Edition II - 2025
"He is following through on what he said he would do in his campaign."
That has been the line of defense from Donald Trump's media people, who insist that nothing that Trump is doing - the illegal deportations, the use of ICE to randomly terrorize people of color, the illegal use of military force against targets in the waters off Venezuela, and other - should be in question because this is what he ran on, and this is what the majority of voters voted for.
That isn't really true. People who voted for Trump voted for lower costs of living, and that has been something that Trump has not delivered. In fact, due to his placement of tariffs on virtually all of the U.S. trading partners, he has made it much more expensive to live in the United States of America. He claims the cost-of-living-pains will all go away when the $3 trillion in promises from foreign countries to invest in America, and particularly in manufacturing, come to pass. That is smoke and mirrors, nothing signed on some line of agreement, just hollow promises.
It is true that Trump has followed through on all that he hoped to contribute as an authoritarian strong man.
Trump supporters argue that President Trump can boast significant accomplishments in his first ten months in office:
Observers critical of the Trump Administration have seen unconstitutional and illegal acts everywhere one might look:
Trump campaigned vigorously for himself, hoping to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, claiming that since returning to office that he has ended "seven wars" that claims have been waged at various spots on the globe. Most are not actual wars, but they include:
Democrats and Trump critics believe there is no doubt that Trump is nuts and should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment details the terms for presidential transfer of power, which can be triggered if the President is deemed "incapacitated" due to physical or mental health problems. Trump campaigned against Joe Biden, claiming Biden had become senile. If the President is unable or unwilling to declare incapacity, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can submit a written declaration to Congress. The Vice President then becomes Acting President. If the President contests this, Congress must decide—requiring a two-thirds vote in both Houses to keep the Vice President in charge.
Trump has always behaved like an individual suffering from arrested development. His claims and boasts often sound like those you might expect to hear from a sixth grader. Foreign government leaders have recognized that he is an insecure, self-absorbed narcissist, who shows obvious indications of a sociopathological behavior. He has obvious health issues, including vascular disease and morbid obesity, and he is being treated for other undisclosed conditions (see the bruising on his right hand, indications of injection treatment).
Trump's behavior has become increasingly erratic. He lies constantly, seems to become confused in his speech, and rambles (he calls it "the weave").
Trump has demonstrably awful taste. He has turned the Oval Office into an embarassing display of gold ornamentation. He applies his own makeup without any sense for how bad it makes him look. And he has set up a Hall of Presidents that features portraits of all previous presidents other than Joe Biden. In place of a Biden photograph, he shows a picture depicting the "autopen" he claims was used by Biden staff to sign documents and hide Biden's mental decline.
Probably most indicting is his poor judgment, which has filled his cabinet with wholly unqualified individuals (RFK, Jr. and Pete Hegseth, for instance) and psycophants drawn mostly from his obsession with watching FOX News.
Donald Trump, with the aid of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, has done everything they can to prevent complete release of investigation information about Jeffrey Epstein and his human trafficking operation, which included acts of pedophilia. Trump and Epstein were best friends for years and there are tons of photographs, videos, and recorded interviews that show Trump's deep involvement with the Epstein saga. Trump's wife Melania was one of Epstein's "love inteest" prior to Melania "hooking up" with Donald Trump. They met at the Kit-Kat Club, which connected European "models" with New York high-rollers. Melania Trump's immigration was fast-tracked under something called the EB-1 visa program, often nicknamed the “Einstein visa”. That makes special provisions for people with "extraordinary ability in fields like science, arts, education, business, or athletics". Critics suggest that being a model (of no particular distinction) hardly qualifies Melania as possessing Einstein level ability.
The Democrats are considering getting younger, though some of the whippersnappers who have come forth to save their aging skins have them a little worried.
First and foremost is Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic-Socialist he seems a shoe-in to become the next mayor of New York City.
Mamdani's resume is slight - he is only thirty-three years old, and has been a back bencher in the New York State Assembly. Born in Uganda in 1991, Mamdani comes from "good stock". His father is renowned scholar Mahmood Mamdani, his mother filmmaker Mira Nair. His father wrote a book titled "Citizen and Subject" (1996), which is widely regarded as a foundational text in African political theory, analyzing the legacy of colonialism and its impact on modern governance. He also wrote "When Victims Become Killers" (2001), which explores the Rwandan genocide through a historical and political lens, challenging simplistic narratives. He is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and teaches anthropology, political science, and African studies at Columbia University, and a former director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research, and is Chancellor of Kampala International University. His mother runs Mirabai Films, which has produced numerous acclaimed works, including: Salaam Bombay!, Street children in Mumbai, Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake, Amelia, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Queen of Katwe.
