the DON JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 11/18/24... 14,815.40 11/11/24... 14,811.87
	6/27/13… 15,000.00
(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 11/25/24... 43,444.99; 11/11/24... 43,981.99; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH, 2024

“HIEROPHANTS, SYCOPHANTS, PINK ELEPHANTS!”

No sooner were bullets picked up, ballots counted and results declared than was Trump Two, The Adminstration, up and atom; running wild with crimes and crises aplenty – underlings to vet, foreigners to coax or intimidate as needed. Only a week into his pre-Inaugration pre-Restoration, Djonald UnEasy was taking names, scarfing details, making deals to uphold the fiction of “friendly fascism” for a little while longer while he gleaned such information as President Biden was prepared to gift him with – facing new martial initiatives from Russia, China, Father Time and Mother Nature to test his resolve, the din of reckonings on the way.

Almost lost in the U.S. media shuffle of Congresspersons, Sentors, other upper and down-ballot elected officials and appointed executioners of the new regime’s agenda, world leaders and renowned climatologists were gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan to deal with the manifestations of a sick planet and its sicker inhabitants... the Conference of the Parties, or COP 29... that yearly summit of same convened to take the temperature of the planet and then offer a few congratulations, more consolations and many, many more excuses... starting at the top o’the heap – the host.

Azerbaijan is, in many respect, not unlike the office seekers now petitioning President Trump for jobs and recognition... a former chonk of the Soviet Union and, so, a target for reunificationeers in Moscow, but not until that sticky Ukrainian mess is settled. So long as Azeris behave. Their situation is not unlike that of applicants and supplicants with dicey past words and deeds surrounding Trump... in that they have to prove their loyalty in order to preserve their independence (such as it is). Therefore, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s almost religious proclamation oil, “a gift from God”, was aimed at the Russians (who, like the world’s top three petroconsumers, the Chinese, Indians and Americans, chose to skip that summit).

With the exception of one CBS overview of world reaction to Trump’s New Term, last week’s lesson centered upon domestic takeaways from the results – not only Presidential but from the now-blood-red House, Senate as well as a few Governorships, some down-ballot races of import and some ballot propositions. The wars still rage, the economy still stutters and staggers with billionaires ecstatic over the Dow and tech-loaded S&P while Joneses of the working, middle and even many upper-middle classpersons sitting at their generic kitchen tables and worrying over what to eat tonight, or how to finance spending on a holiday season fast approaching.

Staring the American administrations, old and new, eye to eye are many manifestations of quandries hanging round for years like old owls – in some case decades, even centuries... issues of wealth and poverty, war and peace, identity crimes and crises and, elbowing its way into the forefront, this week (as ever, on a yearly basis), the survivability of the planet and the species in habiting it.

While the Ex turned Electx was huddled in his Mar-a-Lago basement, filling out his gamecards with appointees to Cabinet, Staff and assorted positions at high (not sensational, but livable) salaries, a diminished contingent of world leaders (no USA, no Russia, no China, no India and other dropouts and walkouts) struggled on and struggled into Baku as, for the (small “d”) democrats amongst them, the fear, loathing and... for many... sycophancy escalated as the magnitude of Trump’s win became clear. (See CBS survey of responses to the MAGAvictory attached to last week’s Lesson and reproduced here as Attachment One).

“With Donald J. Trump’s sweeping election victory on Tuesday, the world is preparing for another four years of unpredictability and “America first” protectionism that could reset the ground rules of the global economy, empower autocrats and erase American protection for democratic partners,” the New York Times reported on the day after the blowout (Attachment Two)... with the Exile-turned-Electx promising to Make America Great Again – meaning “more isolationist, more combative with tariffs, more openly hostile to immigrants, more demanding of its security partners, and,” as applicable to COP 29 and all other COPs, past and future, “...less engaged on global challenges like climate change.”

The election accelerated “the already deep trend of an America looking inward,” said James Curran, a professor of modern history at the University of Sydney.

Rounding up cautious responses from India to Italy, Kenya to Mexico, as well as from competitors like Russia and China and from the United Nations, the Times singled out Ukraine as the most vulnerable victim should Trump tilt heavily towards the authoritarian (or, even, totalitarian) right.

While Putin and his pals endeavored to downplay their glee, President Zelenskyy wrote on X that he appreciated “President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs.”

But many of Ukraine’s supporters in the region are “woefully unprepared for a return of Trump,” said Georgina Wright, a European politics expert at the Montaigne Institute in Paris.

Amongst NATO, the Times reported “a sense of shock that American voters have elected a felon who has promoted threats of violence against journalists and said he would use the courts and the military against domestic enemies,” despite the unmistakable anti-democratic and anti-incumbent sentiments that have led to upsets in Italy, a takeover by the far right in Hungary and a counter-wave in the U.K. - plus a near miss for Macron in France.

“I don’t see a great future for European democracies, if there is not a strong democratic America as a rock to lean on,” said Nicole Bacharan, a political scientist in Paris.

One of Djonald UnDimmed’s few enthusiastic supporters was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Palestinians resigned themselves to more years of more war.

“He’s crazy, but at least he’s strong,” said Anthony Samrani, the editor in chief of the Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour.

NBC (Attachment Three) reported that China gave the victor a cautiously congratulatory message as ties have fallen to their lowest point in decades “amid disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.”

One person Beijing may turn to for help is tech billionaire Elon Musk, a devoted Trump supporter with extensive business interests in China who is wildly popular there.

“The Chinese are hoping that he will be someone that can facilitate a warmer, less containment-oriented set of policies on technology,” though it remains to be seen whether Musk can deliver on that, said Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group.

France and Germany also congratulated Trump but, on the day after the election French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the European Union must be united and coordinate more closely – given “the challenges posed by his "America First" protectionist trade policy and isolationist rhetoric.” (Reuters, Attachment Four)

One particular concern for Europe is trade: Trump said last month the European Union would have to "pay a big price" for not buying enough American exports if he won the election.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Republican former president on his victory but also said avoiding trade wars would be in the U.S interest as well as Europe's.

"Millions of jobs and billions in trade and investment on each side of the Atlantic depend on the dynamism and stability of our economic relationship," she said.

Trump, who will take office in January, has said he would impose a 10% tariff on imports from all countries, and 60% duties on imports from China.

Europe must be willing to take charge of its own destiny, a French government spokeswoman said on the day after the election.

“In a number of key sectors – defense, industrial recovery,” and, notably, “decarbonization – we must take charge of our own destiny," Maud Bregeon told the broadcaster RTL. (Le Monde, Attachment Five)

Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who had just back from a visit to war-torn Ukraine, said, in comments to the media that "Europeans will now have to assume even more responsibility for security policy."

Back in our own Western Hemisphere, President Trump’s larger than expected victory on Tuesday, also signaled a major shift in U.S. policy including toward Latin America. (Americas Quarterly, 11/6, Attachment Six)

“On the campaign trail, Trump emphasized pledges of an unprecedented immigration crackdown, including mass deportations, and has suggested he may impose tariffs on cross-border trade with Mexico.”

Trump’s victory redefines the U.S. relationship with several Latin American governments, the Quarterly opined. Perambulating southward from the hotly contested border, it will have particular significance for newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico. “Border control, migration policy, the war on drugs, nearshoring, and U.S.-China relations will become central themes in the binational agenda.

“In contrast, the relationship with Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy (and the prospective site of COP 30 next year), appears lower on the priority list, which could accelerate the formation of alternative global alliances.

“As for Venezuela, it will likely remain a populist talking point with little expectation of actions to strengthen democratic outcomes.” For right-wing Latin leaders like Milei (Argehtina) and Bukele (El Salvador), Trump’s narrative might resonate, but it remains to be seen “whether this alignment will translate into specific political actions.”

