Fossil-Fuel Divestment Supported by Investors With $39 Trillion



Alastair Marsh
Mon, October 25, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- The pool of potential buyers for fossil-fuel stocks keeps shrinking and shrinking.

About 1,500 investment institutions overseeing a combined $39.2 trillion of assets are now committed to divesting from fossil fuels, according to a report issued Tuesday by DivestInvest. That’s a huge increase from $52 billion across 181 institutions in 2014, the first year the group tallied such commitments.

So far in 2021, the $16 billion Ford Foundation, started by the son of Henry Ford and now one of the largest private family foundations in the world, said it will cease to invest in fossil fuels. Harvard University made a similar pledge for its giant $42 billion endowment and Maine became the first U.S. state to order its public pension fund to sell off fossil-fuel holdings.

New York City’s pension funds have announced plans to divest about $4 billion worth of fossil fuel-related investments and Canada’s second-largest pension manager, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, has said it will sell billions of dollars worth of oil assets, including large equity stakes in Canada’s top crude producers, as part of a new strategy that aims to dramatically cut the emissions from its investments.

“The fossil-fuel divestment movement is growing at an accelerated clip, because the world has realized where the money flows determines our success in slowing climate change,” said Richard Brooks, climate finance director at environmental nonprofit Stand.earth. “More money simply needs to get out of financially risky coal, oil and gas companies, and switched over to companies driving climate solutions, including renewables.”

Dumping fossil fuels is a quick win for funds wishing to decarbonize portfolios, yet whether it also produces a positive outcome for the climate is fiercely debated. Simply selling fossil-fuel stocks doesn’t change the demand or use of fossil fuels, and in fact can lead to carbon-intensive companies being held predominantly in portfolios of investors that are less motivated to push for lower emissions.

Still, authors of the DivestInvest report said the movement can now “offer solid proof that divestment is a sound financial strategy” and that “fossil fuels are a bad bet financially.” Early adopters of divestment strategies are reporting positive financial results and more institutions “cite the financial reality that climate change will make fossil fuels obsolete and a renewable energy future inevitable,” according to the report.That chimes with the findings of a BlackRock Inc. report commissioned by New York City that said “no investors found significant negative performance from divestment, but rather have reported neutral to positive results.”

Dutch pension fund to divest from fossil fuel producers


Netherlands Climate Pension FundFILE- In this Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, file photo, Dutch police, second right and fourth right, top, break up a demonstration of Greenpeace climate activists who lowered themselves from a fuel storage tank during a protest at a Shell refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Netherlands' biggest pension fund announced Tuesday Oct. 26, 2021, that it will stop investing in companies that produce fossil fuels, saying the move that has long been demanded by members of the fund was prompted by recent climate reports by the United Nations and International Energy Agency. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)Less

MIKE CORDER
Tue, October 26, 2021,


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands' biggest pension fund announced Tuesday that it will stop investing in companies that produce fossil fuels, saying the move — long been demanded by many members of the fund — was prompted by recent climate reports by the United Nations and International Energy Agency.

The ABP fund is a wealthy and influential investor that manages the pension savings of more than 3 million Dutch workers in the government and education sectors. It has some 15 billion euros ($17.4 billion) invested in fossil fuel production, almost 3% of its assets.

In a tweet, the Dutch branch of Greenpeace called the move “a huge victory for all the people who called on ABP to take climate action!”

The announcement comes just days before a U.N. climate conference known as COP26 opens in Glasgow. Many environmental activists, policymakers and scientists say the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 event marks an important and even crucial opportunity for concrete commitments to the targets set out in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

“We want to contribute to minimizing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Large groups of pension participants and employers indicate how important this is to them," ABP Chairman of the Board Corien Wortmann said in a statement.

“The ABP Board sees the need and urgency for a change of course,” she added. "We part with our investments in fossil fuel producers because we see insufficient opportunity for us as a shareholder to push for the necessary, significant acceleration of the energy transition at these companies."

The fund said it will invest in major users of fossil fuels — energy producers, the automotive and aviation industries — and, using its clout as a shareholder, “will encourage companies that use fossil fuels to become more sustainable.”

It said it will divest its fossil fuel holdings in phases with most expected to be sold by the first quarter of 2023.

