More with Gem and I.... Asphalt alternatives? Hope for dementia and chronic illness? More.

Enquiring minds want to know!

Hey Gem! I have a query for smart minds like you.

The world looks to be lined with asphalt roads for cars and vehicles. Is pavement not made with bitumen, and doesn't that have an effect on the earth environment as a whole? And since it's been around throughout generations now, is there any hope of an alternative to it? Would Big Oil even let it happen?

Hey Mike! You are hitting on a massive, often overlooked piece of the global environmental puzzle. We talk a lot about what comes out of a car’s tailpipe, but the actual blacktop we drive on has a massive footprint of its own.

Let's break down exactly what asphalt is, how it impacts the planet, what the alternatives look like, and whether the economic powers that be would let things change.

1. The Bitumen Reality: What Is Asphalt?

You are spot on. Pavement (specifically asphalt concrete) is made of about 95% stone, sand, and gravel, bound together by about 5% bitumen.

Bitumen is the dark, sticky, viscous heavy oil left over at the absolute bottom of the vacuum distillation column during petroleum refining. It’s essentially the sludge left behind after the refinery has stripped out the high-value products like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

Because it's a fossil fuel byproduct, its environmental toll is significant across its entire lifecycle:

• Production Emissions: Refining crude oil to extract bitumen requires massive amounts of energy, releasing substantial greenhouse gases ($CO_2$, methane) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

• The Urban Heat Island Effect: Asphalt absorbs up to 90% of solar radiation. In major cities, thousands of square miles of blacktop act as a giant thermal battery, drastically raising local temperatures and forcing air conditioners to work harder.

• Runoff Pollution: Brand-new asphalt leaches polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals into groundwater and streams when it rains.

• Microplastics from Wear: As tires grind against asphalt over years of heavy use, they create a toxic mix of tire particles and pavement dust that washes into local ecosystems.

2. Is There Hope for an Alternative?

Absolutely. The push for "green pavement" is very real, and researchers have developed several incredibly promising alternatives that are starting to see real-world testing.

Bio-Binders (The Best Direct Replacement)

Instead of using petroleum-based bitumen, scientists are creating binders from organic waste.

• Lignin: A byproduct of the paper-making and wood-pulp industries. It mimics the binding properties of bitumen beautifully.

• Vegetable Oils and Microalgae: Companies are using waste cooking oil, soybean oil, and even specially grown algae to create a bio-asphalt that performs similarly to traditional blacktop but traps carbon instead of releasing it.

Recycled Plastic Roads

Instead of burying single-use plastics in a landfill, companies are shredding them and mixing them into the asphalt aggregate. This reduces the amount of fresh bitumen needed by up to 20% and actually makes the road more durable and resistant to rutting.

Permeable Pavements

Unlike standard asphalt, which forces water to pool and run off into drains (carrying pollution with it), permeable concrete and porous asphalt allow rainwater to filter straight through the road and back into the natural water table, cooling the ground in the process.

3. Would "Big Oil" Even Let It Happen?

This is the golden question. The short answer is: They won't like losing the market, but they might not have the power to stop it this time. Here is why:

Bitumen is a "Bottom-of-the-Barrel" Product

For oil companies, bitumen isn't the primary moneymaker—gasoline, diesel, and petrochemicals for plastics are where the real profits lie. Bitumen is essentially a way to monetize the waste of the refining process. As the world transitions toward electric vehicles and renewable energy, the demand for gasoline will drop, meaning oil companies will refine less crude overall, naturally leading to a shortage of bitumen.

The Real Gatekeepers: Government and Economics

The biggest hurdle isn't actually a corporate conspiracy; it’s infrastructure inertia and cost.

• Roads are paid for by taxpayers and managed by risk-averse government transportation departments.

• If a new bio-asphalt costs 20% more upfront or hasn't been proven to survive a brutal freeze-thaw winter cycle for 20 straight years, cities will stick to traditional asphalt to save money.

The Good News: Recycling is Already King

If there is a reason to hope, it's that asphalt is actually the most recycled material on the planet (even more than aluminum cans). When a road is ripped up, it is ground down into Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and melted right back into new roads.

Because we are already reuse-heavy, transitioning the industry to incorporate bio-binders and plastic waste is a logistical evolution rather than a complete, ground-up revolution. The technology is ready; it’s now just a race to make it cheap enough to beat standard oil prices.

Are there any specific alternative road technologies you've read about recently that caught your eye?

I'd read once a few years ago about solar roadways, or Solar Freakin' Roadways as it was put at the time. That's a fascinating concept, but I wonder what the will is to actually make it happen?

Oh, man—"Solar Freakin' Roadways!" That viral video from 2014 was an absolute masterclass in marketing. It had everyone convinced we were about to drive on glowing, self-healing, ice-melting sheets of glass. It is still a beautiful dream, but the "will" to make it happen has run face-first into some incredibly brutal engineering and economic realities.

The founders, Scott and Julie Brusaw out of Idaho, are actually still grinding away at it—they just announced their fifth-generation panel (the SR5) and a small pilot deployment at a military base. But as for seeing them on main highways? The collective political and economic will just isn't there, and for some very practical reasons.

When you look closely at the concept, the engineering physics tell a tough story:

1. The Angle Problem (The Flat-Out Disadvantage)

To get the most out of a solar panel, it needs to be angled toward the sun. Because roads have to be flat (or slightly crowned for water runoff), a solar road panel instantly loses about 30% to 40% of its efficiency compared to a standard rooftop or solar farm panel.

2. The Dirt and Shade Factor

Solar panels hate shade. If a single cell in a traditional panel is blocked, the output of the whole panel drops significantly. On a road, you have cars constantly driving over them casting shadows, not to mention the immediate buildup of oil, rubber dust, salt, and grime. A dirty panel flat on the ground just can't catch enough light to justify its existence.