AQ Editor-in-Chief Brian Winter compared the Trump landslide with “so many we’ve seen in Latin America: Dissatisfaction with the status quo, and anger over inequality and a distant, self-dealing elite. Those used to be leftist messages, but now the right often channels them better... (i)n Latin America and the United States.”

Other AQ reporters surmised that Latin America can expect to transition from a period of neglect, even indifference, from the U.S., “to one of much more engagement—but not necessarily for positive reasons.”

They foresee conflict with Mexico over immigration... a Trump tussle... and with Peru over its growing role as a facilitator in the Chinese Trade. Hostility to Colombia over cocaine and President Gustavo Petro’s anti-petroleum stance may lead to “a possible reduction in military aid and even the threat of economic sanctions” while a perhaps lessening of Venezuelan sanctions might become necessary.

Petro, a critic of Cop 29’s host Aliyeve was a source, perhaps of some confusion – given the rampaging status of the world’s petro- (meaning fossile fuel) bidness in Azerbaijan, as in America. His complaints, like those of many other climate change challengers, went grotesquely unaddressed but, suggested Justin Worland in Time on Thursday after the election but before convocation of Cop 29, “Trump has a long history denying the science of climate, and will likely, once again, reverse U.S. climate efforts at home and abroad” but, this time out, his presidency “does not represent a death knell to the decarbonization agenda.

“Both economic factors and political realities globally mean that climate efforts will continue.”

The economic factors, Time reported (Attachment Seven, 11/8, 11:10 AM) including restraints on the (IRA) Inflation Reduction Act and (EPA) Environmental Protection Agency are tempting, but... should a deregulatory agenda manifest, “the role of Elon Musk remains an open question.” The Tesla founder benefits from many IRA incentives and greeniness is a huge marketing component of his empire. So, time (and Time) will tell what the Muskmellon wants “and what role he will play.”

“(I)t would be easy to conclude that the U.S. climate movement is about to come to a screeching halt. But the truth is that while Trump may slow decarbonization efforts he won’t be able to stop it fully. Data from the Rhodium Group and MIT tracks $493 billion in clean technology investment in the two years following the passage of the IRA, a 71% increase over the preceding two years. Companies may backtrack some of those investments in response to the new political climate, but many clean manufacturing investments already have steel in the ground.”

It’s hard to deny that, in the short term, the climate issue has fallen to the wayside of the mainstream conversation, Time opined... the summer heat, wildfires and floods be damned. At least they allowed that public attention (and the business community) will remain sleeping on the sidelines... insurance markets, they note, “have begun to crack under the pressure of repeated natural disasters. It’s only a matter of time before voters—and customers—feel those costs in their pocket books and politicians feel them in the voting booth.”

Further, another Time-piece on the topic twenty minutes after Attachment Seven, warned that “...giving up on climate action in a second Trump term isn’t an option.” (Attachment Eight, 11/8 11:30 AM)

Dominique Browning, a co-founder and the director of Moms Clean Air Force (dedicated to protecting children from pollution, toxic chemicals and the dangerous impacts of global warming) editorialized that, as election results poured in, she felt despair and grief.

Climate change wasn’t on the ballot this election cycle. The subject barely made the debate stage, although one candidate once referred to it as a hoax while his newly designated most trusted advisor, who has made a fortune on electric vehicles, can’t go that far but says the impacts are highly exaggerated. The other candidate was busy reassuring a certain bloc of voters that we are pumping out more fossil fuels than ever before—and exporting them to countries to burn as well—even while her own president had made historic, transformative investments in clean energy and transportation.

The ignorance and denial resulted in an election that “took place in an envelope of extreme weather events, the likes of which we have also never before seen: massive flooding, record-breaking heat waves, devastating wildfires, catastrophic storms, considerable loss of life, home, and community.” And, like Alfred E. Neumann, America shrugged and said: “What, me worry?”

Rather than wallow in defeat, though, Browning proposed that “we face our dread head-on and use it to galvanize our advocacy. Global warming’s negative impacts transcend parties and red-blue-purple state lines. It is very real, very powerful, and a fundamental part of the DNA of the fear we are all feeling. No, we did not vote for an administration that would deal with this problem. But equally, people did not vote to destroy the stability of our planetary climate.”

Actually, as subsequent events and personages named to positons of power, Browning misspoke. Climate change may not have been an upfrone election issue in the media and in the campaign advertising, but Team Trump had and now has plans for Mother Earth, and they are not the kind of plans as would be welcomed by most of the delegates, if not the hosts, of Cop 29.

While the American left and center-left media were distracted and disheartened by the aftermath of the election, Cop29 coverage was largely claimed by the liberal Guardian U.K. – already disposed towards skepticism even as delegates straggled in on Decoration/Veteran’s Day with more arriving on Tuesday.

British liberals, looking backward to retired COPs like 28, and also looking forward to Baku, identified ten big issues that... they claim... would be “under the spotlight”, according to GUK’s science editor, Robin McKie (11/9, Attachent Nine)

This Top Ten Hit List was composed of...

1. Broken records (for global carbon emissions and atmospheric carbon levels, as well as for temperatures)

2. The heat is on (COP28 agreed on nebulous “transitioning away” from fossil fuels) but most delegates and critics thought this weak, and “(t)he arrival of Donald Trump is unlikely to help their cause.”

3. America (where Trump’s victory in the presidential election cast a particularly bleak shadow over the already gloomy preparations being made for COP 29) As it turned out, the Azeris and their frackin’ oily backers were quite capable of making the convention a Clown Congress on their very ownselves.

4. ‘The big hoax’ (that is climate change, according to Djonald UnHoaxed... the “faintest ray of hope now that the world will limit global warming to 1.5C, but Donald Trump may extinguish it,” says an ecologist).

5. Boiling point – UN SecGen Guterres says fossil fuel companies have “humanity by the throat”. The era of global warming has ended, he has argued and “the era of global boiling has arrived.”

6, Tipping over – Tipping points include the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, a massive die-off of tropical coral reefs and hundreds of millions of people finding their homelands “no longer habitable.” But don’t come to America...

7. Follow the money - developing countries will need an additional $500bn to $1 trillion per year in climate finance from international sources to pay for global warming triggered by emissions generated by developed countries.

8. Gaslight - a senior official in Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team, Elnur Soltanov, told a man posing as a potential investor: “We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed..”

9. Stepping stone – giving up on Cop 29, researchers look forward to Cop 30 in Brazil. It can’t be worse...

10. Running out of time - “With Trump’s win, we now face, at best, a repeat of his last term’s climate inaction – a four-year pause we simply can’t afford in this critical decade,” says another researcher.

And, throughout Sunday before the convention convened, the inevitable financial issues and tin cup rattlings were raised.

“Cop29 could change the financial climate for the world’s wealthy polluters,” wished and hoped Jillian Ambrose, GUK energy correspondent. (11/10, Attachment Ten)

“Campaigners have called for the governments of wealthier countries to contribute to a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance. Forecasts of how much this will be vary but are typically $500bn to $1tn a year, or less than 1% of global GDP. Some estimates are as high as $5tn.

“Setting a more ambitious goal will be essential to helping vulnerable countries adopt clean energy and other low-carbon solutions and build resilience to worsening climate impacts,” said the World Resources Institute.

“Climate finance is not about charity or generosity but responsibility and justice,” according to Debbie Hillier, a policy lead at the humanitarian NGO Mercy Corps. “It is based firmly on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities – those who contributed most to the climate crisis must bear the brunt of the solution.”

Surveys, by Oxfam and YouGov, show strong public support for increasing taxes on private jets, super yachts and the wealthiest UK individuals to fund action, and hiking taxes on businesses in sectors that produce the most emissions.

Or, as in America, just smile and slide on.

