THE NEW POWER AXIS???

The planned signing ceremony in the White House Oval Office of the USA extorting Ukraine to give up its rare earth elements for peace with Russia exploded into a shouting match among Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance.  Zelenskyy was kicked out of the White House.

What happened?  There will be reports citing White House, media and Russian views, but my take is that this meeting was planned as an ambush for Trump to extract his revenge stemming from his first impeachment in 2019.  

Further orchestration becomes obvious when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) immediately called on Zelenskyy to resign.  The whole misadventure surely looked like that scene in films you've seen of a schoolyard bully beating up a classmate.  It was terrible to witness.

From Fox News:

After the Friday meeting, Zelenskyy wrote on X, "Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS. Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."

Following the wipeout, Zelenskyy was featured on Fox's Bret Baier program.  Here is that interview.  Zellenskyy remained defiant.

From what I see, Zelenskyy will return home and be replaced as president by someone else.  Perhaps with someone more in alliance with Vladimir Putin, as will be insisted in backroom talks involving Russia and the U.S.  The clear winner today was Putin.  The obvious loser was the future of Liberty and Freedom.

There is nothing much NATO can do to rescue Ukraine, for they don't have the hardware to be of much help.  If the war proceeds, Russia will only more and more take over Ukraine territory, perhaps even getting to Kiev.  

No doubt the NATO nations, especially those in previous alliance with the Soviet Union, will now upgrade their military expenditures to at least what Trump indicated as necessary.  Further, there will probably be some type of incurrence of Russia into one of these countries, probably Poland.

As a result of the fallout from this disastrous meeting in the Oval Office, the U.S. has lost all the reputation we had as the leading defender for Freedom and Democracy.  Other nations will now mistrust the USA as long as Trump is president.  The nation has in the past advocated isolationism.  However, we have never had a dictator against freedom and liberty.  We are getting very close today.

Within the U.S., some more patriotic Republicans will ponder doing something to neutralize Trump.  Early signs show Trump still strong enough to prevent anything serious from occurring.  The question now is when does Trump act to become a true dictator, for he has the Department of Defense to now insure that he succeeds this time:

• 
  I've posted in the past of the new Axis Power Alliance looming to take over world leadership:  Russia, China, North Korea, (Iran?) and the USA.  
• Here is an article from 5February2024.  
• Another from earlier this month, 7February2025.  Here is a small quote from that posting.

Trump has longed to join the President for Life Club, now occupied by Vladimir Putin, Jinping Xi and Kim Jong Un.  We are on our way to a New Power Axis:  the U.S., Russia, China and North Korea versus the rest of the world.  These four countries control more than 90% of nuclear warheads.  One of these detonated over New York City would cause more than half a million deaths, and there are 12,512 of them.

Ironically, this latest brouhaha has actually lessened the chances for a Third World War.  If the New Power Axis does form, no one else can threaten them to start such a war to end all wars.  Maybe this progression can improve the chances of Humankind being around a little bit longer.

Perhaps Bob Woodward warned us in his 2018 Fear.  This was 7 years ago.  Two quotes, first from Steve Donaghue of Open Letters Review:

...it’s possible to look at Fear as not really a book at all, any more than a pile of court transcripts would be a book. But this would indeed be an injustice, because there’s a surprising and encouraging amount of wry, almost literary business going on in Fear, a kind of dry, mordant wit that’s likewise discernible in Woodward’s earlier books but never quite so badly needed as in this one, with its relentless anecdotes of apocalyptic incompetence and deceit. Woodward is too much of a professional to put a soft focus on that apocalypse, but his native comic sensibility prompts him often to see the humor in a free country’s slide into trivial despotism ... despite the sobering nature of what Fear describes, those little po-faced jabs happen throughout the book and are apt to be overlooked in the news-desk frenzy to decry the political calamity described on every page ... Fear isn’t the moment in the doctor’s office when the diagnosis of cancer is made; it’s the series of follow-up appointments in which the extent of the rot is clinically clarified. It has the same dead-weight momentum of those follow-up appointments, and it shares their macabre fascination.

