Anti-democracy radical close to V.P. J.D. Vance

Curtis Yarvin

Curtis Yarvin, a “neoreactionary” thinker and far-right blogger, has been described as a serious intellectual influence of vice president-elect JD Vance and being close to several proposed Trump appointees. The Guardian says, "He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration." Yarvin advocates an autocratic takeover of the US. Here's the scenario...

"The aftermath of Trump’s election victory has seen actions and rhetoric from Trump and his lieutenants that closely resemble Yarvin’s public proposals for taking autocratic power in America."

Donald Trump's goal is to install himself in the position of dictator, eliminating the laws of democracy, and ruling the U.S. until he dies. But you know what, no one could be his successor, and all successful tyrants want someone to carry on their work. His narcissistic personality would not allow for an ending, so you would have to assume this egomaniac would be looking for a process that would keep him alive forever. I did a blog recently, "Who wants to live forever with a Donald Trump?" 

My premise was, who would want to live endlessly if Trump had the same advantage. My post, above, looks at an article from National Geographic, "Could humans live forever?" The Nat'l Geo piece is very complex and I try to make the most of the author's contention that someday we could live forever. But enough of the terribly frightening thought that Donald Trump could live eternally. Back to Yarvin and this scenario...

"Trump’s legal moves against critics in the media, Elon Musk’s promises to pare government spending to the bone, and the deployment of the Maga base against Republican lawmakers who have criticized controversial nominees like Pete Hegseth are among the measures that resemble elements of Yarvin’s strategy for displacing liberal democracy in the US."

Michael Anton, a writer and academic was appointed by Trump to work in a senior role

under secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio. Anton has a podcast on which Yarvin has appeared with his ideological conservatism. And, the Verge reported that no one online has shaped Vance’s thinking more than Curtis Yarvin. Robert Evans, an extremism researcher and the host of the podcast Behind the Bastards said...

“He didn’t fall out of a coconut tree. He emerged into a rightwing media space where they had been talking about the evils of liberal media and corrupt academic institutions for decades.

There's more...

 “He has influenced a lot of people in the incoming administration and a lot of other influential people on the right. But a lot of the stuff he advocates is the same windmills Republicans have been tilting at for a while.”

Evans added...

“What’s unique is his way of rebranding or repackaging old reactionary ideas in a way that appealed to libertarian-minded kids in the tech industry, and in eventually getting some of them to embrace a lot of far-right ideas.

"That’s the novelty of Yarvin and that’s his real accomplishment.”

I dare say the corruption of innocent minds by conservatives is not a novelty. We all know it dates back to Newt Gingrich, eventually moving forward to Karl Rove. This guy has simply resurrected a typical Republican strategy.

Will Musk allow Trump's world dominion

Lately Elon Musk has been calling the shots in Donald Trump's procession of lunatic maneuvers. They are both crazy with power and the major objective for most of us - those that are sane - is just who will come out on top. Just a few months ago there would have been no doubt. Today, after Musk bought Trump an election, it isn't clear. What we do know, it is the Oval Office maniac's style to turn on his opponents when they threaten him. The question is when this will all come to a head?

Axios expounds on Donald Trump's empire dreams...

"President-elect Trump has big plans to make America greater — in terms of square mileage, Axios' Dave Lawler and Zachary Basu write.

Why it matters: Trump has been in a strikingly imperial mood since his election victory. He has floated acquiring Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal, annexing Canada, and potentially invading Mexico — to the intense consternation of their leaders."

The epitome of megalomaniacs

Donald Trump is a megalomaniac with Axios saying his plans "would rival the Louisiana Purchase [of 1803] or the [1867] deal that netted Alaska from Russia." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is between a rock and a hard place... 

"already grappling with a contentious moment for his leadership and Donald Trump is adding fuel to the fire, taunting Trudeau with the prospect of making his country the 51st US state."

And the New York Times says taking Greenland and the Panama Canal is no joke. The world conqueror has completely flipped his lid on this one and it should be obvious where this imbecile is going and the serious trouble he will get the country into worldwide. Here's the scenario from Axios...

"Trump has little regard for the 'global order.' He thinks throwing foreign partners off balance — or, when possible, steamrolling them — better serves American interests."

A major concern is that a Republican Congress - and I do believe there are still some who are not just buffoons and who aren't completely incompetent - is still standing by and letting this idiot do whatever he wants. One must wonder the mentality of these politicians. With both Greenland and Panama exclaiming repeatedly that they are not for sale, the U.S. is once again a laughing stock on the international scene. In this new four years, Donald Trump could do enough damage to really hurt America's standing in the world.

And that's not all...