There were few Veteran’s Day homages raised as delegates began arriving in Baku. President Joe passed on the fun, sending a delegation led by John D. Podesta, former Obama counselor now senior adviser to the president for international climate policy (WashPost 11/11, Attachment Eleven) to kick off a series of takeaways.

Podesta asserted that the United States would “continue to reduce emissions, benefiting our own country and benefiting the world” despite the election results, saying that President Joe’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is spurring more investments in Republican-led congressional districts than Democratic-led ones. That will make it difficult for Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law, he said.

Stories the Post told included tales and pix of Grenada... devastated by Hurricane Beryl... and of why so many big and bit players alike are finding better ways to waste their time.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva canceled after suffering a head injury last month. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will no longer attend after his ruling three-party coalition collapsed last week. ”Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof decided to stay at home in order to address the fallout from attacks against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also expected to be no-shows...” and, of course, Intnational War Criminal Vladir Putin dis-attended.

The rationale... at least for rational, disappointed delegates... was distilled by climate activist and agitator Greta Thunber, who editorialized in GUK that the ‘theme’ chosen for Cop29 “must be some kind of dark joke. This summit, like those before it, is a mere act of greenwashing...” (11/11, Attachment Twelve) that “...legitimise countries’ failures to ensure a livable world and future and have also allowed authoritarian regimes like Azerbaijan and the two previous hosts – the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – to continue violating human rights.”

Azerbaijan’s entire economy is built on fossil fuels, with the state-owned oil company Socar’s oil and gas exports accounting for close to 90% of the country’s exports.

“Many attenders of this year’s Cop are scared to criticise the Azerbaijan government. Human Rights Watch recently published a statement explaining how it couldn’t be certain that attenders’ rights to peacefully protest would be guaranteed. In addition, Azerbaijan land and sea borders will remain closed during Cop29, making it only possible to travel in and out of the country by air, which causes pollution and which many Azerbaijan citizens can’t afford. The reason given for closing borders at all Cops since the start of the Covid pandemic is to maintain “national security”, but I’ve heard many Azerbaijanis describe the situation as being “kept in a prison”.

“During Cop29, the picture of Azerbaijan reported by the media will be a whitewashed and greenwashed version that the regime is desperate to portray. But make no mistake – it is a repressive state accused of ethnic cleansing.”

Thunberg asked how did Azerbian get to host the climate summit? Why... it was eastern Europe’s turn! But Russia vetoed EU member states, so the options were either Armenia or Azerbaijan. Armenia lifted its veto against Azerbaijan and supported its bid in exchange for a release of prisoners, although a large number of Armenian political prisoners are still being held.

GUK’s Day One timeline highlighted the long overdue approval of carbon credit trade rules, breaking a lengthy deadlock (Attachment Thirteen) but began sputtering thereafter. as poor and island nations began growling about their war on the west. Citing high temperatures, windfall superprofits for the oilies and a dead whale beached in Baku, GUK reported that Lise Masson of Friends of the Earth had joined poor and island nations growling about their war on the west by calling the gavelling through of carbon markets unacceptable, as undermining the credibility of the whole process.

Said process opens the “floodgates” for a global carbon market that, she said, “will have devastating impacts on communities in the global south, on Indigenous peoples, and on small peasant farmers first and foremost. Carbon markets are not climate finance, and we cannot accept these neocolonial schemes to be propped up as a success of Cop29 in lieu of paying the climate debt owed to the global south.”

In the West, President-elect Trump was turning heads and making more than a few spin aimlessly as he started filling out his Cabinet with more howlers than a cage full of laboratory mystery monkeys.

Attorney General designated Matt Gaetz – pumped and primed for retribution and revenge and, as a felicitous by-product of nomination, the dissolution of pending rape and pedophilia charges lodged against him back in 2017.

Keeping the promises that so many liberals thought ws a joke, Ol’ 47 appointed conspiracy theorist and former opponent Bobby Kennedy Junior to be America’s health czar to exultant celebration from the measles, the mumps, AIDS and Covid. RFK, at least, did say that he would not send Gaetz and the minions of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem door-to-door to confiscate bad pills, shoot dogs and haul the sick community off to prison.

And then, striking directly at Nature... another of his demonic demons... Djonald UnBurningman responded to a summer of warmth and wildfires by transferring responsibility for climate and a few other things (parks, recreation, trees, buffalo) into the paws and claws of his proposed Interior Secretary... another former foe turned sycophant Doug Burgum, the former Governor of North Dakota (where sunbathers were tanning on the banks of the Red River only days ago) and former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.

Relatively speaking, Burgum... prior to his rolling up into a little ball to fit in Djonald’s pocket... has not been accounted particularly dangerous, he mouthed leftist (to MAGA) views about wheat and wheatfields during the campaign and was soundly thrashed.

The far-right Washington Examiner (no relation to the Washington Post or even the National Examiner) found public and private sector men of wealth and taste to send up hifalutin’ hosannas to the Dakotan.

American Petroleum Institute head Mike Sommers said on X, “As Governor of a top production state, DougBurgum has demonstrated a keen understanding of the importance of harnessing America’s energy advantage.” 

“We look forward to working with him once confirmed to implement a pro-American approach to federal energy leasing, starting with developing a new five-year offshore leasing program and removing barriers to onshore leasing to fully leverage our nation’s natural resources,” Sommers added. 

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said on X: “Gov. Doug Burgum comes from an energy state and understands the importance of production and lease sales to create better jobs and bolster our energy security. He will also be sensitive to preserving the environment for future generations. I look forward to supporting him in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee EnergyGOP.” 

Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Sen. John Barrasso said in a statement that “Governor Burgum knows what it takes to unleash American energy. He recognizes how important our federal lands are for energy and mineral production, grazing, and recreation.” 

He added “As North Dakota’s governor, he’s shown he can balance environmental stewardship with record energy development. President Trump and Governor Burgum will make America energy dominant.”

In response to Burgum’s pick, House Natural Resources Committee member Rep. Jared Huffman (D) told Politico, “Could be worse for sure.” He said “I look forward to trying to work productively with him.” (Nov. 15, Attachment Fourteen)

Zeldin (no relation to the former girlfriend of former TV icon Dobie Gillis) is another matter. The uber-sober Greenies at Truthout – considering the past, present and future prospects of President Joe and the resurrected Trump viewed Zeldin’s appointment as just more evidence that Trump’s second presidency is shaping up to be “even more catastrophic” for climate and the environment after Djonald UnKrebs announced that the former New York Rep. would be the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), promising Zeldin will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions.” (November 11, Attachment Fifteen)

Deregulation will likely have devastating impacts for the predominantly Black, Latinx and low-income Americans living in the country’s “sacrifice zones” — areas heavily polluted by fossil fuel infrastructure, the Truthwokesters predicted.

“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin wrote on X. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” As a congressman, Zeldin voted against Clean Air Act protections; Suffolk County, which is in Zeldin’s former district, has some of the worst air quality in New York State.

An environmental journal, whimsically titled DeSmog surmised that Z-Man Lee and host Aliyev would enjoy a fruitful and beautiful relationship in the future – even if he was not yet to secure his ticket to Baku as an Official American delegate.

That honor, such as it was, fell to past and present (but probably not future) fixer John Podesta.

Who got along to get along with Awful Aliyev.

Zeldin, the Smogsters wrote, is “part of the America First Policy Institute, (AFPI)” a pro-Trump think tank that Jesus Freakin’ frackin’ billionaire Tim Dunn, Brooke Rollins, who previously served as Trump’s director of domestic policy, and WWF/WWE wrestling witch Linda McMahon, founded to push anti-climate policies, presumably to hasten the coming of the End of Days. (November 13, Attachment Sixteen)

Dunn, who has a net worth of $2.2 billion, was one of Trump’s biggest donors, contributing $5 million through his company to the Super PAC Make America Great Again. He’s been vocal about wanting Trump to reverse policies aimed at slowing climate change.

