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: EU wrong to deny release of von der Leyen messages, court finds

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

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“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.

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⚠️ 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 billion—for 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?

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⚖️ 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.

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🤐 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.

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🔥 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.

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🎤 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.

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🙌 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.

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🗳️ 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 Orbán 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.

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✊ 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.

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Sources:

• New York Times Report on von der Leyen's Pfizer Texts

• EU Court Ruling Summary (2025)

• Transparency Regulation – EU Law

Sincerely,

ADAPTATION-GUIDE

ADAPT OR DIE!

LESS IS MORE!

WE ARE READY! ARE YOU?

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

Sarah Kopit on How Travelers are Staying Away from the U.S.

✈️ 25 Reasons to Rethink That Trip to the U.S. — Especially If You’re Marginalized, Outspoken, or Value Your Rights

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The palm trees are still swaying. The resorts are still open. The ads are slick and desperate. And Gavin Newsom is smiling into the camera, begging Canadians to come spend their loonies in California. But here’s the truth:

The United States is no longer safe for everyone — and for some of us, it never was.

Below are 25 reasons why stepping foot in the U.S. is now an inherently hazardous, morally compromised, and potentially dangerous choice — especially for anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into MAGA’s narrow vision of America.

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1. Authoritarianism is no longer a threat — it's reality.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Republican governors are openly dismantling democratic norms. Trump’s second-term plans (Project 2025) read like a fascist blueprint.

2. Abortion is illegal in over a dozen states.

Canadians used to mock the U.S. “culture wars.” Now we mourn them. A miscarriage in Texas can land you in jail. That’s not hyperbole. That’s real.

3. Trans people are under legislative attack.

Over 500 anti-trans bills have been introduced across the U.S. in the last 2 years. Healthcare is being criminalized. Identity itself is being erased.

4. Gun violence is out of control.

There were over 650 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023. In what other “developed” country is the risk of being shot at a mall, school, or parade a daily reality?

5. Black, Indigenous, and Brown travelers face higher scrutiny at borders and airports.

Flying while Black is still a thing in 2025. Racism at U.S. Customs and TSA is well-documented and systemic.

6. Political activists are being surveilled, tracked, and harassed.

If you’ve ever tweeted support for BLM, Gaza, or climate action — congratulations. You might be on a watchlist.

7. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates with impunity.

They can detain you indefinitely. Even if you’re Canadian. Even if you have done nothing wrong.

8. Digital privacy at the border is a myth.

Phones, laptops, social media accounts — all fair game. Deleting your apps or bringing a burner isn’t paranoia. It’s protocol now.

9. You can be detained without cause.

Denied entry? Expect to be held in secondary detention — no explanation, no recourse, and no phone call.

10. Social media is now a liability.

That cheeky Instagram post mocking Trump? It could be used against you at the border.

11. Hate crimes are rising.

Anti-Asian, anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Muslim attacks have skyrocketed. The perpetrators often walk free.

12. The health care system is predatory.

Break a bone? Get COVID? Step on a sea urchin? You could be looking at a five-figure medical bill.

13. Police brutality continues unchecked.

Even tourists aren’t immune. Foreign nationals have been brutalized, wrongfully arrested, and in some cases, killed.

14. White Christian nationalism is rising.

It’s no longer fringe. It’s mainstream GOP policy. Theocracy is not just a risk — it’s the goal.

15. Climate disasters are accelerating — and poorly managed.

Wildfires, floods, heatwaves — and collapsing infrastructure to boot. FEMA is underfunded. The safety net is gone.

16. Protests are being criminalized.

March in solidarity? You could face felony charges, even as a foreign national.

17. Voter suppression and rigged districts are the norm.

This is not a functioning democracy. It’s a rigged game designed to uphold minority rule.

18. Media freedom is under attack.

Journalists — even international ones — are being harassed, sued, and arrested.

19. Florida and Texas are modern testing labs for authoritarianism.

Book bans, thought police, anti-LGBTQ+ laws — and these are tourist destinations?

20. Border agents are emboldened and abusive.

There is little oversight. Complaints rarely result in discipline. Some cases end in death.

21. Surveillance is widespread and state-sanctioned.

Facial recognition, license plate tracking, predictive policing — welcome to the surveillance state.

22. Homicide rates are climbing in several key cities.

Visitors are not immune from the consequences of an underfunded, over-armed, paranoid society.

23. Trumpism is not a glitch. It’s the operating system.

Even if Biden were in office, the MAGA machine runs deep — through judges, police, bureaucracies, and militias.

24. You are no longer welcome.

The love affair is over. Many Americans — emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric — see outsiders as threats, not guests.

25. Going sends the wrong message.

Every dollar spent in the U.S. right now helps fund a system unraveling civil rights and global stability. Is that what you want your money to support?

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❌ Final Thought: A Beach Vacation Shouldn’t Require a Burner Phone

If you have to erase your social media, hide your identity, or mentally prepare for interrogation just to sip a cocktail on a beach — that is not a safe or free country.

This isn’t anti-Americanism. It’s pro-accountability. Pro-safety. Pro-human rights. The U.S. is at a crossroads. Until it chooses a path that protects the marginalized, respects international guests, and upholds actual democracy — we should choose not to go.

Stay loud. 

Stay home. 

And let them know why.

Sincerely,

Adaptation-Guide

ADAPT OR DIE!

LESS IS MORE!

WE ARE READY! ARE YOU?

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

What They Don't Tell Us About Climate Change | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

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?

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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 here — they believe in climate science more than the government does.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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📢 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 companies — including 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.

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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?