MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

The most vulnerable nominated Trump secretaries testified this week.  

• Kash Patel (right) for FBI director is the most likely to be confirmed, for he played the game.  Tossed in one anti-Trump position to show some minor independence (didn’t think violent Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted law enforcement deserved a break) and soft-peddled his MAGA flamethrower persona.
• Tulsi Gabbard for national intelligence head could not say Edward Snowden was a traitor, and this could hurt her.  Plus, did not quite provide satisfactory answers to softball questions by Republicans.  But her reputation is not severely toxic like Pete Hegseth, and she was reasonably composed.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services, continued to show a controversial position on vaccination, has a general personality which is flawed (he looks guilty all the time) and confrontation with committee chairman Bill Cassidy (who is a physician) make RFK Jr. the most likely to fail.
• Only one Republican no vote on the committee would doom a nominee.
• However, Donald Trump has so strong an influence that all three will probably get to the floor, and squeeze by the Senate vote with no more than three Republicans voting no.

I've authored, co-wrote or edited nine books.  They were all pretty scientific, so I've not yet dallied into novels.  I have mostly completed a tenth, Pearl's Ashes, and have the storyboard for The Venus Syndrome, which is a docu-novel. I haven't got to this one because I can't seem to come up with a satisfactory ending.

However, over the past few weeks I thought of a good book to write:

     Mayday! Mayday!:  The Plot to Save American Democracy

As you know, MAYDAY is an internationally recognized distress signal used to indicate a life-threatening emergency and request for immediate assistance.  Mayday is a French phrase that translates to help me.  Note, however, that this word is pronounced MA (like in mom) DAY in France.  Same pronunciation in Portuguese.  Different in the USA.  So there is some confusion here.  

I've been saving this posting since the week Donald Trump got re-elected, for it was clear to me that once he re-gained office, he would do everything he could to build a dictatorship and destroy American Democracy.  But then, it occurred to me that he is so flawed, with batty cronies, that things will not go as they plan.  Then I thought, for sure, Trump would be using the Vladimir Putin strategy to maintain power.  Find ways to throw any opposing media types in jail, if not outright assassinating them.  A scary thought, then, for me to risk my life by even posting this article.  So I waited. 

It's not safe these days to criticize President Trump.  Maybe just the beginning of more to come, but it was today announced he is leaving MSNBC.  He merely indicated that Trump's triumvirate control will only have a shelf-life of two years until the 2026 Congressional elections, for Clinton, Obama and Trump himself lost at least one house of Congress after two years in office.  To quote:

The contentious vote for Mike Johnson for House speaker offers some clue as to how this could come apart on Trump. The biggest problem Trump has is that while the party is united around trying to make his presidency a success, the party is not united around how to do that.

Thus, my thoughts on how Democrats can save Democracy.

• First, gain control of the House and Senate in the 2026 election.  Not an easy task, but there is hope that Trump will so alienate the voting public, that this could occur.  Details?  Just wait and see.
• Remember the TV series, Designated Survivor, when a low-level cabinet member, played by Kiefer Sutherland, became president?  Series ran from 2013-2016.  President, vice president and congressional members were killed in that explosion.
• Democrats wouldn't want another Republican to become president, but there ways how this can be avoided.

Here is a summary of the plot for my politico-science fiction novel.  That graphic to the right is one incorporating 16 of them, from H.G. Wells to Robert Heinlein

• Remember, now, the objective will be to maintain democracy in the U.S. by fighting off an attempt at dictatorship.  Donald Trump almost succeeded in a coup on 6January2021, so he and his cronies  now better know how they can succeed this second time.
• If I were to hint about an assassination, that would not be appropriate for now, but Scott Galloway says there is a 33% chance that Trump dies in office.  Galloway is a professor of marketing at New York University (who donates his salary to the university) and author.
• This is where I thought a science-fiction theme would be the least provocative, for in this book, aliens kidnap both the president and vice-president.   The whole concept is a bit outrageous anyway, thus, why not.  One might argue that just taking Trump might be enough, for Vance does not seem like the type to want to become a dictator.  But, just to make sure, kidnap him too.
• 
  So the book, which would  hopefully become a film or series, would unfold as follows:
• President Trump does all that he and Project 2025 promise and push America away from democracy towards dictatorship.

• 
  Some Republicans with patriotic conscience in both the Senate and House make Congress ineffective, which further allows Trump to do what he wants.
• Protests and riots erupt throughout the nation.

• 
  Trump won't be able to become a dictator in two years, but he will try to legally and illegally skew the mid-term elections for Republicans to maintain control.
• So what can Democrats and dispirited Independents do to prevent that from happening?  That would be part of the plot.

• 
  However, this is a book I am writing, so some good news.  Congress flips to Democratic control in the 2026 election.
• Here is a weak part of this effort. and why the publication is partly science fiction.  Extraterrestrial intelligence aliens kidnap Trump and Vance, and they disappear forever.