UNION BUSTING

Exxon Texas refinery workers to vote on removing union


FILE PHOTO: An Exxon gas station is seen in Houston

Erwin Seba
Mon, October 25, 2021, 6:48 PM·2 min read

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Locked-out workers at Exxon Mobil Corp's Beaumont, Texas, refinery will vote between Nov. 12 and Dec. 22 in a mail-in ballot on whether to remove the United Steelworkers union (USW) from representing them, according to the company and union.

The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will send out the ballots on Nov. 12 to workers represented by USW Local 13-243 at the refinery and adjoining lubricants blending and packaging plant, according to Exxon and the union. The ballots must be returned by Dec. 22.


At least 30% of the workers locked out of their jobs at the 369,000 barrel-per-day refinery and lubricants plant signed a petition calling for a decertification vote that was submitted to the NLRB in early October.

About 650 workers were locked on May 1 after a deadline passed without a new labor contract, but resignations and retirements from the union have reduced that number to about 585, according to union officials. Of those workers, about 500 are dues-paying members of the USW.

The remainder are still represented by the union under the Texas right-to-work law.

All who are represented by the USW will be eligible to cast ballots in the decertification vote.

The decertification vote follows the rejection of an Exxon contract proposal on Oct. 19, in which 400 union members cast ballots.

Exxon has said either adoption of the contract or decertification of the union will end the lockout, which began after the union refused to agree to a contract that would eliminate job seniority.

The rejected proposal would have given Exxon control over staffing of a new crude distillation unit that would add 250,000 barrels per day capacity in 2024, making Beaumont the largest U.S. oil-processing plant by volume.

The NLRB has yet to rule on USW complaints alleging Exxon supported the decertification campaign, in violation of federal law. The NLRB could impound the votes and not reveal the outcome until it rules on the union complaints.

If the NLRB does not impound the ballots, they could be counted by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Leslie Adler)

CRYPTO CAPITALI$M IS STILL CAPITALI$M

Bitcoin Is Still Concentrated in Few Hands, Study Finds



Emily Graffeo
Mon, October 25, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin’s surging popularity hasn’t changed one of its original attributes. Its ownership is still concentrated in just a few hands.

The top 10,000 individual investors in Bitcoin control about one-third of the cryptocurrency in circulation, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Crypto enthusiasts have long pondered who the largest owners of Bitcoin are since the early days of the its existence. It can be especially difficult to determine the concentration of ownership, as many of the largest addresses don’t often represent individuals, but exchanges and other entities that hold Bitcoin on behalf of other investors.

However, by using a data collection method that differentiated between addresses belonging to intermediaries and individuals, NBER researchers were able to find the former controlled about 5.5 million Bitcoin at the end of last year while the latter controlled about 8.5 million. Additionally, the top 1,000 individual investors controlled about 3 million, and the concentration could be even greater.

“This measurement of concentration most likely is an understatement since we cannot rule out that some of the largest addresses are controlled by the same entity,” researchers Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar wrote.

For instance, the data did not not assign the ownership of early Bitcoins held in about 20,000 addresses to one person (Satoshi Nakamoto) and considered them as belonging to 20,000 different individuals.

The concentration of miners is even more profound, data show. NBER found that the top 10% of miners control 90% of the Bitcoin mining capacity, and just 0.1% (about 50 miners) control 50% of mining capacity.

Such a high concentration could make the Bitcoin network vulnerable to a 51% attack, where a colluding set of miners or one miner is able to take control of a majority of the network. NBER found the concentration also decreases following sharp increases in the Bitcoin price, meaning the probability the network is vulnerable to a 51% attack is higher when Bitcoin’s price drops sharply.

“Our results suggest that despite the significant attention that Bitcoin has received over the last few years, the Bitcoin ecosystem is still dominated by large and concentrated players, be it large miners, Bitcoin holders or exchanges,” the researchers wrote. “This inherent concentration makes Bitcoin susceptible to systemic risk and also implies that the majority of the gains from further adoption are likely to fall disproportionately to a small set of participants.”

Hilcorp to replace Exxon as operator of Alaska's Point Thomson field


Yereth Rosen
Mon, October 25, 2021

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Hilcorp Energy Company, which has evolved into a major operator on Alaska's North Slope after BP's departure from the state, is now set to take over operations of a field run by another global giant, Exxon Mobil.

Big oil companies like BP and Exxon Mobil have stepped back from Alaska as activity in the state has dwindled, paving the way for smaller independent operators. Crude production in Alaska last year fell to 448,000 barrels per day, the lowest since 1976.

