Thursday, May 15, 2025

Dear Daily Disaster Diary, May 16 2025


"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

—  Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice



The Pfizer Texts Scandal: Why Ursula von der Leyen Owes the EU an Apology—And the Mic




Klatsche” for von der Leyen: The EU Court Slams Her Leadership Style, Transparency in Tatters

It’s a hard slap in the face for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This week, the EU’s General Court ruled that the Commission acted unlawfully by refusing to release text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during the pandemic’s vaccine procurement frenzy. 

The messages were never published. 

The justification? They “didn’t exist.” The court disagrees—and so should every EU citizen.



⚠️ The Real Scandal: Not Just the Texts—But What They Say About Power

Let’s rewind.

Spring 2020. COVID had shut the world down. Governments scrambled to secure vaccines. The EU? 

Unprepared, unequipped, and dangerously slow. While the US, UK, and Switzerland raced ahead, Europe lagged behind—and people were dying.

So von der Leyen, without a formal mandate, went off-book. She engaged directly with Pfizer’s CEO. 

They reportedly exchanged texts about a vaccine deal worth 35 billionfor 1.8 billion doses

Let that sink in: billions of taxpayer euros negotiated over text, with zero official oversight.

Then came the New York Times, revealing in 2021 that she had been messaging her “dear Albert.” 

A journalist requested access to those messages, invoking the EU’s transparency regulations. The Commission flat-out refused.

Their excuse? We don’t have the texts.

Seriously?



⚖️ The EU Court Wasn’t Buying It

This week’s ruling declared that the Commission’s refusal was legally void. The court said the NYT’s reporting had credibly undermined the Commission’s claim that the messages never existed. And even if they were deleted, the Commission had a duty to explain how and why. It didn’t.

In short: The Commission lied, stonewalled, or both. And now it’s been caught.



🀐 Authoritarian Management Disguised as “Crisis Response”

Behind this mess lies a broader problem: Ursula von der Leyen’s governing style.

Her leadership has become synonymous with centralization, opacity, and power hoarding. Communications are tightly controlled. Decision-making is closed-door. Critics silenced. Dissenters removed. Her rival, Thierry Breton? Gone. Her inner circle? Handpicked.

Supporters call it “strong leadership.” Let’s call it what it is: an increasingly authoritarian, top-down regime within what should be the world’s most transparent democratic project.



πŸ”₯ Where Was This Verdict Before the EU Election?

Let’s ask the obvious:
Why didn’t this court ruling land before von der Leyen’s re-election campaign?

Was it strategic timing? Bureaucratic delay? Political shielding? We’ll never know. But what we do know is this: Democracy without transparency is a fraud.



🎀 Time to Grab the Mic, Ursula

Now is the time, Frau von der Leyen.
Take the mic. Own it. Pledge to rebuild trust. Apologize.
Not because the court told you to.
Not because the NYT embarrassed you.
But because without transparency, the EU is no better than Putin’s Russia or a post-truth United States.

You were meant to be better than this.



πŸ™Œ A Salute to the New York Times

Let’s give credit where it’s due: The New York Times did what European institutions failed to do—hold power accountable. When even the EU Parliament sat on its hands, NYT filed the lawsuit.

That’s journalism. That’s resistance. That’s democracy in action.



πŸ—³️ Dear EU Voters: Wake Up

Here’s the most dangerous part: every lie, every cover-up, every deleted message feeds the far-right.

For every one of Ursula’s blunders, a hundred new votes go to the AfD, to Le Pen, to OrbΓ‘n clones across Europe. Not because they offer solutions—but because they claim to be “different.” And when democratic leaders act like autocrats, those claims gain traction.

Stop handing them ammunition.



Final Word: Stop It. Or Step Down.

Von der Leyen’s legacy doesn’t have to be stained by scandal and secrecy. But that choice is hers.

The message from the people is clear:

Lead with integrity—or step aside.

The European Union deserves better.

We at ADAPTATION-GUIDE warned you long ago about von der Leyen’s backdoor deals, sketchy digital contracts, and unaccountable style. This latest ruling is not a surprise—it’s a confirmation.

And to the next leader:
Don’t bring us more PR spin. Bring the receipts.


Sources:



Sincerely,

ADAPTATION-GUIDE

ADAPT OR DIE!

LESS IS MORE!

WE ARE READY! ARE YOU?

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Dear Daily Disaster Diary, May 15 2025

 

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Desmond Tutu





Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Dear Daily Disaster Diary, May 14 2025

 


We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe






No Lookouts on the Titanic: How Trump's Climate Denialism Became a National Death Wish


If there were a scientific test — or a crystal ball — that could tell me when I will die and what I could have done to suffer less, would I want to know?

Maybe not.

But if that test existed to tell us how to prevent the slow collapse of our grandchildren’s lungs, our homes, our food systems, and the very skies we breathe?

Then hell yes, I’d want to know. And I’d want to act on it.

But what do you do when the captain of the ship fires all the lookouts — because he doesn’t believe in icebergs?

What do you do when the president of the United States fires hundreds of scientists tasked with monitoring the climate crisis — not because their science was wrong, but because their science was inconvenient?

