Game over man.

The Russia investigation concerning the U.S. 2016 elections is getting to the nitty gritty it seems. The timing, end of October going into November seems to be on the money with previous predictions. These things take time and I expect it will be a while longer for either U.S. President Donald Trump to be in the clear or be faced with unpalatable choices.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort has been indicted on charges as has Manafort’s associate, Rick Gates. Both men have pleaded not guilty. The charges against Manafort and Gates do not seem to directly relate to the election campaign. What may prove to more significant is the revelation that former foreign policy adviser to Trump, George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI. The last breaking news on this is that the team of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner has reportedly turned over documents to special counsel Robert Mueller as the investigation continues.

There may be nothing in it, but Mueller strikes me as a man who is very thorough and will get to the bottom of the matter, even if it goes to the very top. Will someone kiss and tell to save their soul?

North Korea is still a crisis it’s just that other events get in the way of it dominating the news. Trump will be in Asia, including South Korea over the next couple of weeks. Perfect for grandstanding from either party. Maybe they could sort it out over an arm wrestling contest and just leave the rest of us out of it.

There was another terrorist attack in New York, which has raised the rhetoric again. Understandable but I do struggle to understand why the reaction wasn’t the same over the Las Vegas massacre.

The softwood lumber dispute with the U.S. and Canada has gone up another notch and who knows where the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) talks are going. I don’t know, by the time the America First policy is played out maybe the mighty trade nation will be trading with itself, by itself. All by itself, alone. Was that a song?

Here’s a thing. The Paris climate change agreement may be a total waste of time and effort. That will be music to some people’s ears. However, it’s not likely that this is because the Paris agreement was not important it’s because it’s likely to be too late. Even though we’ve worked hard (some more than others) at getting emissions down Mother Nature is likely to stomp us good.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has just said that CO2 levels have increased to a level not seen for 800,000 years. The WMO also said that 2016’s increase was 50 per cent higher than the average for the last ten years; measurements were taken from 51 countries. Apparently, average concentrations were up from 403.3 parts per million (ppm) compared to 400 ppm in 2015. The WMO said it’s the largest increase in 30 years; during the late 60s we were sitting at just under 320 ppm.

And now the kicker. Scientists look like they didn’t factor in the emission of methane, a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. It’s belching out the stuff in the tropics and I don’t think we’ve even started to measure emissions from the Arctic. Myself and others have been saying this for years. Too much talk, not enough do and too much political gravy flowing. Now the planet we call home is going to kick us up the jacksy good and hard anyway. As Hudson said in Aliens, “Game over man.”