• 
  Why would they do this?
• I'll come up with a good reason.
• I worked on a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project at the NASA Ames Research Center, so am familiar with this subject.  

• 
  Can't think of anything better at this time, so until I do, this ridiculous requirement remains irrational.
• Requirement in that if the president and vice president both disappear (or die) at the same time, the current presidential line succession would be in order.

• 
  Thus, Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becomes president of the U.S. and Patty Murray (D-WA) becomes vice president.  You all know what Jeffries looks like.  Above, Senator Patty Murray.
• They save democracy from possible dictatorship, making voters happy, and Democrats sweep the White House, Senate and House in the 2028 election.  That  book to the right, incidentally, was written in 2012 as a guide for some countries then having a dictatorship to uprise and fight for democracy.

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HOW OLD IS CHINA?

I did say I would post more about the Doomsday Clock today, but I'll wait till a later date to instead write about more topical matters.

First, about that horrible Reagan National Airport air collision between an American Airlines flight holding 64 passengers and crew from Kansas and an Army helicopter manned by three.  There were no survivors.

I still remember a similar incident on 13January1982 when I was working in the U.S. Senate.  On a cold and snowy day in the later afternoon, Air Florida 90 left Washington National Airport, but crashed soon after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge, killing 78.  Five on the flight survived, but four motorists on the bridge died.  An unrelated accident shut down one of the Metro lines at around the same time, and it took me till midnight to get home.

Why he does this is really inexcusable, but...the New York Times this morning said:

Trump, Without Citing Evidence, Blames D.E.I. and Democrats for Plane Crash

President Trump’s remarks, suggesting that diversity requirements and other policies somehow caused the collision of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major events through his political or ideological lens. 

So to the topic of today, yesterday was the Chinese New Year.  Which is correct about China?

• The oldest continuous civilization on Earth, with early humans living there more than a million years ago.
• Peking Man, a subspecies of Homo erectus, inhabited northern China during the Middle Pleistocene, from around 230,000 years to 800,000 years ago.

• 
  Homo sapiens lived in China about 45,000 years ago.
• The Chinese civilization is around 5000 years old.
• According to Wikipedia, China is now 4722 years old.
• The Chinese government is into its 76th year.
• The answer is all the above.
• If you have an hour or so, watch this PBS video.

So how really old is China?  First, some ancient history.

• Human migration spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, about the time fire was discovered.
• Homo sapiens only came 250,000 years ago, but modern man perhaps is only 35,000 years old.

• 
  Cave paintings between 43,000 and 65,000 years ago.
• Migration out of Africa around 50,000 years ago, reaching Australia only 5000 years later 

• 
  Humans arrived in the Americas only 15,000 years ago.
• Agriculture first developed 11,000 years ago in what is now eastern Turkey, but the simple plough only 8,000 years ago.

• 
  Egyptian civilization around 10,000 BC, but heiroglyphs took until 3200 BC.
• Taro culture in New Guinea dates to around 9000 BC.
• Recorded history around 5000 years ago and wheels began to be used around 3000 BC, or, in other words, around the same time period.

• 
  Chinese characters as early as 1600 BC.
• The world population was 2 million in 10,000 BC, 45 million in 3000 BC, 72 million in 1000 BC and 209 million in AD 500.
• Given a current global population of about 8 billion, the estimated 117 billion total births means that those alive in 2022 represent nearly 7% of the total number of people  who have ever lived. Because we have existed on Earth for approximately 200,000 years, that’s actually a fairly large percentage.
• 
  About population:
• China has had the largest for millennia.
• -423 BC, 44 million, 27% of world population
• Year One, 65 million, 30% of world.
• 1200, 140 million, 38% of world.
• 1982, 1 billion, 22% of world.
• 2020, 1.45 billion, 17.8% of the world.
• Last year India became #1. 
• The USA is now #3, but will be become #5 around 2060, with Pakistan and Nigeria passing us. 
• Nigeria is now #6, but will be #3 not long after 2050, and #2 around 2100.

I can go on and on, but let me stop here and now report on how 15 Craigside celebrated the end of Year 4721 and the latest Chinese New Year.  We began by by purchasing this Cognac Zodiac Animal chest.

On Tuesday night I had a dinner table of residents born in the Year of the Dragon, featuring champagne and the Dragon Cognac.  2024 was the Year of the Dragon.

Yesterday we had our Chinese New Year lunch.

Started with cognac in Egg Drop Soup.

For dinner had a Penfold's Limited Dragon Release of the 2020 Shiraz Cabernet and drank the Snake bottle at dinner, so we now have ten years left.

Happy New Year! We are now into the Year of the Snake.