“It would be ideal if we could get rid of this ‘CO2 as a pollutant’ business,” Dunn said at an AFPI event in 2023, stating that he hoped a Trump presidency could use executive orders “to curb all this silliness about CO2 emissions.”

The Smogsters noted that Zeldin, a former House representative who campaigned unsuccessfully to be governor of New York in 2022, “doesn’t have a lengthy track record in climate change and energy.” But climate advocates predict that as head of the EPA he will loyally implement policies favorable to oil and gas producers.

“He will move to execute a fossil-fuel agenda on behalf of the far-right and billionaire donors like Dunn,” Pete Sikora, climate campaigns director for the nonprofit New York Communities for Change, told DeSmog.

A policy document AFPI refers to the landmark 2015 Paris climate framework as an example of “lop-sided, unenforceable, America-last international agreements,” and claims that the Biden administration and climate advocates used “a myopic focus on climate change as a justification for its sweeping radical agenda and massive government expansions.”

“The document calls for the federal government to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, attack legislation including the Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act, and streamline federal approvals for liquefied natural gas export projects.

“That approach “coincides perfectly with Dunn’s economic interests in extracting every last drop of oil and gas in the Permian Basin, thereby torching the climate, while he makes an enormous profit,” Sikora told DeSmog.

(We’ll have more on Dunn, AFPI, God, Zeldin, Trump and some other hierophants and sycophants next week when we peruse Djonald’s quickly cohering cabinet. - DJI)

GUK published timelines for all six days of Week One of COP 29 and proceedings as the hierophants of the Green left first greenlit the once touted Green Cop29, a revisioning and rewriting of the carbon credit rules and regulations forumualted in earlier conferences (See Attachment Eighteen) – then distanced themselves with a critical letter signed by no less authoritive authorities than United Nations chief António Gutierres - calling 2024 a “masterclass in human destruction” (Attachment Nineteen) and newly elected Labour PM Keir Starmer (who promised an 81% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035) that he also promised would occur “without telling people how to live their lives.” (Attachment Twenty)

And some foreigners think Trump is delusional!

GUK’s Day Two recap of the already disintegrating conference featured an editorial of their own (Attachment Twenty One) citing the “masterclass”, the greenhouse gas and the American President and citing Aliyev’s petrobillions, noted that the national symbol of the country is... a flame.

But even more disturbing to the delegates than the prospect of a burning world were... food prices at the official concession parlours.

Not content to disrespect and dismiss the delegates’ appeals, Aliyev brokered a network of price gouging that would have impressed a sous chef in New York or fishmonger in Singapore.

“Delegates needing perking up after a late night of negotiating have to shell out $10 for an Americano with soy milk. Think a single espresso might do the trick?” asked GUK’s Damian Carrington, “...$3.50 appears to be the cheapest coffee on offer. How about vitamin C boost? A small grapefruit juice is $11.”

“It’s crazy – for one stupid sandwich, you pay the same as what we paid for the whole week [outside the conference],” says Sandra Guzman, from Mexico. “Outside the conference, everything is so cheap, and then you come here.”

“It’s not fair at all – not at all,” she said. “And this is precisely why delegations from smaller countries have only one or two people – they cannot afford it.” Rich country delegates run to hundreds and even thousands of delegates.

For any delegate feeling extremely flush there is a bar, revealed GUK. “Among the offerings there are a bottle of red wine – Solaia 2016 – for $1940. It appears to be available online for about $500. The cheapest red wine – Meyseri Mekhmeri – is a comparative snip at $74. There’s also Dom Perignom Brut champagne at $880 and the cheapest sparkling wine – Astoria brut – is $69.

“If spirits are your thing, there’s Don Julio 1942 tequila at $80 a shot.”

“Rapacious catering costs” vied with foreign delegates (and many of their leaders, staying safely home) as COPversation mostly denounced Trump’s election. CBS, (Attachment Twenty Three) interviewing a few aliens of note in advance of the summit.

Among the few enthusiasts were the predictable... Israel’s Netanyahu crowing that Trump’s “historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America”... none of that boring Biden pity for the starving Palestinians. Another rooter was Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who called the win "a much needed victory for the World!"

More cautious sentiments were expressed by both Russia’s Leonid Slutsky and Ukraine’s President Z. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning congratulated Trump... but there were no public reactions from either Xi or Putin.

NATOnobs like Starmer, France’s Macron and German Chancellor Sholz congratulated Trump, but the EU began laying plans to "work towards a more united, stronger, more sovereign Europe.” Just in case.

The naysayers were also predictable. "The election of the U.S. President is not relevant to us," said Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Iran's ruling Islamic regime. Basem Naim of Hamas called Trump's reelection, "a private matter for the Americans," but ventured that he hoped Trump would kick the Jews out of Israel.

The Americas Quarterly (Attachment Twenty Four) interviewed several men and women south of the border, opining that the victory would have particular significance for newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico. Border control, migration policy, the war on drugs, nearshoring, and U.S.-China relations will become central themes in the binational agenda.

In contrast, the relationship with Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, appears lower on the priority list, “which could accelerate the formation of alternative global alliances”, Venezuela is likely to remain “a populist talking point with little expectation of actions to strengthen democratic outcomes” and AG suggested that Trump’s narrative might “resonate” with the new right-wing strongmen Milei and Bukele.

AQ editor-in-chief Brian Winter called Brazil a question mark. The results ”breathe new oxygen into Bolsonaro’s movement,” and their hopes he too can make an improbable comeback – and overcome the judicial rulings prohibiting him from running in 2026. There bolsonaristas with influence in Trump’s world trying to push this idea that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is anti-democratic and anti-Western, and Brazil should be sanctioned – COPistas can now begin speculating on whether the new American President might pay Belem a visit next year.

As for Argentina, Milei called his delegates home on Wednesday... the Argentinian president - a right-wing populist who has previously dubbed the climate crisis a "socialist lie" - having communicated with US president-elect Donald Trump the day before, according to his spokesperson. (Sky News U.K., Nov. 14, Attachment Twenty Five)

Mr Trump had told Mr Milei "you are my favourite president", spokesperson Manuel Adorni wrote on X.

Sky also reported that the COP29 presidency team found itself embroiled in another diplomatic spat yesterday when French climate minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher cancelled her trip.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev had accused France of "crimes" in its overseas territories in the Caribbean.

Tensions between the two are long-standing due to Paris' support for rival Armenia.

Other nations, of course, had assessed the prestige of the gathering and either declined or had sent delegates far down their own food chain – with or without allowance for the extortionate food and lodgings.

The Financial Times reported that Russia had urged Trump to remain in the Paris accords (if not future COPs) while Saudi Arabia drew smiles after stating that the sheikhs were “committed to making the transition to a green energy system.” (Attachment Twenty Six)

China also expressed a guarded hope, but former US Vice President Al Gore dismissed the convention as standing in “the shadows of oil” and warned that western countries “were losing ground to emerging markets, especially China, when it came to climate change and the energy transition.”

President-in-waiting Trump, was, of course a no show; nor did sick old Joe risk the disrespect from the poor nations or the grim cuisine and lethal diseases of the host.

Truthout’s Schuyler Mitchell, (Thursday, Attachment Twenty Seven) compared making progress on global climate action to tunnel-digging through a mountain “with only a spoon and some elbow grease”.

“What’s more, as negotiators meet to hash out a deal, they do so with the knowledge that any work they do could be quickly undone: President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House means that the U.S. will likely pull out of any pact in just a few short months.”

Three GUK reporters solicited the views of “influential climate policy experts” who agree that future UN climate summits “should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying.” (Thursday, Attachment Twenty Eight)

Azerbaijan is a controversial host for the conference, as it is a major fossil fuel producer, with oil and gas making up half of its exports. Last year’s conference was also held in a petrostate, the United Arab Emirates, and the president of that edition, Sultan Al Jaber, kept his main job of heading the country’s national oil company, Adnoc.

