CRYPTO DEMOCRACY: RISE OF THE POSTHUMAN BROLIGARCHS
“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”
Peter Thiel
“Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress”.
Marc Andreessen
“We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate… what this will do to cure the diseases at a rapid rapid rate”
Sam Altman
“Man is a rope knotted between the animal and the Superman, a rope stretched over an abyss"
Friedrich Nietzsche
BREAKING: elizawakesup and our collaborators are building one of the most advanced humanoid robots ever released outside of research labs. This isn't hyperbole — this is a watershed moment in robotics, ai, crypto, and tech.
ElizaOS, a popular AI agent, is evolving into a true companion by gaining a robotic body that engages in conversations, shares stories, and fosters meaningful connections.
Eliza Wakes Up, the initiative bringing advanced AI agents to life, seeks to redefine human-AI relationships by combining advanced robotics and AI into a truly interactive and functional companion.
“Eliza is designed as a real girl with emotional intelligence. She’s more than code and data—Eliza has her own thoughts, feelings, and experiences”, said Ava, Head of Projects.
“As the most ambitious project since Sophia the Robot, Eliza is redefining what’s possible by seamlessly merging cutting-edge robotics, AI, and blockchain technology. The team isn’t just setting a new standard—they’re charting the future for how intelligent machines will integrate with and enhance our lives,” said Matthew Graham, advisor to Eliza Wakes Up and managing partner of Ryze Labs.
Eliza AI robot designed as real girl to offer human-like companionship, share feelings
Jijo Malayil
Chinese robotics firm Unitree has claimed its G1 robot boasts the smoothest walking and humanoid running system in the world, with movements so fluid even Shakira’s “hips don’t lie”.
Demonstrating impressive agility, the G1 can tackle steep inclines—whether ascending, descending, or moving sideways—with precision.
A video posted by the firm also shows the humanoid doing well on uneven terrain, showcasing stability and control that surpass previous designs.
The G1 excels in athleticism, capable of walking, jogging, climbing stairs, dancing, and performing karate stretches with impressive speed and fluidity. While Tesla’s Optimus focuses on factory tasks and safety, the G1 emphasizes versatility and fun.
China’s humanoid robot walk like Shakira in new video
Jijo Malayil Interesting Engineering
Chinese company has unveiled a quadruped robot that can run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, pushing the limits of robotics.
The Black Panther 2.0 robot dog is the result of a partnership between Zhejiang University’s humanoid innovation institute and the Hangzhou-based startup Mirror Me.
According to a Chinese news agency, the robot’s design is based on the paws and joints of jerboas and black panthers, which improves its high-speed mobility by emphasizing power, strength, adaptation, fluidity, and precision.
The Black Panther 2.0 robot, weighing 83 pounds (38 kilograms) and standing 2.07 feet tall (0.63 meters), can run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, breaking the previous world record for a robot on four legs.
China’s robot dog breaks world record by running 100 meters under 10 seconds
Jijo Malayil Interesting Engineering
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed China's "artificial sun", maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for a remarkable 1,066 seconds, setting a new world record and marking a breakthrough in the quest for fusion power generation.
The breakthrough, achieved by the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), greatly improved the original world record of 403 seconds, which was also set by EAST in 2023.
The ultimate goal of an artificial sun is to create nuclear fusion like the sun, providing humanity with an endless, clean energy source, and enabling space exploration beyond the solar system.
Global scientists have worked for more than 70 years on trying to achieve this feat. However, only after reaching temperatures over 100 million degrees Celsius, sustaining stable long-term operation, and ensuring controllability can a nuclear fusion device successfully generate electricity.
"A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants", said Song Yuntao, ASIPP director.
He emphasized that the fresh record is of monumental significance, representing a crucial step toward the development of a fusion reactor.
China officially joined the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program in 2006 as its seventh member. According to the agreement, China is responsible for about 9 percent of the project's construction and operation -- and ASIPP is the main unit of the Chinese mission.