Their upstart son has won over New York City voters with promises to address cost-of-living issues, though some of his solutions have been so controversial that old line Democrats have been hesitant to endorse him. The things they worry over are his proposals to provide fare-free transit, universal rent control, government-run grocery outlets,and higher taxes for billionaires. Mamdani has refused to endorse other key democrats, like Governor Kathy Hochul. And, of course, his status as a Democratic-Socialist rubs traditional Dems the wrong way.
What Mamdani has going for him is energy and charisma. He seems unafraid to challenge the establishment of the Democrat Party and to suggest bold solutions that some feel are more socialist than capitalist in nature. Business people feel his demand that rich folks pay higher taxes will drive business out of NYC.
Other young Democrats hoping to reshape the party include:
The a visionary American architect, inventor, systems theorist, and futurist Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was a big believer in technological developments, to the extent that he imagined the U.S. eventually adopting socialism as a replacement for capitalism. Fuller believed that technology and design could solve global problems—from housing to energy to education—if applied ethically and holistically. He coined the term “ephemeralization”, meaning doing more with less, and envisioned a future where abundance replaces scarcity through intelligent systems. In works like "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1968)", "Critical Path (1981)", and "Nine Chains to the Moon (1938)" he wrote about social transformation.
Fuller's most often quoted line - "We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest." You can imagine how that ruffled the feathers of dedicated capitalists.
Socialism - not at all well understood in the U.S. - comes in many forms:
Donald Trump's administration has leaned in a bit on socialism. Trump authorized the U.S. government to purchase a 10 percent stake in Intel, citing national security concerns. Critics argue this blurs the line between capitalism and socialism, as it involves direct government ownership of a major corporation. His tariff's represent centralized control over trade, which some economists liken to managed economies. He has also argued for selective expansions of the social safety net, especially for veterans and rural communities.
Perhaps concerns over the activities of the Trump Administration shouldn't be our biggest concern right now. What about 3I/ATLAS, the anomalous space object that is rapidly traversing our solar system, making close passes to several planets, including Mars, Jupiter, and our home planet Earth.
NASA has shutdown all information related to this fast-moving object, that the mainstream media calls a comet, though nothing about the way it acts comports with known physics regarding comet behavior.They say the news blackout is due to the government being shut down, but critics suspect something more. Here at the RCJ, we suspect that NASA isn't going out on a limb with new information because no one on Earth seems to know what we have here in this third intruder in our solar system.
Actually, some people are going out on a limb, notably Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. Loeb has suggested things previously that have brought his judgment into question. He believes there is a 40 percent chance that what we are seeing in EI/ATLAS is alien technology.
The object is emitting hydrogen cyanide, has an unusual nickel-to-iron ratio, and is shedding water at astonishing rates. Not only that, it is also huge - so much so that gravitational forces in our solar system are having no effect on its odd trajectory through our system. It is a trajectory that will loop it behind the sun and then start it on a path toward Earth.
Some have speculated that 3I/ATLAS may be a probe, or possibly a derelict vessel from a long-lost extraterrestrial civilization. Others have wondered, given out the unusual out0gassing, if it is a technology purposed to seed planets with life-generating elements. Still others wonder if the strange lights that seem to come from the object is evidence of life forms living within the object/vessel.
A good deal of thought has been given, by serious people, to reasons why Earth may be visited by an alien civilization. Earth's liquid water, complex life forms, and radio and satellite signals might be rare enough features in the galaxy to the attract the interest of an alien race. Alien researchers may be interested in our biological diversity (our DNA, ecosystems, and evolutionary history), our social behavior (how intelligent species organize, govern, and conflict), and our planetary science (Earth’s geology, climate, and magnetic field).
It is conceivable that a technological race might want our resources, such as Earth's raw materials (metals, water, energy), or the genetic material or biodiversity available in Earth's inhabitants. Within the UFO community, there exist strong beliefs that a variety of alien species have been interacting with Planet Earth for centuries, and that they have seeded our planet with hybrid species that includes homo-sapien-sapien - that is, us.
Some believe an alien citilization may covet Earth as an asset in strategic planetary positioning.
Earthly writers have long wished to imagine that an alien race may act as an overseer of Earth, monitoring our progress toward technological development, perhaps even furthering our knowledge of scientific things. And, they may wish to save us from ourselves, as in "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
There is the "Zoo Hypothesis", that imagines aliens viewing life in a nature preserve (i.e., Planet Earth). Others point out the possibility that a highly technologically-evolved alien race might simply have stumbled upon us, discovered us by accident, though the enormity of the universe seems to make especially implausible.
So, is 3I/ATLAST more than a comet, and if so, who are these guys?
One hates to bring it up, but it seems plausible they are not here to save us from ourselves, but rather to invade and conquer, possibly eat. We could be the equivalent of that other red meat.
Whatever, we should be finding out fairly soon. 3I/ATLAS will be in our vicinity in early 2026.
Grass Valley, California
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