Hilcorp is set to take charge of the Point Thomson field, which will still be majority owned by Exxon. Point Thomson, the easternmost producing North Slope field, languished for decades, with the state in past years nearly nullifying leases until a deal was struck for production of liquid gas condensates.

Exxon signed an agreement with Hilcorp to transfer the Point Thomson operator position, said Exxon spokeswoman Julie King, with the change in operatorship expected by early 2022. Exxon will continue to own more than 60% of Point Thomson, King said.

Even though Exxon holds major shares of Prudhoe Bay and other Alaska oil assets, Point Thomson, located about 60 miles (96 km) east of Prudhoe Bay, is the only field the company has operated.

Texas-based independent Hilcorp acquired all of BP's Alaska assets in 2014 and 2020, including its 32% share of Point Thomson and 26% share of Prudhoe Bay. Hilcorp last year replaced BP as Prudhoe Bay's operator.

"Hilcorp is excited about our continued commitment to Alaska. We welcome the opportunity to apply our proven record of enhancing legacy conventional assets to Point Thomson," Luke Saugier, senior vice president for Alaska, said in a statement Friday.

Point Thomson is considered critical for any commercialization of North Slope natural gas. It holds about 8 trillion cubic feet of known reserves, roughly a quarter of the North Slope total known reserves. Alaska's marketed natural gas production was about 0.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2020, down from a record 1.5 bcfd in 1994.

Natural gas liquids production at the field averaged about 8,300 barrels a day between January 2020 to July 2021, according to Exxon data submitted to the state. (Reporting By Yereth Rosen in Anchorage, Alaska; editing by David Evans)

Incredible videos show the Canadian Coast Guard using tugboats to drench an 853-foot cargo ship that caught on fire

Connor Perrett

Mon, October 25, 2021

The Canadian National Guard used tugboats to spray the Zim Kingston to keep the blaze from spreading. Canadian National Guard via Twitter

• Videos show tugboats putting out a fire on the 853-foot Zim Kingston near Canada's Vancouver Island.

• The cargo ship caught fire on Saturday not long after it lost roughly 40 shipping containers.

• Officials said they would board the ship Monday to put out any remaining fires if weather permitted.

Videos the Canadian Coast Guard shared on Twitter Sunday show the agency using tugboats to drench the 853-foot cargo ship Zim Kingston with water after it caught fire on Saturday.

Canadian officials on Sunday said the fire aboard the cargo ship had been "stabilized," adding that a crew of hazardous materials firefighters planned to board the ship on Monday to "fight any remaining fires" if the weather permitted.

According to an early Monday Reuters report, 16 crew members were evacuated from the ship on Saturday while five remained on the ship to help keep the fire under control.

The tugboats sprayed water on the ship to keep the fire from spreading while the blaze burned itself out, the Canadian Coast Guard told Reuters.

The agency ordered all ship traffic to stay 2 nautical miles away from the ship. The Canadian Transport Ministry restricted all aircraft from flying within 2 nautical miles of the ship or fewer than 2,000 feet above it, Reuters reported.

"We can't see any scorching or charring of those adjacent containers - that's a really good sign," said Canadian Coast Guard Commander JJ Brickett, according to Reuters. "The fire is smoldering as you would expect, and we're continuing to cool on either side."

Officials said air quality monitoring stations around the area were monitoring the smoke coming from the ship. Danaos Shipping Co, the company that manages the vessel, said on Sunday it had no injuries to report as a result of the fire.

As Insider previously reported, the fire broke out on the Zim Kingston on Saturday while it was anchored off the coast of Canada's Vancouver Island. The fire occurred just one day after it lost about 40 shipping containers. Some of the containers that fell off the ship contained hazardous materials, officials said.

At least 35 of the containers have been located, the US Coast Guard said in a press release Sunday.

The blaze started in damaged containers that were still on board the vessel, the Canadian Coast Guard said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

LIDAR NOT PSYCHICS

Remote-sensing reveals details of ancient Olmec site in Mexico


Will Dunham
Mon, October 25, 2021

(Reuters) - Aerial remote-sensing of a large region of Mexico has revealed hundreds of ancient Mesoamerican ceremonial centers, including a large one at an important site for the ancient Olmec culture that is known for its colossal stone heads.