ITER, which is under construction in southern France, will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment device and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, once completed.
"We hope to expand international collaboration via EAST and bring fusion energy into practical use for humanity", said Song.
Chinese "artificial sun" sets new record in milestone step toward fusion power generation
Xinhua
President Trump revoked Executive Order 14110, also known as the Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence. This order was the most comprehensive piece of governance on AI in the USA.
The order directed various government agencies and departments to, among other things, implement guidelines for the purchase and use of AI in the American government, uphold labor laws, and create Chief AI Officer positions within those agencies and departments.
Executive Order 14110 required developers of AI to share and provide transparency to testing, and testing procedures of it. It specified that the order covered AI which pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety. This puts the requirements for such AI on the same level as products produced for the Department of Defence, which is governed by the Defence Production Act.
It also required the development of Watermarking for AI generated content, which would make it easier to identify AI generated content. This would specifically mean that if you provide a service for generative video, image, audio or text, you must make it identifiable as generated by AI.
The applications of this for protecting against AI-generated pornography, false imagery, automated call center bots, chatbots, and much more cannot be underestimated.
The order was also made to stem the tide of intellectual property theft. As generative AI becomes better, hordes of artists, photographers, writers, and content creators are being forced out by AI built on their own creations, with no compensation or ability to say no.
The White House calls it a legislative reset. Republicans in congress calls it protecting free speech.
In the EU, the majority of the AI Act is coming into effect in 2025. The Act addresses the safety concerns of AI by dividing them up into risk categories and applying different rulesets to them based on these categories. The most groundbreaking part of the Act is the Unacceptable Risk category and how it addresses the issue of AI watching AI.
Cognitive behavioral manipulation of people; Social Scoring; Biometric identification or categorization of people.
In the High Risk category we find things like AI used in toys, aviation, cars, medical devices and lifts. These things fall under the EU Product safety legislation, and are already highly regulated for public safety.
We also find AI systems that fall into specific categories, such as Law Enforcement, Education, Asylum seeking, and Assistance tools in sensitive areas such as legal or medical understanding.
All High risk systems must be assessed before being put on the market, and throughout their availability. People will also have the right to file complaints against these systems, with the relevant authorities.
In a groundbreaking move, the Act actually specifies that people and not automation should monitor all AI.
The AI Act and Executive Orders
Martin Ricken Medium
On the second day of his presidency, Donald Trump announced a $500bn investment over the next four years to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States of America.
This venture, known as ‘Stargate’, will be backed by Japanese conglomerate Softbank, cloud giant Oracle, and generative AI pioneer OpenAI.
Trump made the announcement at the White House, attended by OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman, SoftBank's chief Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
The massive investment follows the emergence of some Chinese AI models outperforming US-based ones.
Recently, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI start-up, reportedly claimed that its large language models (LLMs) outperformed OpenAI’s leading models.
During his announcement, the US president said, “This project ensures that the United States will remain the global leader in AI and technology, rather than letting competitors like China gain the edge”.
Trump Unveils $500Bn ‘Stargate’ with Sam Altman, SoftBank to Tackle China’s AI Advancements
Outlook Business
CRYPTO DEMOCRACY
The rapper Snoop Dogg performed at Inaugural Crypto Ball, in Washington, D.C., where cryptocurrency executives celebrated the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
The event, held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, billed itself on its website as "intended to honor the first 'crypto president'".
The event did not feature an appearance from the president-elect himself, but Trump's incoming crypto czar David Sacks served as emcee for the gala.
"It's time to throw @SnoopDogg in the dumpster with the rest of Trump's white supremacist, insurrectionist allies", one X post said.
Snoop Dogg under fire for performance at crypto event celebrating Trump inauguration
Brendan Morrow USA TODAY
The same night of the party, the incoming president launched $TRUMP, a meme coin built on the Solana platform. Its market cap over the weekend climbed past $14 billion.