"Trump's allies have also been discussing a potential 'soft invasion' of Mexico, as one adviser phrased it to Rolling Stone. That could involve targeting cartels through cross-border special forces operations or drone strikes."

Axios defines it all as American imperialism. The Republicans can't even govern in the U.S. and they want to take over the world. The next four years could literally bring down this country. 

Elon Musk v. Donald Trump

Trump/Musk

The Trump/Musk wedlock may be just what the Democrats need to counter the ravages Donald Trump has planned when he re-enters the White House. A CNN analyst reports, "The Democratic Party has finally hit on an attack tactic which has found its target with Trump." I was beginning to wonder since the Dems haven't been able to come up with anything in recent months, precisely why Washington will become a Republican trifecta in 2025. But back to the new strategy  of posturing Elon Musk as being Donald Trump's decision-maker.

Here's the scenario...

"The strategy — used by multiple Democrats over the past weekend — is to take aim at the president-elect’s sense of security by suggesting his ally, Elon Musk, is really pulling the strings in his administration."

There's more...

They “are trying to tweak Trump’s vanity, mockingly suggesting that even after winning a second term, he is still not as powerful as the South Africa-born tech mogul whom he put in charge of slashing the size of government once the president-elect takes office,” Stephen Collinson wrote.

Democrats have jumped in to point out how Musk tanked Speaker Mike Johnson's spending

deal proving who is in charge. Trump doesn't like being overshadowed. The New Republic says Trump is "pissed." TNR reports...

"During his address at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, the president-elect pushed back on claims that Musk planned to supplant him as president."

“No, he’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “And I’m safe, you know why? He can’t be, he wasn’t born in this country.”

TNR is not so much worried that Musk will take over the Presidency, more so that he already has...

"Last week, Musk issued his own set of marching orders to Congress, ordering Republicans to oppose a massive spending bill to avert a government shutdown, or face being primaried by a Musk-backed candidate. Meanwhile, Trump stayed more or less silent, and Democratic leaders began to criticize the president-elect for allowing Musk to lead his party."

 Amanda Marcotte of Salon as reported in AlterNet...

"argues that Musk has been acting like a 'shadow president' — and that Musk has been leading the 'aging and tired' Trump around 'by the nose.'"

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City has been very verbal on the Musk/Trump tango...

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter — which Musk owns — AOC said, "When Elon tweets something and when Trump tweets something…. Republicans don't know who their daddy is. They don't know which one they need to be listening to first."

There's more...

"AOC went on to say that Musk 'poses real political problems for Trump' and 'arguably…. may rival his power and influence.'"

If Trump starts driving a Tesla and decides to take a ride on Space X, do you think Musk will leave him in space? There's always the chance. 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Who wants to live forever with a Donald Trump?

The idea of living forever has been studied and evaluated for years. It kind of depends on what your religion is and whether or not you'd rather stay on earth or go to that promised paradise in the sky. Of course staying on earth would have to be accompanied by some means of maintaining physical and mental health which then addresses our biological side. In the past it has been much too complicated for scientists to arrive at a solution so the concept is relegated to the future. 

National Geographic has come up with something called the immortal jellyfish that defies death...

"One of the planet’s most extraordinary creatures floats in the Mediterranean Sea. The pale pink disk doesn’t look like much, but this jellyfish, called Turritopsis dohrnii, has a survival skill like none other: When injured or dying, it can return to its juvenile form, becoming young again."

There's more...

"That ability gives Turritopsis dohrnii its nickname: the immortal jellyfish. Scientists are studying these creatures closely, hoping to uncover secrets about human aging. Is it possible that someday we could go on living far into the future?"

Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel laureate and author of the newly released “Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality,” says, "Science is making anti-aging progress. But do we want to live forever?" Here's the scenario...

"Ramakrishnan opened his packed Harvard Science Book Talk last week by noting the vast variabilities of lifespans across the natural world. Death is certain, so far as we know. But there’s no physical or chemical law that says it must happen at a fixed time, which raises other, more philosophical issues."

The next thing that comes to mind, will future generations be born with the ability to plan their lives all the way to their deaths? Kindergarten will provide the introduction to life for children that precedes future grades literally walking them through that life with all the joys one experiences mixed with the hardships they might encounter. After reaching the age of eighteen - an arbitrary choice - you decide how many years you want to live. Your decision would be based on the knowledge of your futuristic upbringing.

And if you still have a hankering to break the 100 mark, or maybe even 200, 400 years, read this article from Salon. Scientists have determined that death is “kind of arbitrary” and they "want to upload the brain so we can live forever." The piece starts with background on the latest quest for immortality, cryonics, that is a process which preserves biological tissues by storing them at extremely cold temperatures in the hope of someday reviving them.