The remote-sensing method, called lidar, pinpointed 478 ceremonial centers in areas that were home to the ancient Olmec and Maya cultures dating to roughly 1100-400 BC, researchers said on Monday. The study was the largest such survey involving ancient Mesoamerica, covering all of the state of Tabasco, southern Veracruz and bits of Chiapas, Campeche and Oaxaca.

Lidar, short for Light Detection and Ranging, uses a pulsed laser and other data obtained while flying over a site to generate three-dimensional information about the shape of surface characteristics. It penetrates vegetation and pinpoints structures that otherwise might not be seen from the air or the ground.

A large ceremonial center was spotted at the early Olmec site called San Lorenzo, which is located in Veracruz in the lowlands near the Gulf of Mexico and was at its peak from roughly 1400-1000 BC. The Olmecs represented the oldest-known major Mesoamerican civilization and are thought to have influenced later cultures, including the Maya.

University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata, who led the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, said lidar spotted a large and previously unknown rectangular earthen ceremonial space at San Lorenzo.

It measures about 3,300 feet by 900 feet (1,000 meters by 275 meters), with 20 platforms around the edge slightly elevated above it. Its purpose remains unclear but it may have been a plaza where large numbers of people gathered for some type of ceremonies, while the platforms surrounding the plaza may have had residences, Inomata said.

The Olmec heads, each fashioned from a single basalt boulder, are among the most evocative pieces of art from ancient Mesoamerica. The naturalistic facial features are carved in such a way that experts suspect they are representations of actual ancient Olmec rulers.

Ten of the heads have been discovered at San Lorenzo. Inomata said there may be more of them undiscovered at related sites.

Many of the hundreds of ceremonial complexes identified in the study share common layouts like the one at San Lorenzo. Many appear to have been built with orientations aligned with the direction of sunrise on specific key ceremonial dates.

"These centers were probably the earliest material expressions of basic concepts of Mesoamerican calendars," Inomata said, noting that such calendars were based on a unit of 20 days - matching the number of platforms around the San Lorenzo ceremonial center.

An even larger ceremonial center https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-maya/oldest-and-largest-ancient-maya-structure-found-in-mexico-idUSKBN23A2EH, described by Inomata and his colleagues last year, was found at a site in the Maya region called Aguada Fenix in Tabasco near the Guatemalan border. Dating to slightly later than the one at San Lorenzo, it and others found in the study suggest that Olmecs and other peoples in the region exchanged ideas.

Lidar has proven increasingly useful for archaeologists.

"The advantage of lidar is that it provides a three-dimensional, birds-eye view of the landscape and modifications to it made by humans - ancient and modern - in the form of building, transportation, agricultural and water control infrastructure," said lidar engineer and study co-author Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz of the University of Houston's National Center of Airborne Laser Mapping.

"Lidar also allows us to 'see' the landscape and infrastructure that in many parts of the world is hidden under forest cover," Fernandez-Diaz added.

(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Genetic Analysis Reveals Origin of All Domesticated Horses

Matthew Hart
Mon, October 25, 2021

Domesticated horses are ubiquitous enough in real life and fictional worlds for it to seem like they’ve always just been there, in their “final form,” so to speak. But where and when did we homo sapiens begin to domesticate the majestic hoofed animals? According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the journey from wild horse to Seabiscuit started around 4,200 years ago in the western Eurasian steppe.

Smithsonian Magazine reported on a new study about this topic. The research outlines how scientists pinpointed the modern domesticated horse’s origins. As Science shares, the interdisciplinary team of scientists analyzed 300 ancient horse genomes from 121 archaeological sites across Eurasia. The scientists ruled out other longstanding candidate regions such as Central Asia and the Iberian Peninsula thanks to previous research efforts.

Two horses running together in a field, emblematic of the domesticated horses that began their lineage 4,200 years ago in Eurasia.
Coen Dijkman

Molecular archaeologist Ludovic Orlando of the French national research agency (CNRS) and Paul Sabatier University led the interdisciplinary team. First, they visited sites from Kazakhstan to Mongolia to gather horse bones. These bones ranged in age from 2,000 to 10,000 years old. The team then sequenced the bones’ genomes and organized them into a family tree. One that allowed the scientists to see how the horses were related to each other and their modern counterparts.