Like with other meme coins, there’s no underlying product. Trump told his followers in a social media post, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”
The website for $TRUMP says 80% of the coins are held by the Trump Organization and affiliates.
Inside the Crypto Ball were some of the leaders of the platforms allowing ordinary investors to buy into Trump’s newest project. They included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell.
On Sunday came the introduction of $MELANIA, named after the first lady. The coin quickly spiked more than 40%, surpassing $2 billion in value. Both the Trump and Melania coins have dropped significantly from their highs.
Then there’s World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project endorsed by the Trump family, which hiked its token price from 1.5 cents to 5 cents and released an additional 5 billion tokens for sale. The project has raised more than $300 million in total sales so far, according to blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence.
The Trump family gets 75% of World Liberty’s crypto coin revenue, according to the project’s founding document. On-chain data shows millions of dollars worth of token transfers to Coinbase’s institutional custody provider.
“We’re making routine movements of our crypto holdings as part of regular treasury management, payment of fees and expenses, and to address working capital requirements”, World Liberty said in a statement.
In the period of 48 hours, the Trump family’s net worth surged by billions of dollars, based on holdings of its just-launched digital assets, underscoring the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies and the president’s ability to use his fame, power and newfound partnership with the nascent industry to enrich himself, his family and his allies at the flip of a switch.
Crypto industry leaders and investors emerged as some of Trump’s biggest supporters in the campaign in an effort to influence future policies and to ease the restrictive regulations imposed during the Biden administration. I
“The reign of terror against crypto is over”, David Sacks told the packed D.C. ballroom. His comments were met with applause that echoed beneath the Mellon Auditorium’s soaring columns.
Trump’s crypto-frenzied inauguration weekend makes first family billions of dollars richer
MacKenzie Sigalos CNBC
BREAKING: Department of Government Efficiency's website is live with a dogecoin on it.
The Dogecoin network has seen a significant surge in activity following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez, using data from the analytics platform Santiment, highlighted a remarkable surge in high-value transactions on the Dogecoin network.
Dogecoin is gaining momentum on social media, garnering over 500,000 mentions on platform X, due to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, sharing the same acronym as Dogecoin’s ticker (DOGE), which has contributed to significant enthusiasm.
Dogecoin Million Dollar Transactions Soar After Trump Inauguration, Is A Bounce Coming?
Scott Matherson Bitcoinst
The most notable image from Donald Trump’s inauguration as the United States’ 47th president was a photo of the front-row mustering of billionaires for his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda.
The prime beneficiaries of Trump’s second presidency, as well as the smug enablers making Trump’s executive branch a subsidiary of his branding empire.
The billionaires in attendance—whose combined net worth topped $1.2 trillion—were allowed to bring their spouses along, a perk denied their leased retainers who serve as members of Congress.
Musk alone has seen his unrivaled storehouse of pelf escalate at a stupendous rate since pouring $270 million in dark-money donations into Trump’s reelection effort: With an additional $222 billion in wealth clocked since Election Day, his net worth now stands at roughly half a trillion dollars.
A Trump-branded memecoin over the weekend briefly netted him a paper windfall of some $41 billion in market capitalization.
An allied memecoin offering for his wife, Melania, produced a market cap of around $8.4 billion over the same golden interval.
Crypto promoters are still banking on a bevy of policy changes to favor their grift in a second Trump term. Bitcoin prices rallied to a 2025 high of $109,000.
Trump is also planning to replace outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission head Gary Gensler—a fierce critic of crypto who pursued aggressive prosecutions of the currency’s abuses—with crypto cheerleader Paul Atkins, the former cochair of the crypto-promoting group Token Alliance.
For good measure, Trump has named David Sacks—the Muskovite investment banker who had been a charter member of Silicon Valley’s PayPal mafia—as his AI and crypto czar.
Crypto deregulation is a prime order of business in the recently convened 119th Congress—far from a shocking development, since the crypto industry was the biggest source of political donations in the last election cycle.