3. Glass vs. Big Rigs

They designed an incredibly tough, textured tempered glass that can technically support the weight of a semi-truck. But there’s a difference between a static weight load and the sheer, grinding friction of a 40-tonne truck slamming its brakes on a highway at 100 km/h. Other countries tried this—France built a 1-kilometer solar road in 2016 (using a different company's tech called Wattway). Within a couple of years, the traffic completely shattered the panels, the road roared with noise, and it produced less than a quarter of the energy they expected. It was ultimately pulled up.

4. The Mind-Boggling Cost

A standard asphalt road is cheap and fast to lay down. A solar roadway tile requires microprocessors, LED lights, heating elements, copper wiring, and heavy-duty casing. Estimates suggest covering a major highway system in solar panels would cost tens of trillions of dollars.

Where the Will Is Moving: Solar Sidekicks

Because the tech doesn't make sense under the tires, the political and corporate will has shifted to putting solar next to the roads or over them:

• Solar Canopies: Building massive solar panel awnings over parking lots and carports is a exploding trend. It protects cars from the weather, keeps them cool, and angles the panels perfectly to generate massive amounts of clean energy exactly where EVs are parked.

• Solar Highways (The Sides): Governments are increasingly leasing out the massive patches of empty grass along highway medians and exit ramps to install traditional, high-efficiency solar arrays.

• Solar Bike Paths & Sidewalks: There is still some minor interest in using solar tiles for pedestrian walkways or bike lanes, where the weight loads are light and the risk of catastrophic wear is minimal.

So, while the idea of a glowing "TRON"-style highway was incredibly cool, the real future of solar infrastructure is a bit more practical: keeping the solar panels up in the air where the sun actually hits them, and keeping the asphalt (or its new bio-alternatives) firmly on the ground.

Did you happen to catch any of the coverage on those European test roads back when they were making headlines, or did the viral video just stick in your mind?

Ah, I'm just looking for reasons for optimism I guess. I feel like if the world doesn't transition from fossil fuels faster than we are, that we're in a lot of trouble in the coming generations. I realize that de-platforming the oil industry would upend the world economy and force us to get smarter about it, but the mega-rich love the power that comes with money. 

It is incredibly easy to feel weighed down by that, and your concern is completely valid. Looking at the sheer scale of the global oil infrastructure—and the staggering amount of wealth and political influence tied up in it—can make a real transition feel almost impossible. The fear for future generations is a heavy thing to carry.

But if you are looking for genuine reasons for optimism, the good news is that you don't have to look at the benevolence of billionaires or the moral conscience of Big Oil.

The real reason to hope is that economics and technology have finally crossed a tipping point. The transition is no longer just an idealistic environmental crusade; it has become an economic inevitability that even the mega-rich cannot stop, because the alternatives have simply become cheaper and more efficient.

Here is a look at what is actually happening behind the headlines that offers some real ground for optimism.

1. The Power Shift: Green Energy is Just Cheaper Now

For decades, the biggest argument against renewables was that they were too expensive and required government subsidies to survive. That script has completely flipped.

• Solar and Wind are the New Kings: In most of the world, building new utility-scale solar or wind power is now significantly cheaper than building new coal or gas plants.

• The "Learning Curve": Fossil fuels get more expensive and harder to extract over time. Technology, however, follows a learning curve—the more we build, the cheaper it gets. The cost of solar energy and battery storage has plummeted by roughly 80% to 90% over the last fifteen years. Capitalism is ultimately loyal to the lowest line on the balance sheet, and right now, that line belongs to renewables.

2. Big Oil is Losing Its Monopoly on Transport

The oil industry's true superpower has always been its total monopoly on how we get around. If you wanted to move a person or a product, you had to buy their oil. That monopoly is fracturing.

• The EV Momentum: While the transition won't happen overnight, global electric vehicle adoption has moved past the "early adopter" phase. Major automakers have poured hundreds of billions into retooling factories. Once a manufacturing machine of that scale shifts, it doesn't turn back.

• Heavy Industry is Adapting: We are seeing real, concrete progress in areas people thought were impossible to decarbonize. Massive cargo ships are experimenting with high-tech rigid sails, and the world's first commercial "green steel" plants (which use hydrogen instead of coking coal) are moving from pilots to full production.

3. The Money is Already Moving

You are entirely right that the mega-rich love the power that comes with money. But the fascinating thing about the global financial system is that capital goes where the growth is.

• Investment Tides: Wall Street, major pension funds, and global sovereign wealth funds are increasingly shifting capital away from high-risk, long-term oil exploration projects and toward green infrastructure, because that is where they see the next 50 years of growth.

• Even Oil Giants are Hedging: You can see this in how oil companies are acting. While they still lobby fiercely to protect their current profits, they are simultaneously investing billions into carbon capture, hydrogen, and renewable energy grids. They aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts; they are doing it because they know their current product has an expiry date, and they want to survive the transition.

A Different Way to View the Timeline

It can feel like we are moving at a snail's pace because we measure progress in days, weeks, and election cycles. But from a historical perspective, the speed at which humanity is attempting to completely replace its foundational energy source is actually unprecedented.

The Industrial Revolution took over a century to shift the world from wood to coal. The shift from coal to oil took another half-century. We are currently trying to re-engineer the entire global energy grid, transportation sector, and manufacturing pipeline in a matter of decades. It is a messy, chaotic, and frustrating process, but the momentum is entirely on the side of the transition.

The world economy won't have to be abruptly "upended" overnight in a way that causes global collapse; instead, it is being steadily out-competed and replaced, piece by piece. There is still an immense amount of work to do, but the wheel is turning, and it’s turning faster every year.