David Runciman, the London Review of Books:

Bob Woodward’s new book about the first year of the Trump administration raises [several] thorny issues, but it turns them on their head ... Almost no one in this book comes across as authentically themselves, because each source is replaying the events so as to come out of them with a minimum of dignity. Since there is no dignity to be had in Trump’s White House, this often sounds forced and fake. The one person who appears to be himself throughout is the one person whom Woodward acknowledges at the outset did not grant an interview for the book: Trump. The president emerges as a bizarre and brutish character, but his behaviour has a strong streak of consistency ... For the most part, Woodward tells his story straight and leaves the reader to draw the moral, though he also makes sure that the moral is hard to miss.

Actually, what Woodward said was not the nation and world fearing Trump, but about the Trump tactic of using fear to advance his power.

On July 30, 2018, CNN reported that anonymous sources told them that a well-sourced book on the Trump Administration by Woodward would be published on September 11, 2018.^[2] Woodward said that the book's title is based on a quote by Trump in an unrelated 2016 interview:^[2] "Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear."^[2]

 

If Woodward writes FEAR 2, that term will now mean what the nation and free world should dread.  Amen, for this appears to actually be happening

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COVID and PAXLOVID

Before I re-enter the world of diseases, first, a couple of updates on another one, the first cabinet meeting President Donald Trump presided over yesterday:

• He said he wants school policy to be left to the states, so the Department of Education will be abolished.
• Of course, he needs congressional approval to do this, and education secretary, Linda McMahon, was hired to do just that.

• Like most of Trump's dictatorial announcements, this created confusion and alarm.
• Democrats expressed huge concern.
• The Education Department distributes funding for K-12 schools serving more than 50 million students in almost 100,000 public and 32,000 private schools

• 
  Project 2025 advocated this, and to end Title 1 funding in phases.  Title 1:
• Was created in 1965, and reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
• The act emphasizes equal access to education, aiming to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing federal funding to support schools with children from impoverished families.
• Another mandate undermining the poor and middle class ethnic minorities.

• 
  Further on his Gold Card: 
• We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.

• 
  He further said that this card would be available in about two weeks.
• Yet, most authorities believe this needs to pass through Congress first.
• From Lori Nessel (right), professor of law at Seton Hall University, again depriving certain ethnic minorities and the less privileged, while aiding the very rich:

To say, on the one hand, we are going to deport everyone in this country who's here without permission and we are going to close down our borders. And then, at the same time, say we're going to dramatically increase the number of people that can come in—if they've got millions of dollars—it's very clear messaging in terms of who's wanted in American society.

• 
  The “gold card” would replace the existing EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors to apply for lawful permanent residence if they invest in commercial enterprises and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for U.S. workers, according to USCIS.

• 
  The EB-5 program, which the Administration said they were replacing, was created by Congress in 1990. That program allows potential immigrants who invest $1,050,000, or $800,000 in targeted employment areas—meaning rural areas or areas experiencing high unemployment—to apply for a green card, though there are a number of other qualifications applicants have to meet and it can be a rather lengthy process.  The EB-5 visa has an annual cap of about 10,000 visas a year, or some 7.1% of the 140,000 employment-based visas available every fiscal year, per the State Department.  The president does not have the authority to just toss it our.
• 
  Trump hopes to attract about a million rich foreigners into his attempt to improve the U.S. budget.  Managing this effort will be herculean, and un-Constitutional, but might actually be worthy, if financial gain is the overriding justification, and action legal.

So on to my topic of the day.  Here is something new.  Say you get infected with COVID-19--the world had 46,000 new cases last week--and you are "old."  Should you ease the discomfort and maybe more importantly, reduce being hospitalized or dying by taking Paxlovid?

In a research letter published in JAMA on Feb. 20, Dr. John Mafi, associate professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and his colleagues used Canadian data to explore what happened when people took Paxlovid. A Canadian health policy in 2022 allowed prescriptions for Paxlovid only for symptomatic people around age 70 in order to reserve the medication for those who needed it most. Older people are at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19. The policy allowed the scientists to compare people in this age group who took Paxlovid to those who didn’t.