What do you do when your nation, once a leader in innovation, facts, and global leadership, becomes a laughingstock? A rogue state. A pariah. A land whose elected officials cling to oil baron slogans like “drill, baby, drill” while Miami drowns and Texas burns?


The Irony is Blinding

Let’s entertain the fantasy. Let’s say climate change is a Chinese hoax, just like Trump said. If that’s the case, why is the insurance industry abandoning coastal homeowners, slashing coverage, and raising premiums across the board?

If there’s no warming, no rising seas, no more billion-dollar disasters — then where’s Trump’s executive order banning insurers from “spreading climate lies” by refusing to cover homes?

Where’s the MAGA rage at Allstate, State Farm, USAA and others who are pulling out of Florida and California like rats off a burning ship?

It’s almost like — stay with me herethey believe in climate science more than the government does.


A Slow-Motion National Suicide

In May 2025, the Trump administration dismantled the National Climate Assessment team — hundreds of scientists and researchers legally tasked by Congress to give the American people a fact-based look at how bad things are getting.

This isn’t just an attack on truth. It’s sabotage. If we were in a war (and we are — against time and physics), this would be treason.

Imagine firing your military intelligence team because their reports didn’t say what you wanted to hear. That’s what just happened — but with the climate, our food supply, our health systems, our future.

The data is clear. The scientists — the ones who still have jobs — are terrified. Some are breaking ranks and admitting what they can’t say publicly: we may already be past multiple tipping points.

But the president? He believes that not measuring the problem is the same as solving it. That gutting science makes it go away. That if the scientists don’t report it, it can’t hurt us.

This is the same logic that killed a million Americans during COVID. No testing, no pandemic. No climate report, no climate change.


A Nation of Fossil-Fueled Cowards

Behind the curtain, Republican lawmakers admit that climate change is real — but they’re waiting for their Fox-addled constituents to give them permission to act.

They’re waiting for voters to “wake up,” even as those same voters choke on wildfire smoke, die in floods, and lose their homes to insurance market collapse.

Meanwhile, in the 35 years since the first IPCC report, CO2 emissions have risen 60%. We knew. We had the charts. We had the tools. And we did worse.

Now we don’t have decades. We have years. Maybe less. And still — STILL — the richest country in the world is silencing the very people who can help us survive.


We’ll Be Paying China for Climate Solutions Soon

Here’s the next irony. By firing our scientists and abandoning climate innovation, we’re not just surrendering the truth — we’re surrendering our economic future.

We’ll be left playing catch-up, paying China and Europe for the clean tech, the water treatment systems, the flood defenses, and the heat-resistant crops we could have invented ourselves.

America, the empire, is on the fast track to second-tier status — not because we couldn’t lead, but because we chose not to.

Because we elected a man so hellbent on owning the libs that he torched the last few tools we had left to save ourselves.


Alternative Facts, Real-World Collapse

Ever since “alternative facts” became a doctrine in 2017, we’ve spiraled into a death cult of denial. A nation allergic to reality. A government that spits on its scientists, and a media ecosystem that rewards ignorance with airtime.

And now?

  • Our children have asthma.

  • Our coasts are disappearing.

  • Our crops are failing.

  • Our wildlands are on fire.

  • Our elderly are dying in heat waves.

  • Our rivers are drying up.

But the man in the Oval Office wants more oil rigs. More drilling. More fires for your lungs and more profits for Exxon.

We are watching the greatest self-inflicted wound in human history — and calling it “leadership.”


We Deserve Better — And We Still Have a Choice

This isn’t about Trump alone. This is about everyone who let him do this:

  • The corporate media that normalized his lies.

  • The fossil fuel execs who bought immunity with donations.

  • The lawmakers who knew the truth but stayed silent.

  • The citizens who refused to believe their own eyes and ears.

But here’s the brutal, saving grace: We still have time.

Not to avoid every disaster. But to mitigate the worst.

To stop more madness.
To build what’s next.
To fight for our kids.

But only if we stop pretending.

Only if we rise — even while the ship lists, the engines fail, and the captain raves.

Because the icebergs are real. And we’re already bleeding.


πŸ“’ What You Can Do (Right Now)

  • Call your representatives. Demand they protect the National Climate Assessment and rehire the fired scientists.

  • Cancel your support of climate-denying companiesincluding insurers lobbying against climate disclosures.

  • Educate others. Share real climate data, not social media sludge.

  • Donate to climate watchdogs and groups like Union of Concerned Scientists, 350.org, and Sunrise Movement.

  • Organize locally. Form community resilience teams. Talk to neighbors. Build your own data network if the government won’t.

  • Never forget: Silence = permission. 

                             And denial = death.

If the scientists are scared, you should be too. 

But fear is only useless if we freeze. 

Use it. Move. Act. Speak. Fight.

Before the sand buries us all.


Sincerely,

Adaptation-Guide

ADAPT OR DIE!

LESS IS MORE!

WE ARE READY! ARE YOU?


Dear Daily Disaster Diary, May 16 2025

" Sunlight  is  said  to  be  the  best  of  disinfectants." —    Louis Brandeis, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Pfizer COVID texts: ...