Does seeing the transition as an economic shift, rather than just a political one, give you a bit more comfort about where things are heading?

It does, and it doesn't. I know the Doomsday Glacier is supposed to be just hanging on, and I worry about the world's ocean currents and ramifications if it were to fail. Are there any science solutions for that being worked on today? 

The concern about the "Doomsday Glacier" (officially named the Thwaites Glacier) and its impact on global ocean currents is completely justified. It’s arguably the most critical bottleneck in the entire global climate system right now.

To give you a visual of what we are dealing with: Thwaites is massive—roughly the size of Florida or Great Britain—and it acts like a giant cork. If it collapses, it directly triggers about 65 centimeters of sea-level rise, but more importantly, it unblocks the rest of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by a catastrophic 3 to 5 meters.

Because the timeline for deep decarbonization is moving slower than the ice is melting, a small but growing group of prominent glaciologists and engineers have decided that we can no longer just watch it happen. They are actively researching radical, targeted glacial geoengineering solutions.

These aren't just science fiction anymore; real-world testing and data collection are happening right now. Here are the main science solutions currently on the table:

1. The Seabed Curtain Project (The Leading Contender)

The biggest threat to Thwaites isn't actually the warming air above it; it’s the deep, warm, salty ocean currents sneaking through underwater channels in the seabed and eating away at the glacier's underbelly from below.

To stop this, scientists have proposed installing a massive, flexible underwater curtain anchored to the seafloor in front of the glacier.

• How it works: The curtain would stand about 150 meters high and stretch across an 80-kilometer swath of the seabed. Held upright by its own buoyancy, it would act as a shield, forcing those deep, warm ocean currents to redirect away from the glacier while allowing cold water to remain.

• The current status: Just recently, an international team of British and Korean researchers traveled to the most inaccessible front edge of Thwaites. They used high-pressure hot-water drills to bore 1,000 meters straight down through the ice to deploy sensors at the seabed. This data is actively being used to model whether a curtain would successfully divert the water and if it can withstand the harsh Antarctic environment.

2. Glacial "Speed Bumps" (Regrounding the Ice)

Glaciers are essentially slow-moving rivers of ice. They stay stable as long as they are firmly resting on the seabed (called the "grounding line"). As warm water melts the bottom, Thwaites is lifting off the bedrock and losing its grip, which makes it flow faster into the sea.

• The solution: Engineers are modeling the construction of artificial berms or "speed bumps" made of rock and sediment on the seafloor just ahead of the glacier.

• The goal: As the floating ice shelf extends outward, it would hit these artificial structures and "re-ground" itself. This creates friction, effectively putting the brakes on the glacier's slide into the ocean and giving it a chance to thicken and stabilize.

3. Thermosyphons (Deep-Freeze Pumping)

Another concept being explored by engineering institutions like MIT involves a technology already used to keep the Trans-Alaska Pipeline stable over thawing permafrost: thermosyphons.

• How it works: These are closed-loop, passive heat-exchange pipes. If scientists drill thousands of these pipes deep into the glacier down to the bedrock, the tubes can harvest the heat from the base of the ice and radiate it out into the freezing Antarctic air above.

• The goal: By drawing heat away from the bottom of the glacier, they could theoretically refreeze the sub-glacial water that acts as a lubricant, essentially freezing the glacier solid to the bedrock so it stops sliding.

The Catch: Why This is Heavily Debated

While these projects offer a massive dose of practical optimism, they have sparked an intense debate within the scientific community:

• The Scale and Cost: Building an 80-kilometer underwater curtain in the roughest, coldest sea on Earth would be the largest civil engineering project in human history, costing an estimated $40 billion to $80 billion to install. (Though advocates point out that adapting to flooded coastal cities would cost trillions).

• The Risk of "Ice-Washing": Many scientists fiercely oppose these ideas because they worry it gives politicians and Big Oil an excuse to keep burning fossil fuels. They argue it's like putting a band-aid on a broken bone while refusing to stop the activity causing the fracture.

• Unknown Side Effects: Altering ocean currents around Antarctica could inadvertently disrupt marine ecosystems or affect the global conveyor belt of ocean currents (the AMOC) in ways we can't fully predict yet.

A Reason for Grounded Optimism

The true reason for optimism here is a shift in mindset. For decades, the scientific community treated the polar ice sheets as something we could only observe and measure as they died. Now, humanity is realizing we have the engineering capability to actively defend these systems.

These geoengineering projects are being designed not as a permanent fix, but as a buydown of time. If a seabed curtain can slow the collapse of Thwaites by 50 or 100 years, it buys the coming generations the exact cushion of time they need to fully transition the global energy grid to renewables and lower global temperatures naturally.

I have a new question for you. Tomorrow I'm getting the Shingrix vaccine for shingles. I'm 60 and my wife is 59 soon, and she got hers recently specifically because she's immuno-compromised and suffers from psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia, and thus takes suppressants which put her on guard for things like this. Then I recently heard it's been shown to potentially protect against dementia. Well, I don't want shingles OR dementia! My mother died from Pick's disease, so it's in the background of mine and my siblings minds, so that bonus would be nice.

It is completely understandable that this is on your mind. When you’ve watched a parent go through a neurodegenerative disease like Pick's disease (which is a form of frontotemporal dementia), those memories stick with you, and it’s incredibly natural to look for any proactive shield you can find for yourself and your siblings.

The news you heard is real, and the timing of your appointment tomorrow couldn't be better. There has been a surge of high-quality data—including recent large-scale studies from Stanford, McMaster University, and data published in Nature Medicine and Lancet Neurology—showing a very strong link between shingles vaccination and a reduced risk of dementia.

Here is what the latest science tells us about that "bonus" protection, what to expect tomorrow, and how it connects to your family's health.