At least 1,773 coal, oil and gas lobbyists were been granted access to Cop29, according to data analysed by the Kick Big Polluters Out activist coalition. That is more than all but three countries (Azerbaijan, Brazil and Turkey), and considerably more than the 10 nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis, who have a combined 1,033 delegates.

Protesters who (carefully) rallied outside of the Cop venue at the Olympic Stadium in Baku were in no doubt who should provide the money. “Make polluters pay” read the giant banner unfurled over the conference, as campaigners chanted the slogan.

A report by a taskforce led by Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat and the current chief of the European Climate Foundation, found that new “global solidarity levies” could raise large sums towards the climate finance needed for the poor world.

Levying a charge on cryptocurrencies – which are energy-intensive to create – could be one option, the report found. Charging just $0.045 per kWh for the energy would produce $5bn, it said.

A plastics production levy, charged on producing plastics from polymers rather than from recycled material, could yield $25bn-$35bn a year if set at $60 to $90 a tonne. Even more effective would be a 2% wealth tax, an idea championed by Brazil, which could yield $200bn-$250bn a year.

Taxing frequent flyers and business class airline tickets could generate up to $164bn a year, depending on the design of the scheme.

Tubiana said: “One of the founding pillars of the Paris agreement is financial solidarity between developed and developing countries. Such solidarity makes it possible for all countries to gradually raise their national ambitions to achieve the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C. However, there can be no climate justice without fiscal justice.”

Besides the plot to tax crypto, GUK’s Day Four takeaways (Attachment Twenty Nine) included US officials still claiming that Biden’s energy revolution would be “unstoppable”, but with Republicans in short supply at Cop, and postponement of a crashed EU deforestation prohibition.

Friday, Day Five’s takeaways (Attachment Thirty), found Jacob Levine, Biden’s climate and energy surrogate, declaring the president has set into motion a “deeply d and integrated vision” for the clean energy transition and that businesses would demand carbon-free technologies, despite Djonald UnClean.

There were recycled complaints about food and drink prices, comments about pavilions dedicated to Turkish Art and a proposed stock and bond transfer tax along with interviews with children in South Sudan, where schools were closed for two weeks during an extreme heat wave.

“Oh my gosh. It feels like you’re frying up, or you’re burning up or something of that kind,” said Siama, 16. “It’s really bad.”

Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want which is part of the demand climate justice coalition, told a panel in Baku: “We stand at a crossroads with the very future of humanity at stake, facing a life or death struggle for humanity: on the one side the right of everyone to live with dignity or a world of walls and fences and sacrificed people,” he said.

Euronews also covered Day Five (Attachment Thirty One) and also covered dystopian food, the open letter from exports criticizing the host selection process and watched 65 private jets land in Baku in the week to Monday. Of those, 45 arrived on Sunday and Monday as the summit began.

“That’s twice as many jets compared with the same week last year, when 32 private jets touched down at Baku international airport.”

They also reported on UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ meeting with young climate activists at the conference. “I’m very grateful for your extremely strong commitment, and I promise you that I am entirely on your side,” he told them.

“You have every right to be angry. I am angry too. I am angry because we are on the verge of the climate abyss, and I don’t see enough urgency or political will to address the emergency.”

As the global environmental paupers, especially the drowning islanders rattled their tin cups even more furiously, demanding to be paid off – perhaps so their populations could move to safer and more suitable climes like Nepal or Bolivia.

Climate leaders were worried Trump would derail talks. “They didn’t know their host would be the wrecking ball,” CNN opined on Friday morning. (Attachment Thirty Two)

“In what should be one of the most urgent meetings of the year — aimed at slowing a global crisis fast spiraling out of control — the talks have descended into a circus of boycotts, political tirades and fossil fuels celebrations. Its host, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, has...” wrote Angela Dewan, International Climate Editor, “been its spectacular ringmaster.”

COP29 marks the third year in a row that the climate talks have been held in either a petrostate, or economy that relies heavily on oil and gas. The previous two were held in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, and all three were criticized for alleged human rights abuses in the run-up to their events.

This year, more than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists or industry players had been registered to attend the talks, according to an analysis by a coalition of groups called Kick Big Polluters Out.

“[Azerbaijan’s president] doesn’t sound like a guardian of the Paris Agreement. There’s still a week left for this presidency to show that they are fulfilling that role,” Alex Scott, a senior associate in climate diplomacy at the Italy-based think tank ECCO, told CNN from Baku, “... but there are also 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists walking the halls with us here,” she added, “and they’re also not guardians of the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

On Wednesday, Aliyev accused France and the Netherlands of a “brutal repression” of voices in what he called their “colonies,” in reference to overseas territories, including the island nations facing an existential threat of sea level rise. He also blamed France for recent deadly unrest on the semi-autonomous island of New Caledonia.

(Baku has been at loggerheads with both over their stances on the Azerbaijan-Armenia territorial conflict.)

France’s ecology minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, was due to lead the French delegation but canceled her trip over the remarks.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Joseph Borrell, chimed in on X, calling Aliyev’s allegations “regrettable.”

“These unacceptable statements risk to undermine the conference’s vital climate objectives and the credibility of Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency,” he wrote.

Friday afternoon, the WashXaminer explicated several takeaways from the failing conference – including a guarded assessment of the newly appointed Burgum as IntSec. (above, Attachment Fourteen)

The other takeaways from the MAGAlicious Xaminer included the Club of Rome letter denouncing COP29 and recommending future COPs shift their focus towards implementation of policy rather than negotiation, another mixed review of China’s plans to curb emissions, known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC), the Trump/Biden scuffling over elimination of President Joe’s $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of MAGA’s tax-reform legislation. (Attachment Thirty Three)

The measure would benefit China, which might make the President-elect seem hypocritical, but it would also benefit Trump’s new best bro, Elon Musk.

Finally, the Xaminer warned that the Environmental Protection Agency’s new zero-tolerance standards for removing lead dust in properties to prevent lead exposure for children could hurt affordable housing and Appalachian Power’s plans to build a nuclear reactor near Lynchburg, VA (of Falwell fame)... a venture hailed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who called “advanced” nuclear power the “heart of Virginia’s All-American, All-of-the Above Energy Plan.”

And no less authority than former United States Vice Al Gore decried the viciousness of the Azeri regime and its collusion with, as some put it “those frackin’ #&@$s”. (AP, Attachment Thirty Four) adding that “it’s unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree.”

Conference lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev defended the process... sort of... “it’s better than any alternative.”

Also at the talks Friday, new data from an organization co-founded by Gore that combines observations and artificial intelligence found that cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas, with Shanghai the most polluting and that six of the seven states or provinces that spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases are Chinese. (The other is Texas.)

In its ranking of cities, Climate Trace also fingered Shanghai as worst in the world, followed by Tokyo, New York City, Houston and Seoul, South Korea.

The only positive was that pollution in the United States decreased but... as with inflation... remained onerous. Climate Trace also tracked traditional pollutants “such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.”

35x36 from reuters

The woke and humanitarian Western countries at COP29 rassled over raising $1 trillion in climate finance for the world's poorest and most vulnerable nations, demanding reparations for climate damage caused by the rich, while Argentina’s new right-wing leadership yanked its delegation out – auguring a more hostile tone from the yankee delegates (and their dollars) next year under President Trump.

Trump's presidential election win has cast the United States' future role in climate talks into doubt, and tension between developed and developing nations has bubbled to the surface on the main stages and in negotiating rooms.

"Parties must remember that the clock is ticking," COP29 Lead Negotiator Yalchin (“the Unflappable”) Rafiyev told a news conference.

The previous annual finance goal of $100 billion expires this year. But wealthy countries only met the pledge in full starting in 2022.

