Climate Doom and COVID Too THE BIG NEWS

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Huge news day on Monday, but we'll take you through the highlights: a dire climate report, military vaccination mandates, a new Epstein-related suit, and more developments in Congress. Let's jump in! - Jack THE BIG NEWS UN Climate Report Tells Us Once Again We're in Bad Shape The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body convened by the United Nations, released a major new report on Monday. Its tidings were dire. In brief, the report indicated that some impacts of climate change, like a further 1.5 degrees of global warming, deadly heat waves, coral reef die offs, and widespread droughts, are now unavoidable. These effects will get worse for at least 30 years, no matter what we do now. Ko Barrett, a bigwig at NOAA and the vice chair of the IPCC, said the report was "the strongest statement the IPCC has ever made." But like many reports before it, the IPCC's report also noted that we can still save some semblance of life on the planet, if governments are willing to do so. Per the New York Times, the report shows that if we cut emissions across the world aggressively right now, we could limit the warming to just the next 30 years, and maybe even bring it back under 1.5 degrees in the second half of this century. Unfortunately, that's a best-case scenario, and one that would require a level of world coordination and governmental power that seems pretty unlikely. Instead, we'll just have to suffer the consequences. MORE STORIES TO WATCH SOME NUMBER $200 The price of a fake COVID-19 vaccination card being sold on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to this AP News story. Troops Will Get Jabbed Whether They Like it Or Not The Biden Administration announced Monday that it will seek to make COVID vaccinations mandatory for all active duty military personnel by the end of next month. The military already vaccinates its troops for a host of other diseases, depending on assignment, so this really shouldn't be controversial. Shouldn't is an important word there. Epstein Victim Sues England's Prince Andrew Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's many victims, filed a formal lawsuit in federal court in New York accusing England's Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and elsewhere when she was under the age of 18. “If she doesn't do it now, she would be allowing him to escape any accountability for his actions,” Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner, told ABC News. “And Virginia is committed to trying to avoid situations where rich and powerful people escape any accountability for their actions.” Tucker Nods Along as Guest Suggests Lynchings In a horrifying clip transcribed by Media Matters For America, Tucker Carlson dispensed with dog whistles and suggested that one of his guest's ideas for vigilante lynching would "solve the drive-by shootings," in cities. TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): So, if you had kids driving around shooting each other, you had some drug addict lying on the sidewalk waving his package at girls as they walked by, like, what -- you know, what would you do about that? ANTHONY PELLICANO: It would -- that would never happen. First of all, the minute that did happen, somebody would take care of it. No police would be involved, it would be taken care of, and you'd never see that problem again. Or you might see a guy hanging from a light pole. CARLSON: So that kind of -- that would solve the drive-by shootings? PELLICANO: Absolutely. Oh, god yeah. There wouldn't be anything. ... The point is you become brainwashed to say that's okay. You know, we want to -- this liberal-type attitude, "We want to leave those people alone, let them live their life." That's bullshit. You don't want that in your neighborhood. You don't want a drug dealer living next door to you. You know? Throw him out of the window, you understand? Let him bounce a couple of times on the ground and maybe he'll come to his senses. You don't want that. Democrats Unveil Huge Budget Blueprint As Infrastructure Bill Limps Closer to Passing Two stories in one here: The Democrats are launching a massive push for a $3.5 billion budget blueprint to increase spending all across the board, on child care, education, climate change and more. They made their push on Monday, and hope to somehow get it past the Republican filibuster. Meanwhile the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is expected to clear the Senate today, but who knows what will happen -- this is the Senate we're talking about. ----------------------------------- Does The Left Focus On White Supremacy Embedded In The Constitution Enough? A caller asks if the left prioritizes policy and reform over rooting out the systemic issues that relate to the USA's founding documents. "If multinationals are able to impose their will on this country, you'll see [a future] that's based on the bottom line rather than aiding people. Where an education doesn't matter as much as a dollar. You'll see a very callous world, a world which has forgotten about compassion, a world that's forgotten about how friends are to help friends and the weak are to be helped by the strong. You'll see a world where everything is gauged in terms of dollars and cents. If they can produce coal cheaper... using slave labor, they'll do that. Because it seems to me they've lost all conscience." - The late Richard Trumka, former head of the AFL-CIO, in an archived video available here.