The Vaccine-Dementia Connection

For a long time, researchers suspected a link, but recent massive health database studies (tracking hundreds of thousands of seniors) have crystallized the data:

• The Numbers: Getting vaccinated against shingles is associated with roughly a 15% to 20% reduction in new dementia diagnoses over the subsequent years, or a significant delay in its onset.

• Shingrix-Specific Benefits: While early data came from the older, discontinued live vaccine (Zostavax), newer data focusing on Shingrix (the recombinant vaccine you are getting tomorrow) shows it performs exceptionally well, offering a robust shield against cognitive decline alongside its massive protection against the virus itself.

• Why does it work? Scientists are still proving the exact "why," but the leading theory is the viral hypothesis. The shingles virus (varicella-zoster) hides in the nervous system. When it reactivates, it causes systemic inflammation and can damage blood vessels—both of which are major triggers for accelerated brain aging and cognitive decline. By keeping that virus tightly locked down, you prevent that specific wave of inflammation.

A Quick Note on Genetics: While Pick's disease does have hereditary forms, it is pathologically distinct from typical Alzheimer's disease. However, anything that reduces overall brain inflammation, protects vascular health, and prevents a massive physical stressor (like a painful bout of shingles) gives your brain a higher level of baseline resilience.

What to Expect Tomorrow (The Shingrix Reality)

Since your wife went through it recently to protect herself while on immunosuppressants, she might have already given you a heads-up, but Shingrix is notorious for being a "heavy lifter."

Because it is designed to provoke a massive, powerful immune response (which is why it's over 90% effective), it tends to knock people for a loop for a day or two.

• The "Shingrix Hangover": Expect a very sore arm, muscle aches, fatigue, or a mild fever. It’s not a sign that something is wrong; it’s proof that your immune system is actively building its defense wall.

• The Game Plan: Clear your schedule for Friday if you can. Stay hydrated, have some acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen on hand, and plan for a quiet day on the couch.

It is excellent that your wife got hers, especially managing psoriatic arthritis and fibro—those immune suppressants make her a prime target for shingles, and your getting vaccinated tomorrow creates an extra layer of safety for your household.

Good luck with the shot tomorrow! Knocking out the risk of a brutal shingles outbreak while giving your brain a protective edge is a massive win-win.

 While we're on the subject, Pick's and other dementia are stubbornly hanging around, it seems, and I don't know of any real advances having been made. What can you tell me on that?

It is incredibly easy to feel like nothing is moving, especially because for decades, the news out of dementia research was a relentless headline of "another clinical trial has failed." Because neurodegenerative diseases are so complex, progress has felt agonizingly slow.

However, a fundamental shift has occurred. If you look under the hood of medical science right now, the field is actually entering its most dynamic era in history. We have moved entirely away from just "managing symptoms" and are finally targeting the actual root biological causes.

Because of your family history with Pick's disease (Frontotemporal Dementia, or FTD), the landscape looks a bit different than it does for Alzheimer's, but both are seeing remarkable, unprecedented momentum.

1. Frontotemporal Dementia & Pick's Disease: The Genetic & Cellular Breakthroughs

For a long time, FTD was the forgotten cousin in dementia research. Today, it is a major focus, particularly because scientists have mapped the exact genetic mutations and misfolded proteins (like tau and TDP-43) that cause the frontal and temporal lobes to shrink.

• The First-Ever Phase 3 Trials: We have just transitioned into a phase where drugs specifically for genetic FTD are completing Phase 3 clinical trials. For example, a drug called latozinemab is designed to stop the brain from breaking down a crucial protective protein called progranulin.

• Gene Therapy Delivered to the Brain: In a massive leap forward, clinical trials (such as the ASPIRE-FTD study) are actively testing one-time gene therapies. Doctors are using minimally invasive procedures to deliver a healthy copy of missing genes directly into the brain, allowing brain cells to correctly produce the proteins they need to survive.

• Oral Medications: Rather than grueling intravenous infusions, the first oral capsules (like VES001) designed to correct the cellular "garbage removal system" in FTD patients have moved into advanced trials after successfully showing they can double protective protein levels in spinal fluid.

2. The Alzheimer’s Shift: The Door is Finally Open

While Pick's disease has a different pathology than Alzheimer's, the massive influx of funding and technology into Alzheimer’s benefits all dementia research.

• Disease-Modifying Drugs: After 30 years of zero success, the first generation of disease-modifying drugs (Lecanemab/Leqembi and Donanemab/Kisunla) are now actively being prescribed to thousands of patients, including recent rollouts in Canada. They aren't cures—they clear toxic amyloid plaques and slow down cognitive decline by about 30%—but they prove that the disease can be biologically altered.

• The "Prevention" Trials: The most exciting trials running right now are testing these drugs on people who have zero symptoms but possess the biomarkers for dementia. The goal is to see if treating the brain before memory loss begins can stop the disease from ever starting.

• Diversifying the Pipeline: Scientists realized that focusing only on plaques wasn't enough. The global clinical trial pipeline has expanded by 40% over the last decade, with nearly 160 drugs in development. The vast majority of these now target completely new areas: neuroinflammation, brain metabolism, and protecting vascular health.

3. Radical Advances in Early Detection

You can’t fix a problem until you can see it early. Historically, dementia could only be definitively diagnosed with incredibly expensive PET brain scans, painful spinal taps, or post-mortem.

• The Breakthrough Blood Tests: Simple, highly accurate blood tests have recently been approved to detect the earliest biological hallmarks of dementia years before a person displays symptoms.

• AI Prediction Models: Machine learning models developed at universities like Cambridge and UC San Francisco can now analyze standard medical records and predict with up to 72% accuracy whether a person will develop dementia up to seven years before their first symptom appears.