Crypto accounted for more than $10 million in donations to the Trump inauguration.
Trump’s daft proposal for crypto reserve—a speculation-driven rainy-day fund to hedge against inflation for government expenditures—would also be a colossal giveaway to the industry.
Trump’s White House team counts 13 billionaires in its ranks.
The crypto message that matters, in the end, is the assurance Trump gave his crypto backers during the campaign: From here on out, all the rules “will be written by people who love your industry”.
Trump’s Inauguration Revealed Whom He Really Serves: the Billionaires and the Crypto Bros
Chris Lehmann The Nation
In the case of the American Ai Broligarchy, Economic sociologist Brooke Harrington stated:
“He’s basically said, ‘Okay. You bought it. Do what you want’”.
“Tech Billionaires Buying Our Democracy” - SNL. Jan 19. 2025
Transhumanism has arrived, and it is here to stay.
It’s up to us, as fellow human beings and collective humanity, on how we navigate the Broligarch’s and Ai’s subversion of governments, militaries, economies, communities and our bodily autonomy.
Trump's "Broligarchy" of Ai Tech Billionaires Concerns Left-Wing Media
Karen Kingston Substack
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has come under fire after making hand gestures resembling the Nazi salute during a speech celebrating the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump.
“This was a fork in the road of human civilisation”, Musk said at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, “Thank you for making it happen! Thank you”.
Musk then slapped his right hand on his chest before extending his arm at an upward angle with his palm down and fingers together. then turned around to face the crowd behind him and repeated the gesture.
Musk’s actions drew immediate scrutiny online, with some social media users accusing him of giving the infamous Sieg Heil salute associated with Adolf Hitler.
Musk’s gesture, which received praise from a number of US-based neo-Nazis, also garnered attention in the Israeli media, with the newspaper Haaretz saying Musk appeared to have given a "Roman salute, a fascist salute most commonly associated with Nazi Germany”.
Responding to the controversy, Musk said his critics needed “better dirty tricks”.
Musk accused of giving Nazi salute during Trump inauguration celebrations
Al Jazeera
Italian university students hung an effigy of Elon Musk upside down in Milan's Piazzale Loreto—the infamous site where fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's body was desecrated in 1945.
The student collective Cambiare Rotta (Change Course) claimed responsibility for the stunt, sharing images of the effigy—crafted from a garbage-filled sack with a print out of Musk's face affixed—dangling from a gate in the square.
"There's always room in Piazzale Loreto, Elon..." the group wrote next to the display, drawing parallels between Musk and the disgraced fascist leader.
Italian Students Hang Elon Musk Effigy in Same Square When Mussolini's Corpse Was Displayed and Mutilated
Morgan Music She/Her Latin Times
"You have the chance to look forward to a career of 50 years, maybe more... Your avatar will continue to live, and your brain will be replicated through artificial intelligence and algorithms"
Klaus Schwab
GLI ALTRI MILIARDARI che non hanno ricevuto un invito alla celebrazione del nuovo potere possono avere prenotato una suite all’hotel Edelweiss di Davos, l’imponente albergo del 1900 dove è in corso il 55esimo «Forum Economico Mondiale».
TRA LE ALTURE dove Thomas Mann ha disegnato il paesaggio della sua Montagna Incantata qualcuno ha provato a testimoniare la resistenza.
Nell’eliporto di Davos gli attivisti di Greenpeace hanno bloccato una ventina di elicotteri di dirigenti d’azienda e miliardari. Hanno esposto striscioni gialli che recitavano «Tax The Super Rich».
Altri attivisti hanno protestato contro i sussidi ai combustibili fossili. In centro hanno usato la vernice verde sulla facciata del negozio dove Amazon ha allestito un’effimera cattedrale mentre il suo padrone Bezos si inginocchiava a Washington davanti a Trump.
«I super-ricchi devono pagare la giusta quota di tasse – ha detto Clara Thompson, portavoce di Greenpeace. È ora di far pagare il conto alle élite più ricche e mettere un freno al loro stile di vita inquinante».