• Studied were 1.5 million Canadians, and most were vaccinated.
• For vaccinated older adults, PAXLOVID SHOWED NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IN COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS OR ON MORTALITY!!!
• Pfizer, the supplier, had there own study, which showed that Paxlovid reduced hospitalization and deaths of COVID-19 by 89%, compared to people who received a placebo.
• But they studied mostly middle-age and unvaccinated individuals.
• The list price of Paxlovid is $1,650/course.
• Pfizer refused too comment on the Canadian study.
• 
  The lead researcher, John Mafi said:

We are not saying that Paxlovid is useless.  What this research is saying is that its effectiveness in older groups who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, but who are vaccinated, is far lower than what the earlier evidence from unvaccinated groups showed.

Dr. Katherine Kahn, distinguished professor of medicine at UCLA and the study’s senior author, says that she will discuss the latest results with her patients, and “for generally health people, I’m not encouraging or discouraging [Paxlovid] if they meet the criteria for taking it,” she says. “But for people with higher risk of morbidity or mortality, we’re more likely to say we might consider [Paxlovid] at this time, even though we don’t know 100% if you will benefit.”

All the above is beginning to make more sense to me because during the pandemic, the medical profession must have already had a sense that Paxlovid might not be necessary for vaccinated people even in their 80's.  While many who got infected at 15 Craigside, where I live, took Paxlovid, and the general reaction was that their symptoms quickly diminished, others, some into their 80's, had doctors who did not recommend the treatment course.  These individuals also did NOT pass or away or get hospitalized.  My sense then was that vaccinated individuals did not need to take Paxlovid.  Remember, the Pfizer study only looked at UN-vaccinated patients.

During the pandemic, a second viewpoint was that those who took Paxlovid had a higher chance of getting reinfected.  Two studies were reported in 2023:

• Pfizer research showed a rebound of 2.3% for those who took Paxlovid, and 1.7% of those who didn't.
• Another study said 14% showed rebound for those who took Paxlovid, and 9% for those who didn't.
• Again, this could be because Pfizer tested unvaccinated people.
• The general medical sense, then, as now too, seems to be, there is no strong evidence of COVID rebound from Paxlovid.

So if you today get infected, should you take Paxlovid?  Check with your doctor.  My recommendation is to get vaccinated and keep up with those annual boosters.  But I'm not a physician.  My general sense, though, is that if my medical plan or the federal government pays for the $1650 cost, heck take those pills, for all reports indicated a shorter period of incapacitation.  But keep this is mind.

Paxlovid must be taken within five days of developing symptoms. You take three Paxlovid pills twice daily for five days for a full course (adding up to 30 pills). Paxlovid interacts with a long list of medications, including such common ones as cholesterol-lowering statins, so it’s important to talk to your doctor or pharmacist about other drugs you may be taking.

To close, here is a video Trump shared of an AI-generated Gaza Strip future.

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Nuclear Clock

But first, more Trump madness, bribery and assorted hijinks:

• His diversity equity inclusion (DEI) attack is more and more alienating those misguided middle to low class voters who previously supported him. 
• His cabinet met for the first time today.

• 
  Elon Musk was the first speaker.  That says a lot.  
• EPA secretary Lee Zeldin plans to cut 65% of his agency.
• According to Trump, President Zelenskyy has caved-in to one Trump piece of blackmail.  Ukraine has agreed to "share" their rare earth minerals with the USA.  What this means will be disclosed on Friday when Zelenskyy meets with Trump in the White House.  Ukraine has deposits of nearly half of the 50 minerals the U.S. Geological Survey lists as critical for America’s economic development, including titanium and lithium. 

• Trump said that while he wants to expand his immigration program, nothing wrong with selected individuals entering the country, and predicted his $5 million Gold Card will sell like crazy.
• Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick indicated that these appliers will be thoroughly vetted to ensure they were wonderful, world-class global citizens.