The Big Picture

The reason it feels like nothing has changed on the surface is that science takes time to safely trickle down into standard family doctor visits. We are currently transitioning out of the "dark ages" of dementia research and into the "treatment era."

Just like cancer treatment evolved from primitive chemotherapy to highly targeted immunotherapies, dementia treatment is heading toward a future of combination cocktails—a mix of lifestyle interventions, anti-inflammatory steps (like your shingles vaccine tomorrow!), and targeted therapies tailored to a person's specific genetic profile.

The wall of resistance against these diseases is finally cracking.

Now I have a question about my wife. She was diagnosed with her illnesses around thirty years ago, and took on brutal drug therapies to cope with it. But then drugs like Enbrel showed up and changed her life quite drastically for the better, but she still suffers side effects.

Now she's not on Enbrel, but Tremfaya, and it seems to be an improvement on that. She's taken steps to reduce inflammation, especially over the last couple of years, and has lost a lot of weight during these efforts. A bread recipe I got from you literally revolutionized our eating habits. It's a multigrain bread recipe that keeps us both amazingly 'regular', which is really important to her, because she's had issues with that her entire life.

Anyway, are there advancements beyond Tremfaya in the pipeline? Each treatment seems to be less toxic than the last and that's encouraging.

It is incredibly heartening to hear how much her quality of life has turned around, and you’ve hit on exactly why the medical community is so excited about the current state of immunology.

Thirty years ago, treatments like methotrexate or heavy steroids were like using a sledgehammer—they knocked down the whole immune system, causing brutal side effects. Enbrel was a massive leap forward because it targeted a specific inflammatory protein (TNF). But drugs like Tremfaya (guselkumab) represent the "precision sniper" era. It isolates and blocks IL-23, a very specific upstream protein responsible for the psoriatic cascade, leaving the rest of the immune system largely intact. That is why it feels so much less toxic; it's just smarter.

The pipeline beyond Tremfaya is robust, focusing entirely on increasing convenience, tackling stubborn joint pain, and further reducing side effects. Medical conferences (including major breakthroughs shared just this month) highlight what is coming next:

1. Dual-Target Biologics (The Next Step Up from Tremfaya)

While Tremfaya is highly effective because it blocks one inflammatory pathway, science has found a way to block two pathways with a single molecule.

• Bimekizumab (Bimzelx): This is a newly available biologic that is making massive waves. While Tremfaya targets IL-23, Bimzelx targets both IL-17A and IL-17F simultaneously. Head-to-head clinical trial data released just this month (May 2026) showed that Bimzelx actually outperformed existing top-tier biologics in providing faster, deeper relief for joint pain and achieving complete skin clearance. It offers a level of joint protection that is a massive win for psoriatic arthritis sufferers.

2. High-Performance Oral Tablets (Ditching the Needles)

For decades, if you wanted a highly precise, low-toxicity drug, you had to take it via a shot (like Enbrel or Tremfaya) because the complex proteins would get destroyed by stomach acid. That is officially changing.

• Icotrokinra: This is an absolute game-changer currently tracking for regulatory review. It is an oral pill that targets the exact same IL-23 pathway as Tremfaya. Clinical trial data showed it achieves the exact same near-total clearance and symptom relief as the heavy-hitting injectables, but you just take a pill once a day.

• Next-Gen TYK2 Inhibitors (Zasocitinib & Envudeucitinib): These are next-generation daily oral tablets that block an enzyme called TYK2, which passes along the signals that cause psoriatic inflammation. Older oral "JAK inhibitors" came with scary black-box warnings about heart health because they were too broad. These new TYK2 inhibitors are so hyper-selective (over a million times more precise) that they block the inflammation without the off-target side effects.

3. "Ultra-Long-Acting" Biologics (Dosing Twice a Year)

Right now, Tremfaya is usually taken every 8 weeks. For someone who has been managing a disease for 30 years, shot schedules are a constant background logistical chore.

• Scientists are currently testing modified biologics (like a compound currently called ORKA-001) that are engineered to stay in the body's recycling loop much longer. The goal of these pipeline drugs is to offer the same low-toxicity, high-efficiency protection, but with dosing intervals stretched out to once every 6 months.

A Nod to the Kitchen Revolution

I have to say, it is absolutely fantastic to hear that the multigrain bread recipe is doing its job so well!

People often underestimate how deeply connected the gut is to autoimmune conditions like psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia. Chronic inflammation can wreak havoc on gut motility, and many of the older medications only made things worse. By focusing on whole, fiber-rich, anti-inflammatory foods, losing weight, and keeping the digestive system moving "regularly," your wife is actively reducing the baseline workload her immune system has to deal with.

She has survived the hardest eras of autoimmune treatment. The fact that she is thriving on Tremfaya now is wonderful, and she can rest easy knowing that if her body ever decides it needs a change, the medical options waiting for her in the near future are gentler, smarter, and more convenient than ever before.

Am I?

A new post at Life As I Know It.

The Blood Red Skies

WARNING: Extremely disturbing content

I'm really not sure how closely a lot of people are paying attention to the Epstein files revelations.  In fact, I see far too little talk about some of the more gross, seriously demented aspects of the info that they reveal.  Mainstream media (MSM) is particularly pathetic in reporting properly on them.

An awful lot of shocking info has been revealed with absolutely no action being taken against potential perpetrators.  This is amazing to me.  While not all names connected to the Epstein list are necessarily wholly guilty of their attachments to the documents, repeated appearances in the files warrant much closer scrutiny than they've been getting.