Using the family tree, the scientists pinned domesticated horses’ genetic origins to one type of the equid that herders on the western Eurasian steppe domesticated 4,200 years ago. The western Eurasian steppe, in turquoise in the image immediately below, is a vast ecoregion of Eurasia. It consists of temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands. Since the Paleolithic age, people have used the steppe as a trade route connecting Central and Eastern Europe with Central, Eastern, and Southern Asia.

A map showing the western Eurasian steppe, where a team of scientists now believes the modern-day domesticated horse originated.

Shattered Gnome

“The horses living in Anatolia, Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia used to be genetically quite distinct,” Orlando told Science. “[But once] we domesticated this new kind of horse, suddenly they were everywhere,” the molecular archaeologist noted.

The genetic profile of the western Eurasian horse began to spread out across Eurasia; replacing existing lineages as it did so. By 3,000 years ago, it had replaced all other genetic profiles in Eurasia. Eurasia includes everything from what is modern-day Turkey to central Russia. The new horse was so entrenched in human life; it even became a symbol of Bronze Age art.

A 3D map showing where modern-day domesticated horses originated in the western Eurasian steppe.
Orlando et al. / Nature

As for why this particular western Eurasian horse became so dominant? The scientists say two genetic mutations gave them the domestication edge. These predecessors to DOM2—or “second domestication”—horses had a gene mutation that helps control anxiety and aggression. As well as one that researchers have linked to chronic back pain in people. These genetic mutations, the scientists say, made the horses calmer and less likely to have back problems than earlier breeds. However, nascent domesticated horses had plenty of other problems to worry about, unfortunately. Like carrying soldiers into battle. Their more recent relatives have also had to star in TikTok videos, which is, of course, terrible in its own right.

The post Genetic Analysis Reveals Origin of All Domesticated Horses appeared first on Nerdist.

The Mystery Behind a Nearby Alien Beacon Is Solved


Neel V. Patel
Mon, October 25, 2021

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Back in April 2019, an Australian telescope picked up a very tantalizing radio signal that seemed to emanate from the sun's closest neighboring star. The signal didn’t have any obvious explanation. Instead, it seemed to possess the hallmarks of something created by intelligent alien life.

And in fact, that was the whole point of the research project that stumbled on the signal. Called Breakthrough Listen, the $100 million effort has spent the last five years using state-of-the-art telescopes around the world to listen in on signs of extraterrestrial life from around the galaxy.

The 2019 signal, called “blc1,” was exactly what the Breakthrough researchers were hoping to find. Detected by the Parkes Murriyang radio telescope in southeastern Australia, blc1 was coming right from Proxima Centauri, a star just 4.2 light-years away, and home to two planets—one of which is thought to be potentially habitable to life.

According to Sofia Sheikh from the Berkeley SETI Research Center, the signal was “uniquely similar to the kind of signal we would expect from space.” It was something that could only be made by technology—and technology from space to boot. It lasted several hours, which ruled out satellites or aircraft. If it had a natural origin, the signal should have repeated over time, but the team never observed it again in dozens of hours of follow-up observations of Proxima Centauri. Instead, it was the type of one-and-done signal expected from an intelligent civilization.

Over the last two years, the Breakthrough team has pored over the data and finally come back with a verdict on blc1.

Bad news: It’s not aliens.

“We can confidently say that blc1 is consistent with human radio frequency interference from some sort of ground-based technology,” Sheikh, a co-author of two new studies on blc1 published in Nature Astronomy, told The Daily Beast. “While of course we would love to find evidence of extraterrestrial life someday, the process of investigating blc1 was extremely scientifically valuable in its own right.”

Over the two years of analysis, the team found out that blc1 actually shares the same frequency as other radio interference that was picked up around the same time as blc1’s detection. A deep dive into the data found over 60 “copies” of the blc1 signal, all with very clear signs of being radio interference.

Though the team still doesn’t know exactly what created blc1, an alien origin has been ruled out.

Sheikh and her colleagues don’t consider this investigation to be a total loss. In her view, it’s an opportunity to improve the algorithms designed to weed out human interference, and improve the process designed to help evaluate this type of data more thoroughly. She’s also glad they have the type of hardware and software that can more rigorously scrutinize these signals these days. The infamous “Wow!” signal—named after scientists who observed it wrote “Wow!” on the readout of the data—was a similarly extreme blip detected in 1977 in Ohio, but scientists were unable to trace its origins.