Enter Dr. Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston, a research fellow at Melbourne’s Monash University who makes the case that cryopreservation is possible and should be more widely available. Zeleznikow-Johnston argues a human’s connectome — a high-resolution map of all their brain connections — could be theoretically recorded perfectly before they die. The concept is very complicated and there are many who disagree with Zeleznikow-Johnston. Are talking about brain without body?

My advice is, if you have a very scientific mind, read the article, If you're a layman like me, just take the man's word that someday we will be living longer, maybe considerably longer.

 

 

Could U.S. bird flu outdistance the covid pandemic?

Remember the covid pandemic? Of course you do, and like most of the rest of the world, you don't want to see a replay. Worldometer reports there have been 704,753,890 coronavirus cases worldwide with 7,010,681 deaths. In the USA there were 111,820,082 cases accompanied by 1,219,487 deaths. Now a new virus called bird flu is challenging the medical field and so far it is winning. There are 61 reported human cases of H5 bird flu reported in the United States. AlterNet reports...

"Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 845 herds across 16 states have tested positive."

Further...

"Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak."

Al Jazeera provides worldwide figures...

Since the virus was first detected nearly three decades ago in China, about 860

people have become infected in 23 countries, including China, Egypt, Vietnam and Turkiye, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Of those, 463 people died from the virus, giving a huge 52 percent death rate.

So, has the U.S. government dropped the ball on bird flu like Donald Trump did on the coronavirus pandemic during his administration? The Guardian says, "US repeating Covid mistakes with bird flu as spread raises alarm, experts say." Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health believes the failure of this country to learn from past crises or simply a refusal to do so, could lead to another pandemic of bird flu. This is what is wrong with America. Here's the scenario...

"A lack of testing, opaque data, political divides, poor healthcare access and a sense of hubris – all have plagued the Covid response, and now these errors are playing across the bird flu response, Gonsalves said."

There's more...

“We have not really done anything to address what’s happening in terms of the onward spread of bird flu across the US – we’re back to the same old mistakes,” he said. “Right now, the imminent risk is low and we haven’t seen human-to-human transmission. But the point is, we don’t wait for that to happen. Right?”

In other words, we were completely caught off guard from Trump to Biden, and it looks as if the current apathy will continue, at least until Trump re-enters the White House. And then, will the Oval Office lunatic respond as he did before during the covid pandemic?...

“We have it [covid pandemic] totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

          “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

“I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

There is more of trump's drivel you can see here. The question is what will this maniac say when he is in charge of this country and responsible for your life?

Will Elon Musk have a desk in the Oval Office?

Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy

It has become dangerously obvious that Elon Musk has assumed a major position in Donald Trump's political decisions. Trump is scheduled to go to the White House in January and it would appear that Musk will be his shadow. Here are some comments from Democrats...

"Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) accused President-elect Donald Trump of being Elon Musk’s “puppet” on Wednesday after Trump followed Musk’s lead in opposing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) continuing resolution to keep the government open."

Musk knows that if a bill isn't passed by Friday, the U.S. government will shut down. Yet,

Musk said...

“This bill should not pass,” Musk posted Wednesday morning, responding to a post by Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leader of President-elect Donald Trump’s advisory group Department of Government Efficiency.'

Musk and Ramaswamy have plans, "to slash government spending, including at least $2 trillion in federal programs, a figure experts have called unrealistic." Musk, described as the world’s richest person, is also against a pay increase for members of Congress. In my opinion this Congress does not deserve a raise, rather, they should receive a pay cut for the incompetency they have demonstrated. But with the close margin in the House, it is clear the Republicans will need Democrats to pass any bill.

Musk and Ramaswamy, Donald Trump appointed to lead the nongovernmental group called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” DOGE, spent Wednesday posting on social media pushing Republican lawmakers to vote against a bipartisan stopgap funding bill. Folks, we're just days from a government shutdown, which apparently Trump wants since he supports the Bobbsey twins efforts. Here's a similar situation from 1888 that Donald Trump, today, has brought to American politics...

"One Sunday in March 1888, former President Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his diary, “This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.”

There's more,,,

"Hayes offered this private admission at the peak of the Gilded Age, when, as the historian Richard White put it, “corruption suffused government and the economy.” Businessmen amassed fortunes never seen before in American history and demanded government officials aid them in expanding those fortunes further."

And nothing has changed in the year 2024...

"For decades, the influence of money in politics has grown alongside the country’s increasing income inequality. Those who warned about this growing influence have been thoroughly vindicated. This year, Trump’s campaign was fueled by roughly $800 million from seven billionaire families. His administration will include more than a dozen billionaires, the wealthiest since President Warren Harding’s corrupt White House.

And as long as a misguided U.S. public chooses to follow this charlatan, nothing will change.