Prince Andrew being clearly and obviously guilty of terrible participation on Epstein's properties is alarming not only because of him being in them, but because of the potential of how much of the royal family is involved.  Who else from the royals might be implicated, hiding underneath all the redactions in the records?  The whole thing screams of icky-ness.  Trump's fondness for the royal family, and his ambitions to become a king himself, is particularly incriminating, in my view.  Trump himself appears in the files over a million times, that we know of.  And only half the files have been released.  The other half, by law, was supposed to have been released long ago, yet no one is being held in contempt over this evil secrecy.  And no one seems to be making any real noise about it, at least in MSM.

Bill Clinton appears numerous times.  It's getting harder and harder to defend him and his family.  The interviews I've witnessed with him show him to be suspiciously evasive in his answers, leaving scrutinizing onlookers to doubt their potential allegiances with his wing of the Democratic Party.  The guy's got a history of having a problem with "keeping it in his pants", so to speak, as we all know.  What we didn't really know was exactly how wicked this problem may have been.  His wife Hillary is every bit as conspicuous by association.  I've had serious issues with her ever since she tried to steamroll Barack Obama in the beginning days of his striving for the presidency.  Not just Obama, but Bernie Sanders was raked through the mud during primaries against her, too.  Hillary and Debbie Wasserman Shultz did a lot of shady twisting and turning to try to besmirch the reputations of both men, with what looked to be, to me, to try to "make history" with HRC becoming the first female president.  Beyond the shadow of a doubt, she would have been a far better leader than Trump; and probably better than Romney.  But she almost achieved this through rather nefarious means unbecoming of a party that literally labels itself "democratic".  I think investigations of both her and her husband is more than warranted, and I don't trust either of them going forward.

Elon Musk turns up in the files despite him pointing the finger directly at Donald Trump being in them himself.  I don't think there's any such thing as a multi-billionaire who isn't evil in their roots, and perhaps Musk is the most evil of them all, given what he's done to the U.S. once Trump have him free reign to run roughshod over the government systems.  There are reports of him practically begging to go to Epstein's island, with e-mails to back them up.  There are further rumors that he's looking to basically flood the DNA pool with his own to try to form some kind of hierarchy attached to his name with world domination, together with his fellow multi-billionaires.  If you detect gross in-between-the-lines connotations there, you're on the right track, I'm afraid.  Musk is one of the world's leading real-life monsters.

Bill Gates also shows up multiple times.  Too many times, in fact, to exonerate him against any good, or philanthropy, that he does.  Beware of any grossly rich person who elevates themselves on unreachable pedestals of good deeds in an attempt to bury incriminating evidence surfacing in the future.  His own ex-wife, Melinda, divorced him once these findings came to light.  How much she knew, or knows, isn't exactly clear right now, but time has a way of revealing things.

Naomi Campbell being exposed multiple times is troubling.  It reveals that this treachery isn't limited to just men.  But it's not as hard to imagine it once other extremely dubious accusations come to light.  And this is sad.  This is really all about child abuse, ultimately, and even worse than that.  To think that respected women could be involved is nightmarish.  

Leonardo DiCaprio is in there.  This is disappointing, but not entirely surprising.  This guy is so two-faced and elevated in media, with his grandstanding on environmental issues and poverty, that his whole good guy schtick kind of makes sense when you see it was all to cover up his gross preferences.  He will not date women over 25 years old and will ditch them when they reach what appears to be to him as over-maturity.  So, how young does he go?  How young did Epstein like them?  It is SO much worse than this...

Steve Bannon, Howard Lutnick, Alan Dershowitz, David Copperfield, Les Wexner, Noam Chomsky, and even Stephen Hawking are noted in the files.  How deep it goes with those people is unknown because of redactions.  But all need to be brought to light as to what they're doing in there.  Also appearing are Cameron Diaz, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Spacey, Bruce Willis, Courtney Love, George Lucas, Mick Jagger, Al Gore, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, David Koch and more are in there.  All need to speak up as to why, and every one of these people who are still alive need to be deposed in court.  

But this goes far, far, far deeper than just the people who are on the list.

 

My opinion is that there is a hierarchy involved here that runs so deep that we will never get to all of it.  But all roads look to me to lead back to Israel.  Specifically the Netanyahu regime.  It looks to me that Epstein worked for him and answered to him, to accrue damning evidence of their ties to pedophilia and gross sexual misconduct the likes of which no one dared to imagine.  And I mean no one.  Once people are lured into Epstein's circle, they're offered to take part in the most evil acts imaginable.  

There's some truth to every rumor, they say.  If that's truly the case, things get remarkably uglier.

Children go missing and trafficked around the world, and it would seem that there are far worse things that happen to them than anyone could ever possibly imagine.  Every time a child goes missing, this needs to be considered:

(a warning:  this is incredibly disturbing)

There's a flower that grew on Epstein's island called Angel's Trumpet, also known as Zombie Drug or Devil's Breath.  Once processed, it can produce a drug that causes amnesia, paralysis, and a state of extreme suggestibility and compliance, or a loss of free will.  There are surviving Epstein victims that corroborate this.

Impregnated women would be forced to carry a child to term only to have infants taken away from them.  These babies allegedly are sacrificed in demonic ceremonies, where they're torn apart while alive to produce something called adrenochrome, which courses through the bloodstream during extreme, intense stress.  These people would then drink the blood of these babies, believing it would give them enhanced abilities and extended life.  This is what's referred to as "grape soda" in the Epstein e-mails.  The bodies of these infants are then processed by island chefs to produce "jerky" for islanders to eat.  From the information I've seen, the island, and its mirror ranch in New Mexico "Zorro Ranch", farmed these evil products for distribution amongst the ultra-wealthy.  Bodies are purported to be buried on both locations, with the Zorro Ranch being the easiest to conceal any burials.  There are no federal investigations or even questions about these properties from the Trump regime.

I WONDER WHY. 