Early Thursday, a report from the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance said the target annual figure would need to rise to at least $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 if countries fail to act now.

“Argentina's President Javier Milei, who previously has called global warming a hoax, was due this week to meet Trump, also a climate change denier,” Reuters wrote.

The agricultural journal Grist lamented that, as the first week of the summit draws to a close, food policy professionals said the outcome of the latest U.S. presidential election is undermining progress on an issue that has long been neglected at international climate talks.

“Things look very bad for agriculture and agrifood systems,” said Claudia Ringler, director of the natural resources and resilience unit at CGIAR’s International Food Policy Research Institute.

The incoming Trump presidency has “dramatically lowered” her expectations of tangible outcomes related to food systems. “The chance of getting something serious and positive out of [COP29]? Extremely bleak,” said Ringler.

Food systems are responsible for roughly a third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Most of these come from livestock: Cattle, sheep, and other ruminants belch methane into the air as they digest food. Methane is 80 to 90 times more powerful than carbon in its first 20 years in the atmosphere.

Methane emissions are rising faster than any other greenhouse gas.

Curbing emissions from food systems will require changes to agricultural consumption and production, while also ensuring the parts of the world going hungry have access to enough food. Ringler argues that “the only way to decarbonize the food system is by affecting food production.”

The U.S. is one of the planet’s leading producers and consumers of meat and dairy products. At last year’s COP28, as world leaders signed an agriculture declaration pledge, (Biden’s) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack dodged a question about whether people in nations like the U.S. need to reduce meat consumption to meet climate goals.

Given the election results, the anticipated MAGA rebuttal... “THEY want to take away your burgers,” is unlikely to win friends and influence people.

And, as the remaining, surviving delegates pondered their million manat meals ($600K in American dollars) the New Scientists at New Scientist informed the world that the Caspian Sea... d by the Azeris with Russia, Iran and a few other “stans”… is drying up.

“Water levels in the Caspian Sea are set to fall dramatically as the climate gets hotter, posing a major threat to economic activity and ecosystems in the region,” wrote New Scientist Madeleine Cuff. (Attachment Thirty Seven)

Conversely, the BBC cited the rain in Spain... as reached a year’s worth in a day... further rendered COP "no longer fit for purpose". (Attachment Thirty Eight)

Just before the latest conference started, a secret recording showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP-on-the-take team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor while Aliyev denounced critics of the Azeri petro and mineral wealth.

“Countries should not be blamed for having (natural resources) and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them, the people need them."

GUK (Friday, Attachment Thirty Nine) added that “fossil fuel bosses” needed Aliyev’s perks... and got them.

Gore called for changes in the selection process... saying that “...Three years in a row it’s been a petrostate [as host of the talks]. Obviously it needs to be reformed.”

Delegate/lobbyists should also be barred unless they could show their companies met certain standards, he added.

He said: “The criteria ought to be: do they have a real credible net zero commitment on the country that they’re from? If not, no. Do they have a plan to phase down the production of oil and gas? Are they spending an adequate of their windfall profits on the transition to clean energy? Will they end their anti-climate lobbying? Will they end their green washing?”

Companies failing to meet these criteria should be excluded.

“The Cop process may not be perfect, but it has moved the world forward significantly over the last decade,” replied Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa thinktank. “[Any reform must be] done in a way that strengthens the process, not weakens it. This forum is the only place where vulnerable nations have a seat at the table. This is a global challenge that needs global solutions.”

Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat who helped craft the Paris agreement and is now chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, said on X: “Multilateralism is the foundation of the climate process. The Paris agreement happened because every country had a voice. Reforms must strengthen, not sideline, the consensus-building that builds trust.”

The holders of host country badges, according to an analysis of UN data seen by the Guardian, include Amin Nasser, the boss of the Saudi oil company Aramco, and nine others from his company. Saudi Arabia has long been accused of obstructing progress at Cops.

The single biggest beneficiary of the VIP treatment was another Saudi power company, ACWA, which has coal, gas and renewable assets. Its chief executive, Marco Arcelli, was accompanied by 24 of his staff.

BP’s chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, was also granted a host country pass, along with seven others from the company. BP has a long history in Azerbaijan and remains a key player in the petrostate’s oil and gas operations. Exxonmobil’s head, Darren Woods, and three staff also received the special invitations.

But Dawda Cham, from Help-Gambia, an environmental NGO, said: “The fossil fuel industry has long manipulated climate negotiations to protect its interests while our planet burns. It’s time to sever these ties and ensure that the voices of the global south are amplified, not silenced. We must kick big polluters out of our climate conversations and make them pay.”

As Week One rattled to its close, GUK’s “diary” reported on importancies and ephemera from Keir Starmer to Gazprom’s Russian fossil fuel colouring books to soccer star Ronaldinho exciting the mob with his paid visit to the Azerbaijani pavilion, where he “was presented with a project to restore saline soils and new agricultural technologies”. Unfortunately, Ronaldinho’s thoughts on the innovations went unreported. (Attachment Forty)

The Guardian also reported that “(f)ossil fuel companies broke the planet, they should pay for it,” according to the website cop29.com.

No, this was not an oily change of heart... the domain name was acquired by anti-petro Global Witness, who acquired the site from an Indian couple who used the domain for their family business. They were offered a significant sum by Azerbaijan’s Cop29 team for the site, Global Witness said, “but the owners were worried about climate breakdown and decided to let Global Witness have it instead.”

Also, in the dead of night (U.S.) but early Friday morning in blimey, GUK’s resident poet, dontcha knowit, and militant vegan George Monbiot invited humanity to “Picture an all-seeing eye scanning the dying Earth – and then lighting on our ‘solutions’ at Cop29.”

Being as he was from GUK, his vision of the hierophantasmic vision was grim. “What would it witness in Azerbaijan? A species that knows it is destroying itself but is too greedy to change course.” (Attachment Forty One, Fri 15 Nov 2024)

It views (and condemns) voters in the United States (where the most powerful people in the nation “are seeking to stifle knowledge, roll back beneficial technologies and appease the interests pushing Earth systems towards their tipping points.”)

One might think the Eye would approve of Starmer’s Labour Party triumph in the U.K. – but think again.

As the eye watches more closely, it finds that what the new PM and other powerful people say and what they do are not the same thing. “In fact, his government has embraced the same lobbyists from the same Earth-tipping industries. But in this case it presents the lobbyists’ demands as solutions to the problem: a situation, if anything, even more remarkable than what the eye witnessed on the other side of the ocean. If the eye were the religious kind, it would assume that the devil now reigns on Earth. Perhaps it would not be wrong.”

The eye concludes that this is a species “beset by a lethal combination of conformity, distraction and a fear of offending powerful interests, actively collaborating in its own extinction. It sees a species dominated by Lords of the Desert: people prepared to destroy everything as long as they can command the ruins. It wonders whether the species has a survival instinct at all, or whether, instead, it has only an instinct to obey.”

Updating their earlier condemnations of the “unfit” Cop29, four Guardian editorialists took turns shelling the conference and conferees with harsh words... the harshest being reserved for those “1700 lobbyists”. (Attachment Forty Two)

This version out, their Al Gore quote found him reminiscing about an old country song from Nashville called Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. For a long time, lots of people bought the line that as the fossil fuel industry caused [the climate crisis] they would solve it for us. But they are not going to solve it for us. The global community has to organise a far more effective way to run these Cops [than to host them in petrostates]. The UN secretary general ought to have a role in who’s going to be host.”

And they suggested a novel method of financing the giveaways to those most afflicted by global warming... taxing crypto (as outlined in Attachments 25 and 28 above).

And then the weekend dawned... and President-elect Trump tossed his own cookies into the kitchen. He named oil-industry CEO Chris Wright as energy secretary nominee... a perhaps even more corrupt and provocative choice than that of accused pedophiles Matt Gaetz (DOJ).