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THE 100 BEST PROTEST SONGS OF ALL TIME

Did you know that the Doomsday Clock was just set to its most dangerous time in history?  Atomic scientists who worked on on the first atomic bomb founded in 1945 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.  Feeling great remorse about what they had done, these scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947.  The closer to midnight the closer to the end of humanity.  The time was initially set to 7 minutes away from midnight.  They've changed it 26 times in 78 years.  After the end of the Cold War in 1991, the clock was set to 17 minutes, or 1020 seconds to midnight.  That is chairman of the board Leonard Rieser making the adjustment on 26November1991.  They just re-set it to 89 seconds.  Tomorrow, the details.

That introduction about does it for science day, but let me proceed to President Donald Trump, as he is going haywire on human and global rights, that I can foresee growing protests to escalate over the coming months.  Thus, Rolling Stone magazine published just the right article to bring back some memories:  100 Best Protest Songs of All Time.

• Spans nearly a century.
• To quote:

Some of these songs decry oppression and demand justice, others are prayers for positive change; some grab you by the shoulders and shout in your face, others are personal, private attempts to subtly embody the contradictory nature of political struggle and change from the inside. Many of our selections are specific products of leftist political traditions (like Pete Seeger’s version of “We Shall Overcome”), but just as many are hits that slipped urgent messages into the pop marketplace (like Nena’s anti-nuclear war New Wave bop “99 Luftballons”). 

• 
  Frankly, I recognize only a very few of this top 100.  I also wasn't aware many of them were protest songs.  As for example, I thought 99 Luftballons was a catchy German ditty.  I mostly remember 99 red balloons, and did not know the language.  Turns out these balloons were misread by radar and triggered a nuclear war.  This is a nuclear protest song. 

• 
  Anyway, Sam Cooke's 1964 A Change is Gonna Come is #1.
• He was denied a room at a Louisiana hotel because he was Black, and penned the heartfelt lyrics, pleading an end to discrimination.  This was two years after I graduated from college, and I really don't remember that song.

• 
  Five years later, in 1969, I went to school at Louisiana State University, and I do remember Black and White drinking fountains....and more.  However, interesting to note, that as an American Japanese from Hawaii, I was considered White in Baton Rouge, and throughout the South.  I could get a hotel room on my assorted trips.
• If you read the article, you will see that every song provides you an option to view that performance by clicking on it. 

• 
  #2 is Public Enemy's 1989 Fight the Power.  I never heard of this funky rap song.  Served as the intro music for Spike's Lee's comment on prejudice, Do the Right Thing.  The powers to fight were people like Elvis, John Wayne, and even Bobby McFerrin, for his Don't Worry, Be Happy projected the wrong reality.  I kind of liked this song, and should feel guilty about this.

• 
  #3 is Billie Holiday's 1939 Strange Fruit.  Again, don't remember this song.  And I was born one year later.
• #4 is Aretha Franklin's 1967 Respect.  (Go to this article to watch this song.)  Of course, I recognize.  Did not know, though, that she was seven years into her career with several failed albums, when she recorded this song written by Otis Redding in 1965.  This was originally a man's song arrogantly demanding respect from his female partner.  Click on his version.  Didn't know it existed. She turned it around as a rallying cry for women, subsequently becoming a recording star.

• 
  #5 is James Brown's 1968 Say It Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud.  Embarrassingly, first time I heard it.  

• 
  Notice something?  Numbers 1 to 5 are by African Americans.  #6 is Bob Dylan's 1963 Masters of War.  I know a lot of Dylan songs, but I swear this is the first time I ever heard this.  

• 
  I recognized only one of the next four, #8 Pete Seeger's 1948 We Shall Overcome.
• #7 had to do with a church bombing in Alabama and the assassination of Medgar Evers, #9 about the Kent State University protest tragedy, and #10 about Black Lives Matter.  Did not recognize any of them.  

• 
  The next song I knew was #17, Bob Dylan's 1963 Blowin' in the Wind.

• 
  Appropriate to Trump, I could mention that #18 is Impeach the President, a 1973 song by The Honey Drippers.  Of course, way back in 1973, The Donald was just trying to be a landlord, and faced a lawsuit for racial discrimination.
• #19 was the 1969 Plastic Ono Band, Give Peace a Chance.  I know that one.

• 
  Then I couldn't recognize any song until the 1970 #33 Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell.  Mind you, among the performers in this span were Stevie Wonder, U2, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.  I guess I'm not into protest songs.  And, by the way, this song is Mitchell's protest against environmental destruction and excessive urban development.  I did not know that.  Did you?

• 
  Then, no recognizable songs until #57, 99 Luftballons.  For your information, Nena is both the name of the band, and the lead singer, Gabriele Kerner (her nickname), with four guys.  One more time for 99 Luftballons, the 12" vinyl version with a running time of 6 min 37 sec.  In those days there were special 12" singles, for the quality of the sound was superior, plus they became popular in Discos for DJs to do their stuff.
• Go to Rolling Stone for the full article.  Worth your while.

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