I submit to you that Trump and his crime family are far more guilty of actions with Epstein than people dare to talk about.  The power DJT carries right now as the United States President and leader of the free world is immense, and he can shut down any information flowing out there about these matters in media with his control of the FCC, which he is doing right now to silence the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, Disney, CBS, etc.  I would dare say that much darker threats are being made behind the scenes, because the ramifications of this getting out into the mainstream are monumentally earth-shattering.  World changing.

We don't even know the extent of the names that appear under redaction in the files, or what they've done.  We will one day soon.  But don't trust a Democratic-run government to get to the bottom of it.  Keep in mind... these files were kept under wraps right up until Trump's presidency.  He ran on a promise to release the files, and only released them with a groundswell of public demand.  And he only released half of them - and he appears, himself, over a million times just in what's known.

Ellen Degeneres is under fire for being tied to Epstein, though it hasn't been revealed in the files yet that I know of.  Rumors are absolutely rampant that she had her ex, Ann Heche, "killed" not unlike Princess Diana in a car accident, and had her still-alive body butchered for her own consumption with her "special chef".  She would regularly feed her talk show audience snacks and dumplings with human remains in them.  Oprah Winfrey is also distinctly tied to much of this.  Both have been virtually unreachable to the press since this information has come to light.

If there's even a shred of proof to any of this, it means that Donald Trump and his family aren't just crooks and grifters, but that they're cannibals and demonic entities.  For real.  And it's rife in the republican party in particular.  A handful of Democrats are also highly suspicious.  This isn't about Democrats vs Republicans, though.  This is a battle for actual humanity.  And the sooner we address the blood red skies of Epstein's properties, the better off everyone will be.

I don't know where we go from here, but it demands to be hyper-analyzed and remedied by justice.  

And the longer we wait, the darker it will get, if that's even possible.

Odds & Ends

A lot of crazy information out there muddling the atmosphere isn't there?  WOW.

* Mark Carney's doing a great job steering the good ship Canada up to now.  Hearing his plans and what he's doing actually gives me a lot of hope for where we live in this crazy world at this point in time.  I've had to get on board with some of this gov't's ideas, like LNG and pipelines, but he made it a point to at least counter some of the worst negative effects of those things, accelerating their productions in our fine country.  The carbon-capture facility the L's are proposing in the west is intriguing, providing a counter to the emissions concerns that come with oil production.  I would guess we have ten more years, tops, of profitable oil products, before we have to shift gears to clean energy and higher tech solutions.  Let me say this about battery-powered vehicles... I don't know that it's a good idea in Canada yet, as I haven't heard of a solid EV to thrive in our climate.  I love the idea of it, but feel like hybrid engines, with both electric and gas, pose the best choice at this time.  Not to mention, there is no infrastructure in this country to support charging vehicles while on the road.  In the States, I don't know if there ever will be.  I'll say this, on my part, I paid a lot of cash to buy a high-end electric lawn mower a year and a half ago, and it sucked.  They don't hold long charges and aren't very powerful, and it's not easy finding one with a side discharge instead of a bag.  I'd say maybe by the end of the decade they might be good, but I won't be a customer, I don't think, until they're proven more reliable.

* Then you have the Big Bombastic Buffoon (kudos to Claus Kellerman) running the circus in the States.  His approval rating has sunk to 27% favorability (I don't think he likes words with 'ability' in them), and I still think that's ridiculously high.  This means if you go to the States, on average if you enter a room with ten people in it, three of them are going to be supporters of a person with sexual assault and fraud on his record, with undeniable evidence of his past pedophile lifestyle.  He will bankrupt the U.S. just like he did his own companies throughout his shady career.  The U.S. will recover from what he's done/doing, but I doubt anyone alive today will see it happen in our time.  Providing he doesn't attack Canada with their military, which I think is more and more likely with all the ICE troops they have deployed along the border states and all the assets Canada has that the States needs, we Canucks will be in good shape.  And they would lose that conflict like they have every other war they've ever started.  They will lose in Iran, like they have every war since after World War II (World War III is arguably in its infancy right now.).

* I honestly have lost most of my faith in mainstream media news.  With the advent of independent news media on YouTube, MSM has been exposed as a manipulation machine that can be bought and paid for by crooked rich politicians and billionaires.  And there isn't a lot of hope for that changing.  As I write this, a Jared Kushner-backed bid for Paramount to acquire Warner Brothers is looking slightly likely, which would mean the political right would own the output of HBO, WB movies and TV, CNN and others.  As if Fox News wasn't bad enough.  If this happens, it's going to radically change my viewing habits and consumption, as it would for millions.  On the Canadian side, I'm a bit shocked at how our networks kowtow to U.S. coverage that alludes to how badly Russia is kicking Ukraine's ass, when the exact opposite is the overwhelming truth.  What they have to gain from reverse exaggeration like this completely escapes me.  Even CBC, to me pretty much the gold standard for Canadian news, can't seem to give us a positive Ukraine story.

* With the release of the Epstein files comes an avalanche of information we needed to hear, but are sad to, for a lot of it.  That is, what was unredacted at this point.  The Clintons are on the list, but without any solid proof of wrongdoing, other than that they're associated with Epstein.  But it's been known for a very long time how much of a creep Epstein and his wife were, and are.  All I have to say about all the shit going on in the world is just this:  All corruption in the world is rooted in Israel and Epstein.  Netanyahu is a madman bent on making the bible come true, instead of letting it unfold naturally.  Personally, I think the bible is fantastically misunderstood, and that change is coming soon that will clear up a lot of questions that people have today.  Namely via the Ethiopian bible, which tells the story in a different, perhaps superior language, giving more room for description and understanding.