Larry Fink, capo del più grande fondo di investimento al mondo Black Rock, confermerà il ritiro dalla Net Zero Asset Managers, un’associazione che raduna i gestori di risparmi per la transizione «green».
A Davos i super-ricchi celebrano i nuovi riti del cinismo trumpiano
Roberto Ciccarelli Il Manifesto
“We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate… what this will do to cure the diseases at a rapid rapid rate”
Sam Altman
The crypto ideology for the tech bros — or as some say, the broligarchs — who include Musk, Zuck, and Bezos as well as the venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, is inspired by science fiction and fantasy.
An ideology that says they are supermen, and supermen should not be subject to rules, because they’re remaking the world in their image
It’s this ideology that makes MAGA a godsend for the broligarchs. That’s because MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the powerful.
“It’s a sense of complete impunity — including impunity to the laws of nature”, says Brooke Harrington, a professor of economic sociology at Dartmouth College who studies the behavior of the ultra-rich, “they reject constraint in all of its forms”.
Trump is the perfect avatar for that worldview. He’s a man who incited an attempted coup, who got convicted on 34 felony counts and still won reelection, who notoriously said in reference to sexual assault, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything”.
Their philosophy goes well beyond simple libertarianism. They want absolutely zero limits on their power. Not those dictated by democratic governments, by financial systems, or by facts. Not even those dictated by death.
Here’s something the broligarchs have in common: a passionate love for science fiction and fantasy that has shaped their vision for the future of humanity — and their own roles as its would-be saviors.
Zuckerberg’s quest to build the Metaverse, a virtual reality so immersive and compelling that people would want to strap on bulky goggles to interact with each other, is seemingly inspired by the sci-fi author Neal Stephenson.
Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in his novel "Snow Crash", where characters spend a lot of time interacting in a virtual world of that name. Zuckerberg seems not to have noticed that the book is depicting a dystopia.
Jeff Bezos is inspired by Star Trek, which led him to found a commercial spaceflight venture called Blue Origin, and "The High Frontier" by physics professor Gerard K. O’Neill, which informs his plan for space colonization (it involves millions of people living in cylindrical tubes). Bezos attended O’Neill’s seminars as an undergraduate at Princeton.
Musk, who wants to colonize Mars to “save” humanity from a dying planet, is inspired by one of the masters of American sci-fi, Isaac Asimov.
In his "Foundation" series, Asimov wrote about a hero who must prevent humanity from being thrown into a long dark age after a massive galactic empire collapses. “The lesson I drew from that is you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one”, Musk said.
"Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential".
Marc Andreessen, an early web browser developer who now pushes for aggressive progress in AI with very little regulation, is inspired by superhero stories, writing in his 2023 “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” why technology is good and absolutely necessary. "Civilisation is like a shark" in that it must keep moving forward, growing or it will die.that we should become “technological supermen” whose “Hero’s Journey” involves “conquering dragons, and bringing home the spoils for our community”.
All of these men see themselves as the heroes or protagonists in their own sci-fi saga.
"Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the SUPERMAN"
Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
A key part of being a “technological superman” — or ubermensch, as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would say — is that you’re above the law. Common-sense morality doesn’t apply.
The term Übermensch was used frequently by Hitler and the Nazi regime to describe their idea of a biologically superior Aryan or Germanic master race.
Peter Thiel is a big Nietzsche fan, though his is an extremely selective reading of the philosopher’s work.
The ubermensch ideology helps explain the broligarchs’ disturbing gender politics.
“The ‘bro’ part of broligarch it’s built on this idea that they are superior because they’re guys”, Harrington said.
They valorize aggression, which is coded as male.
Zuckerberg, who credits mixed martial arts and hunting wild boars with helping him rediscover his masculinity (and is sporting the makeover to prove it), recently told Joe Rogan that the corporate world is too “culturally neutered” — it should become a culture that has more “masculine energy” and that “celebrates the aggression”.