• 
  Trump likes Russian oligarchs. 
• This Gold Card will provide a path to citizenship for $5 million.
• The administration mentioned that up to 10 million participants might apply.  That number is ridiculous, for the total revenues would then be $50 trillion.
• However, later in that article, they are hoping for  1 million Gold Cards.  Still a lot, for the payoff would be $5 trillion if accomplished.
• 
  Portugal has a Golden Visa program that costs around $565,000, while Spain has something linked to property ownership for that same amount, and Greece of $262,000.  Both the UK and Cyprus had a similar program for a little more than $2 million, but both were terminated, one for security and other for financial scandal reasons.
• Some (meaning Democrats) will challenge the legality and constitutionality of this program.  Trump will prevail
• This is the best source I found for details.

• A group of traditional Republican lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for siding with Russia at the U.N. on resolutions about the war in Ukraine.

• 
  Republican town hall meetings are worrying Republicans.  So much that they are now turning to tele-hall programs so the media cannot record the irate responses.
• Also, the Trump administration announced that it would handpick the media outlets that get to ask the president questions at the White House.

• 

  With a lot of pressure from Trump on a few recalcitrant Republicans, the U.S. House passed his budget last night, extending his 2017 tax cuts.  One Republican, Tom Massie (R-Kentucky) voted with the Democrats for the 217-215 victory.  For some reason, the Senate was not happy about the details, but will of course approve an adjusted version.  Can Trump's big, beautiful bill meet the key deadline of March 14 when Congress again suffers through another government shut down vote? 

So to the topic of the day, earlier this month, one of my postings was entitled:

A HUGE ASTEROID COULD STRIKE EARTH IN 7 YEARS

Well, fear no more, for NASA said their latest calculation of YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 fell to 0.004%, or one chance in 25,000.  The European Space Agency also did a reassessment, and dropped their risk potential to one in 100,000.   Interestingly enough, according to NASA, the odds of this asteroid hitting our moon is at 1.7%.  There remain around 37,000 known large space rocks still in our general area.

While in a space mode, from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope, their 2025 calendar:

January

February.

March.

April.

Click on this to view the rest of the year.

The February issue of Scientific American has a few articles that might someday find themselves into my blog:

• A developing new look of how life works in a cell.
• We must do something about the space junk above.
• Could simple crushed rocks spread across farm fields reduce global warming?
• What we inherited from Neanderthal DNA.
• Redefining Alzheimer's.
• Anatomy of a Supernova.

The January issue of Scientific American was particularly newsworthy.  It resulted in two postings so far, THE NEXT PANDEMIC IS COMING and the hunt for Planet Nine.  So this will be the third.

• Physicists have built the first nuclear clock.
• Over millennia, we have measured the movement of our sun and moon to tell time.
• Then came the swing of the pendulum, rate of water flow and incense burns.
• Today, we are familiar with electric clocks using vibration of quartz crystals.
• Then came atomic clocks in 1949 with an accuracy now of one second every 40 billion years.  Note that our universe is less than 14 billion years old.

• 
  An atomic clock measures time by detecting the vibrations of electrons within an atom, while a nuclear clock measures time by detecting the vibrations of particles within the atom's nucleus.  To the right is a cesium atomic clock.

• 
  The February issue of SA has an article on atomic clocks, so I might go into detail on this to become obsolete clock, featuring a maser and cesium atoms.
• But about the next generation, the nuclear clock, instead of entire atoms, all the movement is restricted to deep inside the nucleus.
• If an atom were the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would only be as big as a marble.

• 
  The first one was built in Boulder, Colorado by an international team, led by Jun Ye, here with grad student Chuankun Zhang, at the University of Colorado's Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics and National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

• 
  Uses a radioactive isotope thorium-229  pinged by a laser to run an ultracold strontium clock.
• In time, the nuclear clock will be ten times more accurate than an atomic clock, and maybe up to a thousand times.

• 
  It will be portable, so can be used in GPS satellites.
• Maybe most excitingly, this work could lead to revealing dark matter.
• But why do we need such accuracy?  For long distance transmission and exploration of fundamental laws.

A few Trump-Musk cartoons.

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