“Without this new technology, a one-off signal like blc1 would remain in limbo as ‘maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t,’ like the Wow! signal,” said Sheikh.

The new findings are a drag, but scientists aren’t done with Proxima Centauri. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, billed as a successor to Hubble and launching next month, could detect signs of life on one of the star’s planets. And Breakthrough Listen’s sister project, Starshot, is planning to one day build and launch a fleet of small spacecraft to Proxima Centauri to get a glimpse of any alien life up close. That plan involves a giant laser cannon that may or may not be impossible to build, so we’ll wait to see how it pans out.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

‘One of the Clearest UFO Sightings’ Ever, Says The Sun of This Video from Chicago

By Caleb Howe

Oct 23rd, 2021, 


British tabloid The Sun shared a video on Twitter Saturday featuring footage caught and widely publicized earlier in October over Chicago, Illinois, calling it “one of the clearest UFO sightings we’ve ever seen.”

The video has been making rounds on various websites and publications for a few weeks, but The Sun’s latest tweet on the subject picked up steam pretty fast, for its presentation and for those of us who missed it the first time around.

In the intervening weeks since the incident no official explanation has been made, although there have been plenty of theories offered, from balloons to a kite and more.

It’s cool, if brief, footage, but the dramatic flair added by The Sun really gives it that October feel, don’t you think?

John Oliver Roasts Cops Protesting Vaccine Mandates: ‘If an Officer Wants to Quit Over This, F*cking Let Them’

By Leia Idliby

Oct 25th, 2021,

John Oliver has roasted the cops protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates, urging officers threatening to quit to leave the force.

Oliver began the Sunday night segment by playing a video of Washington state trooper Robert Lamay, who filmed himself resigning from his squad car.

“This is the last time you’ll hear me in a state patrol car—and Gov. Jay Inslee can kiss my ass,” Lamay said, dropping his walkie-talkie.

“Ohh, a walkie drop! You don’t see many of those! And that’s probably because it looks pathetic. Dropping a microphone is inherently exciting,” Oliver cracked after airing the clip. “You get the thud as it hits the floor, and the cheer of the crowd, but a walkie drop? That’s just a sad man sitting in a dark car, dropping a heavy object directly onto his penis.”

The host went on to explain that throughout the nation, a small group of cops have threatened to resign over Covid-19 mandates, and have been receiving “disproportionate coverage” for their actions.

“They frame this as a matter of individual liberty, even in cases where very little was being asked of them,” he added.

Oliver was referring to John Catanzara, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, who lashed out when officers in the city were asked to register their vaccination status in an online portal, despite the fact that they could continue to work if they were unvaccinated and submitted regular testing.

The host decided against airing his opposition to the mandates and instead showed viewers his apology:

“In no way was I trying to tie forced vaccinations to the atrocities of the holocaust, which is why I never used the word holocaust. I should not have made the reference like I did to the showers and for that I am sorry.”

After mocking Catanzara for his pronunciation of “hole-ocaust,” Oliver shared that he has been “suspended eight times and has received more misconduct complaints per year of service than 96 percent of his fellow Chicago officers. And yet, this is who his union members chose to represent them.”

“So next time someone says to you, ‘not all cops are bad,’ you can respond, ‘no, just their favorite ones!'” Oliver quipped. “And Catanzara’s hostility to a vaccine mandate is particularly noteworthy given one of his predecessors as head of the union died of Covid just this month. Which actually brings us to a staggering fact.”

Four times as many officers have died from the coronavirus than as from gunfire since the start of the pandemic.

“That is a terrible statistic,” said Oliver, later adding, “Look, there is also the key matter of the fact that the police are supposed to be keeping the public safe. That is the point of their jobs, yet some don’t seem to give much of a shit about that.”

The host went on to hit at CNN for representing the statistic via a bar graph where one bar was only twice as high as the other despite the numbers indicating it should be four times as high.

“So welcome to CNN. If you want to instantly understand the different ways police die, it’s going to be tricky. But if you want to understand the one way a certain British royal died, it’s your lucky day! 9:00 P.M. Eastern, Sunday nights,” he joked. “Though no need to watch. Spoiler alert, it was the mother-in-law.”

“If an officer wants to quit over this, fucking let them,” Oliver added. “Let the individuals who clearly don’t care about public safety stop being in charge of public safety. It really is that simple.”

Watch via YouTube.