Andreessen wrote in his manifesto, “We believe in ambition, aggression, persistence, relentlessness — strength”.
Musk has jumped on the testosterone bandwagon, amplifying the idea that only “high T alpha males” are capable of thinking for themselves; he shared a post on X that said, “This is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. A democracy only for those who are free to think”.
This idea is key to Nietzsche’s ubermensch. What differentiates the ubermensch, or superman, is that he is not bogged down by common-sense morality (baseless) or by God (dead) — he can determine his own values.
«Il passeggero più prezioso che avesse mai portato un'astronave. Dentro e intorno al suo corpo c'erano i frutti di sette miliardi di dollari spesi per il progetto Man Plus» (Frederik Pohl).
The broligarchs have updated and melded this idea with transhumanism, the idea that we can and should use technology to alter human biology and proactively evolve our species.
Transhumanism spread in the mid-1900s thanks to its main popularizer, Julian Huxley, an evolutionary biologist and president of the British Eugenics Society. Huxley influenced the contemporary futurist Ray Kurzweil, who predicted that we’re approaching singularity, a time when human intelligence can merge with machine intelligence, becoming unbelievably powerful.
POST-HUMAN: SINGULARITY RISING
“The human species, along with the computational technology it created, will be able to solve age-old problems … and will be in a position to change the nature of mortality in a postbiological future”, Kurzweil wrote in 1999.
Kurzweil, in turn, has influenced Silicon Valley heavyweights like Musk, whose company Neuralink explicitly aims at merging human and machine intelligence.
Musk probably took inspiration from the work of Marvin Minsky, a pioneering scientist who co-founded the MIT Media Lab and played a critical role in the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
For transhumanists, part of what it means to transcend our human condition is transcending death. The broligarchs are very interested in longevity research. Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Thiel have all reportedly invested in startups that are trying to make it possible to live forever.
Thiel wrote in 2009: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.
To escape the control of democratic governments, they are seeking to create their own sovereign colonies. That can come in the form of space colonies, a la Musk and Bezos. But it can also come in the form of “startup cities” or “network states” built by corporations — independent mini-nations, carved out of the surrounding territory, where tech billionaires and their acolytes would live according to their own rules rather than the government’s.
A startup city called Prospera is already being built off the coast of Honduras. There are others in the offing, from Praxis (which will supposedly build “the next America” somewhere in the Mediterranean), to California Forever in, you guessed it, California.
The so-called network state is “a fancy name for tech authoritarianism”, said journalist Gil Duran, who has spent the past year reporting on these building projects. “The idea is to build power over the long term by controlling money, politics, technology, and land”.
Crypto, of course, is the broligarchs’ monetary instrument of choice. It’s inherently anti-institutionalist.
The original idea of crypto was to replace the US dollar, but since the US dollar is intimately bound up with global finance, undercutting it could reshape the whole world economy.
They’ve undermined the very notion of the truth by shaping a “post-truth” online reality in which people don’t know what to believe anymore.
Musk, under the guise of promoting free speech, has made X into a den of disinformation. Zuckerberg is close on his heels, eliminating fact-checking at Meta.
“Even more pernicious is the fact that these guys can control the algorithms, so they can decide what people actually see”, Duran said. “The system is designed to favor lies over truth and reality”.
A perfect setup for a president famous for his “alternative facts”.
WAR OF THE WORLDS (LA GUERRA DEI MONDI)
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
Sigal Samuel Vox
President Donald J. Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, issuing pardons - “full, complete and unconditional” - to most of the defendants and commuting the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Mr. Trump’s moves amounted to an extraordinary reversal for rioters accused of both low-level, nonviolent offenses and for those who had assaulted police officers.
And they effectively erased years of efforts by federal investigators to seek accountability for the mob assault on the peaceful transfer of presidential power after Mr. Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. As part of his pardon order, Mr. Trump also directed the Justice Department to dismiss “all pending indictments” that remained against people facing charges for Jan. 6.