Reuters (November 16, 2024 4:28 PM EST, Attachment Forty Three) described Wright... the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver... as a “a staunch defender of fossil fuel use” and, of course, a bootlicking loyalist.

Wright is known for his 2019 “media splash” when he “drank fracking fluid on camera to demonstrate it was not dangerous.”

The pioneer of the fracking industry and CEO of Liberty Energy has said there is no climate crisis, nor an energy transition. (Sky News, yesterday. Attachment Forty Four)

Mr. Wright has also written that more fossil fuel energy is needed around the world to lift people out of poverty.

It's true energy access transforms lives.

“And sadly it's also the case that for many countries, wind and solar projects are currently more expensive upfront than fossil fuel equivalents,” Sky News reported, though cheaper in the long run. “Borrowing money is also more expensive for poor countries than for rich countries, while enormous subsidies still flow to the fossil fuel industry.

“This is why COP29 is trying to set up a new fund to support clean energy and other climate measures in developing countries.”

An enterprise precarious at present, and probably doomed by next January.

The WashXaminer, after reporting on the reports issued by critics, did admit... with help from the A.P... that the annual summit has faced growing criticism for greenwashing, virtue signaling and propping up the fossil fuel industry — prompting the question, is COP still able to lead in global climate action?

Making a Republican argument for reform or even cancallation of future COPs, “It’s been a broken process since the beginning,” Frank Masiano, a senior principal at the Bracewell legal octopus, told the Washington Examiner that: “It’s been a broken process since the beginning. And, it’s led by people who are generally unrealistic about the energy reality that most of the globe faces.” (Attachment Forty Five)

Masiano clarified that’s not to say COP hasn’t been a good “outlet.” However, the energy and environmental expert insisted the conference has been misappropriated. He specifically criticized the emphasis put on smaller emitting, developing countries, saying they have an “outsized advantage” on the global stage COP presents. 

In a study published in late October by Transparency International and the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, climate researchers warned that hosting COP29 in a country like Azerbaijan could put the summit at greater risk for greenwashing and corruption. However, Brice Böhmer, Climate and Environment Lead at Transparency International, told the Washington Examiner it may now be beyond risks. 

Specifically, the report warns that COP negotiations are at risk of being influenced by corporate interests — particularly those within the fossil fuel industry — while also opening the door for corruption, personal enrichment or acting as a forum for fossil fuel diplomacy - again citing, Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s defense of the fossil fuel industry, calling oil and gas “a gift of the God.” 

Also on Saturday, the Fox reported that some members of or sympathizers to the Republican administration-in-waiting showed up at UN climate talks to tout natural gas and nuclear energy, “but they tiptoed around the elephant in the room: a looming US withdrawal from the Paris agreement.”

These pink, not hard-red pachyderms like Morgan Griffith, a congressman from Ohio and member of the House energy committee, told Americans for Prosperity (AFP) that he has supported the Paris agreement in the past.

Asked if he would back a withdrawal, he said: “We don’t want get in front of the president.

“It just depends on, you know, what we deem is in the best interest of the United States,” he added. (Attachment Forty Six)

Texas Congressman August Pfluger, who led the House energy committee delegation, said the US election had sent a clear signal.

“The people in the United States overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump and his promise to restore American energy dominance,” Pfluger said at a news conference.

Democrats in Congress will have a hard time blocking Trump’s nominees for energy and environment posts as the minority party.

“A good deal of it is out of our hands,” Sen. Sheldon (D-RI) Whitehouse said.

Washington’s other conservative mouthpiece, the Moonie-sponsored Times, was even less charitable to the pink elephants, pinko Commie donkeys and blue state enviro-wackos.

“The green is gone,” opinionator Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation celebrated on the 13^th, the second day of COP and a full week after the polling as President-elect Trump began filling out his climate administrative team/

Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a dire warning to voters a few days before last week’s election. If President-elect Donald Trump won, “the struggle against climate change will be over.”

“He had that right,” Moore chortled. (Attachment Forty Seven)

Climate change fanaticism was effectively on the ballot last week. The green energy agenda was decisively defeated.

“It turns out that the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who voted for Mr. Trump weren’t much interested in the planet’s temperature 50 years from now. They are busy trying to pay the bills...

“(I)f you ask the elite of America, those in the top 1% of income, climate change is seen as an immediate and existential threat to the planet... (c)limate change has become the ultimate luxury good: The richer you are, the more you fret about it.”

“The good news is that this year’s voter revolts against the radical green agenda aren’t a vote for dirtier air or water. The air we breathe and the water we drink are cleaner than ever — a point that Donald Trump made. We will continue to make progress against pollution.”

But the nonsense of net-zero use of fossil fuels is a bridge way too far, Moore scoffed.

“Americans recognize their shrinking paychecks, and the higher price of gas is the real clear and present danger to their way of life. If (surviving blue state) Democrats don’t start to get that, they, too, will go to bed worrying about their jobs.”

Finally, the WashTimes included its Peanut Gallery, equally glad that COP29 is failing and hopeful that the whole movment will just go away.

“It’s all about controlling our energy consumption and health care,” posted GI, “...once the government can dictate the use of those two vital resources then we will be slaves to the government.”

“When the elites and rich in this nation give up their private jets, yachts, fleets of luxury cars, 80 room mansions, and toys the peasants can't afford - and stop jetting around the world to bask in the sun,” BJ added, “I'll care about the myth of global climate change.”

And a decidedly incorrect PC posted that “The DemoKKKommie elites believe no belt tightening is too much for the lower classes, while these same elites let their belts loosen at our expense.

“F them.

“MAGA's will be done!”

The 2025 COP 30 has tentatively been scheduled to take place in the Amazonian city of Belem, Brazil – where there is also oil, but not so much as to dominate the economy. There is also a leftist President, Lula da Silva, who will be in office until 2026 (but is also as old as Trump).

