitos?

“We’ve never seen the climate change this fast so we don’t understand the non-linear effects,” said Hayhoe. “There are tipping points in our human-built systems that we don’t think about enough. More carbon means worse impacts which means more unpleasant surprises.”

Change in fraction of land annually exposed to wildfires:




+1.5C

+2.7F

We'll reach this threshold





In 6


to 8 years






Change from 1986-2006
0+0.2%
Insufficient model agreement

Guardian graphic. Source: Climate Analytics. Note: The data shows where the annual aggregated of areas burned by wildfires is projected to change, according to an analysis of four climate models. When the two of the four models don’t agree, they are not visualized.


The American West has already experienced unprecedented wildfires, but that's only going to get worse. In addition, Canada, Texas and parts of Mexico will also be at greater risk.








By the end of the century, virtually the entire continent will likely be at significantly greater risk of wildfires, regularly smothering the landmass in flames or smoke.

Crop failure

Unpredictable weather, like too much or too little rainfall, decreases the quantity and quality of crop yields
La Ceiba Talquezal, Guatemala
May 2017: Crops on a hillside damaged by deforestation, pests and prolonged droughts
New South Wales, Australia
October 2019: A farmer stands in a paddock of failed wheat crop
Lusaka, Zambia
January 2020: Poor crops after the lack of normal summer rainfall
Badghis, Afghanistan
September 2021: A farmer holds a handful of failed wheat from his crop

Photographs: Clockwise from top-left, Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images, David Gray/Getty Images, String/EPA, World Food Program/Reuters


There are few less pleasant impacts in life than famine and the climate crisis is beginning to take a toll on food production. In August, the UN said that Madagascar was on the brink of the world’s first “climate change famine”, with tens of thousands of people at risk following four years with barely any rain. Globally, extreme crop drought events that previously occurred once a decade on average will more than double in their frequency at 2C of temperature rise.

Heat the world a bit more than this and a third of all the world’s food production will be at risk by the end of the century as crops start to wilt and fail in the heat.

Frequency of once-a-decade crop drought events



Global

warming

level


Crop drought

frequency


Historical

1850-1900


A once-a-decade event ...


+1.0C

Present


... now happens 1.7x a decade


+1.5C

In 6-8 years


2.0x


+2.0C

In 20-30 years


2.4x


+4.0C

Unlikely this

century


4.1x

Guardian graphic. Source: IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. Note: The projected year ranges for when warming thresholds will be hit are based on IPCC scenarios SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5.

Many different aspects of the climate crisis will destabilize food production, such as dropping levels of groundwater and shrinking snowpacks, another critical source of irrigation, in places such as the Himalayas. Crop yields decline the hotter it gets, while more extreme floods and storms risk ruining vast tracts of farmland.

Change in fraction of land annually exposed to crop failure:




+1.5C

+2.7F

We'll reach this threshold





In 6


to 8 years






Change from 1986-2006
0+2.4%
Insufficient model agreement

Guardian graphic. Source: Climate Analytics. Note: The data shows where the annual yield of four crops (maize, wheat, soybean, and rice) is projected to fall short of the 2.5th percentile of pre-industrial levels, according to an analysis of four climate models. When the two of the four models don’t agree, they are not visualized.


Crop failures in the US midwest and Mexico will likely get worse in the next decade.








By the end of the century, Mexico and Central America, a region already seeing farmers turn into climate migrants, will likely experience significantly worse crop yields.


Despite the rapid advance of renewable energy and, more recently, electric vehicles, countries still remain umbilically connected to fossil fuels, subsidizing oil, coal and gas to the tune of around $11m every single minute. The air pollution alone from burning these fuels kills nearly nine million people each year globally. Decades of time has been squandered – US president Lyndon Johnson was warned of the climate crisis by scientists when Joe Biden was still in college and yet industry denial and government inertia means the world is set for a 2.7C increase in temperature this century, even if all emissions reduction pledges are met.

By the end of this year the world will have burned through 86% of the carbon “budget” that would allow us just a coin flip’s chance of staying below 1.5C. The Glasgow COP talks will somehow have to bridge this yawning gap, with scientists warning the world will have to cut emissions in half this decade before zeroing them out by 2050.

“2.7C would be very bad,” said Wehner, who explained that extreme rainfall would be up to a quarter heavier than now, and heatwaves potentially 6C hotter in many countries. Maycock added that much of the planet will become “uninhabitable” at this level of heating. “We would not want to live in that world,” she said.

A scenario approaching some sort of apocalypse would comfortably arrive should the world heat up by 4C or more, and although this is considered unlikely due to the belated action by governments, it should provide little comfort.

Every decision – every oil drilling lease, every acre of the Amazon rainforest torched for livestock pasture, every new gas-guzzling SUV that rolls onto the road – will decide how far we tumble down the hill. In Glasgow, governments will be challenged to show they will fight every fraction of temperature rise, or else, in the words of Greta Thunberg, this pivotal gathering is at risk of being dismissed as “blah, blah, blah”.

“We’ve run down the clock but it’s never too late,” said Rogelj. “1.7C is better than 1.9C which is better than 3C. Cutting emissions tomorrow is better than the day after, because we can always avoid worse happening. The action is far too slow at the moment, but we can still act.”