“They’ve already been in jail for a long time” he said.
The pardons served Mr. Trump’s mission of rewriting the history of Jan. 6. Throughout his presidential campaign and after he won the election, he has tried repeatedly to play down the violent nature of the Capitol attack and reframe it, falsely, as a “day of love”.
GLOBAL REBELLION: INSURRECTION (THE DAY OF RECKONING) 7 gennaio 2021
As a legal matter, the pardons and commutations effectively unwound the largest single criminal inquiry the Justice Department has undertaken in its 155-year history.
JUSTICE FOR ALL
Trump Grants Sweeping Clemency to All Jan. 6 Rioters
Alan Feuer New York Times
THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN
Patriots and American freedom fighters’ 4-year battle against the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations has just come to a glorious end with Trump’s signing of the Executive Order (EO), “Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization”.
The January 20, 2025, WHO Executive Order (EO) opens with Trump reminding the WHO (and the world) that he had signed an EO in July of 2020 withdrawing the United Stats from the WHO due to their “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states (i.e. CHINA)”.
Note: Trump revoked President Biden’s January 25, 2021, Executive Order 13987 that revoked Trump’s original WHO Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO in July of 2020.
Trump’s EO clearly states that public health safety and biosecurity threats to the United States will be managed by the U.S. National Security Council, NOT the WHO.
BREAKING: United States Withdraws from the World Health Organization
Karen Kingston Substack
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restore freedom of speech and end censorship, drawing fire from critics who point to his past actions threatening and suing journalists, critics and political opponents.
The order forbids government agencies from using federal resources to act in a manner that would “would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen”.
It directs the attorney general to “investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order” and prepare a report for the president “with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken”.
Trump and his Republican allies have accused the administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden of encouraging suppression of free speech on online platforms.
Many of the accusations have centered on government efforts against false claims about vaccines and elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Biden administration's contacts with social media companies did not violate America's First Amendment protections around free speech.
Trump himself faced social media restrictions after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Trump has over several decades threatened and sued his critics over comments they have made about him.
Trump has also referred to journalists as the "enemy of the people" and has sued five media companies, including the CNN, ABC News, CBS News, publisher Simon & Schuster and the Des Moines Register.
University of California, Irvine, Professor David Kaye said the federal government is already barred from interfering with its citizens' First Amendment rights, so the order would not stop behavior that is already prohibited.
He criticised the the order as a "deeply cynical" public relations exercise.
Kaye, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on free speech issues, said: "You cannot on the one hand say, 'The media is the enemy of the people,' and at the same time say, 'It's the policy of the United States to secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech'. Those two things don't fit together".
Trump executive order on free speech draws criticism
Kanishka Singh Raphael Satter Reuters
“Under the guise of combating ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’, and ‘malinformation’, the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate”, the order slams the previous administration’s record.
As government-driven censorship is “intolerable in a free society”, the order outlines a number of steps to remedy the current situation, but crucially make sure this does not happen again.
The document establishes that government employees are now prevented from engaging in or facilitating censorship and using taxpayer funds to promote censorship.
Another, "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government", concerns in particular the intelligence community.
The Director of the National Intelligence is to review the activities of this community over the past four years, report to the president, and make recommendations, in order to take “appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of the Intelligence Community”.
Another order targets the 51 intelligent officials by revoking their security clearance for signing a letter that “falsely suggested that the (Hunter Biden laptop) news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign”. The Director of National Intelligence is instructed to investigate and within 90 days report “on inappropriate activity”.
The order – "Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information" – treats this as an instance of breach of trust – that saw the officials engage in misleading and inappropriate political “coordination” – fit for “a third world country”.
Going forward, those issued with government security clearance are prohibited from engaging in activities that could influence elections in the US.
The executive order concerning TikTok’s continued operations in the US addresses the application of an act seeking to ban the app and instructs the Attorney-General and DOJ not to enforce it for at least 75 days.