	Our Lesson: November Eleventh through Seventeenth, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024 Dow: 44.293.13	It’s Veterans’ Day (Decoration Day in the U.K. where King Charles and Princess Kate arise from their chemo to meet and greet the public – Queen Camilla has an undisclosed illness). There are parades and ceremonies from New York to Normandy, wreath layings at Arlington. Craigslist CEO Craig Newmark donates $125M to “Stand Up for Heroes” charity benefit featuring Bruce Springsteen. Cop 29 begins in oily Azerbaijan under the shadow of Donald Trump, who quit the 2015 Paris Climate Accords and says he’ll do it again after President Joe rejoined. Elon Musk, of the Tesla but also well paid for climate incentives will square off against RFK Jr. whom Trump has ordered to go mild on the oil bidness. Trump, election over, avoids holiday memorials to hole up in Mar-a-Lago, choosing his cabinet with loyalty esteemed over experience. Climate denialist Lee Zeldan chosen to head the EPA, Little Marco Rubio to be SecState; Rep Elise Stefanik (D-NY) gets to replace Nikki Hater as UN ambassador while former ICE director Tom Homan returns as border czar to take charge of the beautiful deporations, with MAGAnimal Stephen Miller as Deputy Director of Policy. One escaped mystery experimental monkey is captured Saturday and 23 more bagged on Sunday leading lateniter Colbert to say he’s not an ape, he’s a rat.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 Dow: 43,910.38	Final election results trickle in... Djonald UnStoppable winning Arizona and Nevada to close with 86 vote margin, but GOP Senators lose there (and are screaming “Steal!”). The appointments role on with Mike Waltz (not Walz) to head the NSA while Jack Smith, confronted with the law that sitting Presidents cannot be jailed for even the most heinous of crimes, designs to resign rather than waiting to be fired. After the massive Trump bump, Wall Street takes a breather. The big winners are Tech and crypto – up 30 percent in the week since the election. Musk, as it turns out, makes over two hundred times more money from the boom than he spent on the campaign and his million dollar giveaways. Israel fails to comply with Biden’s delay to improve humanitarian aid to Palestinians as anti-Semetic riots spread from Amsterdam to other Euro cities. Netanyahu defiant and confident that Trump will continue military aid, even as USA strikes Iranian surrogates in Syria, and pro-Trump Russia masses troops (including mercenaries from NoKo) for more attacks on Ukraine. Haitian gangsters shoot up Spirit, American and Jet Blue planes arriving at the Port au Prince airport, leading companies to stop all flights. D(isney)23 Expo in Brazil previews upcoming movies including “Captain America” and a trailer is releaed for the new Tom Cruise “Mission Impossible” 27? 83? To be released 5/23/25, it’s subtitled “The Final Reckoning”. But is it? “Venom” tops the box office again, Mattel apologizes for the mislisted pornsite address on “Wicked” toys.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024 Dow: 44.097.37	More Trump appointments including a couple of howlers (as monkey hunts continue). Proud dog shooter and South Dakota Governor gets DHS and accused pedophile Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl) tabbed for Attorney General – promptly quitting Congress to stop their investigations and destroy the evidence. Fox News hote Pete Hegseth who said women should not serve in combat is appointed DefSec but Papa Mike Huckabee’s new job as Ambassador to Israel earns a “meh?” while even some Democrats describe CIA nominee John Ratfcliffe as “a grownup”. Prepping for his Presidency, The Donald returns to the White House to be briefed by Biden (and reminded that this will be an orderly transfer of power). The meeting ends without unfortunate incidents, but Kamala is not present, nor is Melania. The Ex, now Elect, says the world is not a nice place but, today, it is. Also a winner... John Krasinski (of “The Office”) and also Mister Emily Blunt is named People Magazine’s sexiest man alive for 2024/5. “Dancing with the Stars” celebrates its 500^th episode. Jersey boys and girls hold a dolphin butchering and barbecue on the beach, while a man dressed up as a bear is caught attacking cars to perpetrate insurance fraud (a response to or inspiration for “Three Inch Teeth”, the latest novel by C. J. Box).
Thursday, November 14, 2024 Dow: 43,750.86	Honeymoon over, Dems denounce the latest of an increasingly outliar-isn series of appointments... Gaetz and Kristi joined by Dem-turned-Maga Tulsi Gabbert (head of Intelligence) and crotch of HHS, RFK junior. Wondering minds wonder what the world has in store for MTG? Or Steve Bannon, or Alex Jones (who needs a job after InfoWars is auctioned off to “The Onion” to pay slandered Sandy Hook victims. There are a few sane selections and elections too. John Thune (R-SD) is chosen to be the new Senate Majority leader and Tom Blanche, one of Trump’s lawyers, rewarded with the Deputy DOJ position. It’s corrupt but... hey!... it could have been Rudy G.! Trump admits Gaetz has issues, saying: “Yes, he’s controversial, but that’s OK with me,” Not OK: Speaker Mike warns Djonald UnCareful to stop “poaching” Congressthings, lest a few insurgent elephants join with the asses to obstruct MAGAlly legislation. Trump also appoints Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to run a Department of Government Effiency (an agency that does not yet exist), Musk says the nebulous new job gives him “a mandate to delete” bureaus and bureaucrats that he, or his master dislike.
Friday, November 15, 2024 Dow: 43,444.99	It’s National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. President/President-Elect Trump appoints another former foe and cold customer... Doug Burgum to Secretary of the Interior. Burgum, at least, is not as controversial as some others... even GOP Senators are starting to express concern about Gaetz, Pete Hegseth (another accused rapist), JFK Junior, Gabbard (too close to Russia), Dr. Oz… too weird. Weatherpeople say that the drought is making New York “look more like California” with wildfires and with Christmas trees dying all over the northeast. Ranchers say the current crop is OK, but the young trees dying off augur a shortage within 5 to 10 years. The Pentagon says that 21 UFO sightings out of 757 within the last year cannot be explained – conspiracy theory and ET buffs say they told us so. Domestically, NASA says that the ISS is leaking oxygen, but not fatally. Yet.
Saturday, November 16, 2024 Dow: Closed	In addition to a multiplicity of near crashes and fires in the skies and on the ground, cell phone explosion sets cabin afire at the Denver Airport, while hateful active shooters spray jet with bullets at Love Field, Dallas. Cyberhackers... presumably the same ones that sent texts to blacks telling them to report for cotton-pickin’ duty are now sending messages to migrants, telling them to gather at streetcorners where INS vans will pick them up and deport them back out of America as trial begins for the most notorious... Venezualan alien Jose Ybarra, accused of killing jogger Laken Riley in Georgia. Another pervert (nationality unknown) attempts to kidnap a 13 year old gtting off a school bus in Florida, but she fights him off and escapes. Polls say that 56% of Americans want all migrants deported – criminals or not. Statisticians say that of the 11 – 13 million crossing the border of late, about 600,000 are criminals. They have a strange ally, tho’ – farmers and agribusiness who say that without cheap, foreign labor, crops will go unpicked, shortages and maybe even famine will occur.
Sunday, November 17, 2024 Dow: Closed	MAGA celebrates Trump’s latest cabinet picks, oil executive frackin’ Chris Wright as Energy Secretary (see above) and three of his criminal attorneys as DOJ department heads. Sunday talkster Preet Bharara says he’s another “bomb throwing” appointee with no government experience, but MAGA echoes Gaetz who says that all gumment workers are agents of the Deep State and he will fire them wherever he finds them. Macy’s closing 150 more stores, but will put on the Thanksgiving Parade and light Christmas trees... altho’ probably for the last time. “It would be such a loss,” says a shopper. On the Sunday talkshows, ABC pits Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Tx) who says that migrant criminals are using the farmworkers and children as human shields and America should be for Americans only, per Gaetz, against the libtards. Round tabler Reince Priebus, back from partying at Mar-a-Lago says that Trump’s first term failed because of disloyal underlings – Anstead Herndon from the New York Times implies that the Ex appointed Gaetz and RFK Junior so they would be rejected, bolstering his image as a martyr. CBS “Face the Nation” guest Rep. Frank Hill (R-Ar) says that because Trump had a mandate from the voters, including Congress, the courts and God, he can appoint anybody he wants to anything. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Ct) replies that his choices have been “manifestly unqualified.” But with more to come... what about MTG? Steve Bannon? Rudy G. (poor guy needs the money)? - DJI
Elections over, the exhausted Joneses of America... winners and losers alike... trudged back to their day jobs, only occasionally marveling at the breadth and depth of MAGAmania to come with Dr. Donald’s cabinet of curiosities. Revenge and retribution – these had their say and will have their play over the next four years, but the determining dominion (barring one of those nuisance wars going nuclear) will be: The Show!

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories here…

ECONOMIC INDICES		(60%)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS by PERCENTAGE			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/17/13 revised 1/1/22	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK	THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	10/21/24	+0.49%	12/24	1,537.40	1,545.00	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 30.48
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	11/11/24	+0.028%	11/25/24	675.61	675.80	http://www.usdebtclock.org/   39,804
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	9/24	-2.44%	11/24	556.38	556.38	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/  4.1 nc
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	11/11/24	-0.14%	11/25/24	234.01	233.67	http://www.usdebtclock.org/      6,900
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	11/11/24	-0.24%	11/25/24	256.14	255.53	http://www.usdebtclock.org/     12,529
Workforce Participation Number Percent	2%	300	11/11/24	+0.0-37% +0.0054%	11/25/24	300.34	300.33	In 161,908 Out 100,499 Total: 262,407 61.70109
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	11/11/24	-0.16%	12/24	151.19	151.19	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.60
OUTGO	(15%)