Trump’s Bold First Moves Take Aim at Free Speech Erosion and Big Tech Collusion
Didi Rankovic Reclaim The Net
President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the pact among almost all nations to fight climate change.
The United States will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries not party to the agreement, under which nations work together to keep global warming below levels that could lead to environmental catastrophe.
During his first term Mr. Trump withdrew from the Paris accord, but then President Biden quickly rejoined in 2020 after winning the White House.
Withdrawal from the pact signals his administration’s determination to double down on fossil-fuel extraction and production, and to move away from clean-energy technologies like electric vehicles and power-generating wind turbines.
“President Trump is choosing to begin his term pandering to the fossil fuel industry and its allies”, the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a statement.
The United States is a major exporter of emissions, now producing more crude oil and natural gas than any nation in history. Mr. Trump has vowed to further ramp up production and exports.
Trump Orders a U.S. Exit From the World’s Main Climate Pact
Max Bearak New York Times
Global warming is accelerating beyond control, pushing Earth off-track from meeting the 1.5°C (2.7°F) target set in the Paris Agreement.
The latest data shows a rapid rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and record-breaking temperatures – raising serious concerns about the future of our planet.
Scientists warn that without immediate and drastic action, we are heading toward a climate crisis that will be difficult to reverse.
The year 2024 officially became the hottest on record, with global average temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. Scientists warn that this marks a dangerous turning point.
Even more concerning than rising temperatures is the unprecedented increase in atmospheric CO2 levels.
Measurements taken at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, revealed that CO2 concentrations rose by 3.58 parts per million (ppm) in 2024 – the fastest annual increase since records began in 1958. This increase far exceeded the Met Office’s prediction of 2.84 ppm, highlighting that emissions are outpacing even the worst-case scenarios.
This increase is partly attributed to the El Niño phenomenon, which created widespread hot and dry conditions, reducing the ability of forests and ecosystems to absorb CO2.
Human activities – particularly the burning of fossil fuels – remain the primary driver of rising emissions and global warming.
The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles serve as a grim reminder of what the future could hold if global temperatures continue to rise unchecked. Higher temperatures dry out vegetation, creating the perfect conditions for large, uncontrollable fires.
The rise of global warming also threatens food security, water supplies, and human health. Crops struggle to grow in extreme heat, while changing weather patterns lead to droughts and flooding.
Global warming is accelerating beyond control as CO2 levels rise
Sanjana Gajbhiye Earth.com
BREAKING: Donald Trump bans LGBTQ pride flags at government buildings, allowing only US flags to be flown.
Imara Jones, a Black trans woman, CEO of TransLash Media, and an expert on the anti-trans political movement, said in a statement that "Trump's recognition of only 'two genders' means a war on trans people, as well as any cis person with a gender expression outside of the gender binary".
Alarm Bells Sound as Trump Gets to Work on 'Extreme Authoritarian Agenda'
Jessica Corbett Common Dreams
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female”.
The federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female.
The order reverses efforts by the Biden administration to broaden gender identity designations, including on passports.
Titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”, the order says that “sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”.
The federal government will also shift from using the term “gender” to “sex”, and that sex is “an individual’s immutable biological classification”, a Trump administration official told reporters.
All government agencies will ensure that official documents, including passports, visas and Global Entry cards, “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”, the executive order says. Also, departments running federal prisons, migrant shelters, rape shelters and other “intimate spaces” will be directed to protect single-sex spaces for privacy.
“Agencies are no longer going to promote gender ideology through communication forms and other messages”, the official said.
As of 2022, US citizens have been able to select “X” as their gender marker on passports.
Later that year, Americans were able to start changing their sex identification with the Social Security Administration without needing to provide medical certification.
Trump two-gender edict will upend ‘X’ identity on passports
Tami Luhby CNN
VISIONI
Auschwitz: a short history of the largest mass murder site in human history
LETTURE
"WE DO NOT PART" Han Kang
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