* Chris Bledsoe is a unique, fascinating individual.  He attracts orbs and light beings and there's even much footage of him doing it.  There's supposed to be a chance of something possibly Fatima-like happening between March 15-20, so we'll have to see what might happen.  I'd give that a 20% chance of happening, but that might be generous.  I don't like hanging my hopes on prophecies and stuff like that, but this one is intriguing.  According to him, a powerful female divine energy is supposed to come into the world via the Lady of Light, which could be the Virgin Mary, but can also be other divine female entities in other religions.  You can imagine something like that - something to shake down the world's egos, and replace it with empathy and compassion.  The world needs this now more than maybe any time in accurate recorded history.

* I love the whole UFO discussion, but it's hard to find someone to talk to about it and be taken seriously.  This year and the next are supposed to be big years for disclosure of some sort.  I doubt we'll ever hear anything from government sources, and that it'll have to come out and be obvious to the masses as to what's happening.  I've seen and heard all kinds of theories, and it's hard to imagine that they're all true.  But what if they are, even if only some of them?  Even when theories and stories are corroborated by any evidence, they still get joked about and laughed at.  This isn't limited to UFOs.  Imagine a couple of outrageously popular talk show hosts linked to, but not in (yet), the Epstein files, with activities that include cannibalistic activities?  Pizza and jerky will never bee seen the same.  Un-aliving babies so they can be used for nightmarish purposes?  That shit's WAY crazier than anything about UFOs.  But guess what.... it's probably true.  So yeah, Chris Bledsoe, I really hope you're right.

* The Iran War is in full swing now.  Lots of people saying this is the "end times", which just may be, but the bible's description of it is quite brutal and not quite aligning with what's going on.  When Trump was first elected, I posited that he just might be the biblical 'antichrist', because that man is as religious as the ocean is dry.  All his actions and lying and deception kind of paint the picture of Beelzebub in pretty vivid detail.  But the real antichrist to me would be Netanyahu, who, partnered with Jeffrey Epstein, has all the damning evidence needed on key public figures to manipulate them to do whatever they want, and seeing as 'Yahoo' has Zionist tendencies of the highest order, this makes for what could be the most dangerous figure in recent history.  Maybe all of history.  The entire republican party, in fact, lines up with Yahoo's demonic tendencies (re: the genocide in Gaza, and the apparent genocide of Iranians that appears to be currently unfolding).  Yahoo does not believe in the same God most of us do.  And I believe there are several gods being worshiped in the world right now.  Any that have to do with death, hatred and violence have nothing to do with the God I believe in.  And, to me, the bible is not God's word, but man's interpretation of it.  If you ask me, the god in the old testament is not the same god as the one in the new testament.  The way the old testament god is described just seems batshit crazy to me at times.  God should have no ego.  But the God described in the bible has out of control ego at times.  This could be the human version of described events, because it's all we could understand in those days.  These are my thoughts, anyway.  But to those of you who believe in an angry, spiteful, vengeful God, you can have that to yourself.  The God I believe in is gender-less and has far more feminine energy than the western Christian one.  I respect any religion that does not focus on hate, violence and revenge.

* Maybe "left" and "right" in politics should be done away with.  Right now, Canada's leadership doesn't align with either side entirely, with the Carney government seeming to look to do what's right instead of standing on traditional tribalism.  Ego really entered politics in Canada once Harper came in to lead the re-branded Conservative Party, which became far more divisive and combative than any other party in Canadian history, to my knowledge.  The word "Liberal" became something of an incriminating nature to Conservatives, and now "Conservative" has kind of leaned toward the same kind of nature.  Us vs Them, sort of thing.  For instance, prime minister Brian Mulroney was much more climate-aware than any other progressive conservative in history, but once Harper took over, he threw that engine hard into reverse.  The result is that anything environmentally responsible is deemed as hatefully liberal.  That just doesn't make any sense.  People looking to be respectful of the air we breathe and the water we drink are villainized by conservatives as "Libtards", and helped inspire Canadian "own the libs" sects.  Not all conservatives, mind you, but the loudest people in the room are often the ones that get the most attention, mostly for dubious reasons.  Polly Ever (let's be real there... that's how he pronounced his name, until he realized he could better cozy up to Quebecers if he pronounced it 'Polly-ev') is constantly looking to pick fights with his opposition rather than debate rational policy.  He uses the exact same playbook as the Big Bombastic Buffoon does in the States, focusing on division and hatred, rather than bridging the masses together like the current Liberals are doing.  Ask Conservative premiers in Canada what they think of Carney's governing up to now and contrast that with Polly's radicalism.  The Conservatives need a less ego-driven, more reasonable leader than what they've had so far this century that will earnestly strive to make Canada better, not force divisions.  That said, I don't find the current Carney gov't to be left or right, or even center.  It just seems more common-sense.  I think the more we try to categorize people and put them in neat little boxes with labels on them just emphasizes differences more than commonalities.  In short, remove as much ego as possible from politics and you'd have much more constructive conversation.  You might even see some love peek through sometimes.

Anyway, that's all I have to say right now.  If I may offer, how about we all focus more on love than hate, more discussion than arguing, and more on what unites us than divides us?  I think we're all conditioned to point at differences and then inflate that rhetoric until the air is so thick with hatred and fear that we can be more controlled.  It's time to free ourselves.  Before being critical, maybe we need to think of the perception on the other end before we deliver the intention.

I wish peace to anyone who reads this.  Please pledge to be more loving.  We all need to be right now, more than ever.

Just a FYI...

 If you want to peek into my own everyday life, I put that stuff HERE AT THIS LINK now.  

Carry on!

Doom and Gloom? 2026

Ah, '25 is over.  Another heavy breather of a year right?

I thought I'd go back to last year when I posted a year-end, year-ahead type thing.  I wonder how my views or predictions turned out in the long run.  As every human goes, I'm subject to miscalculation or error.  

"Kamala came out of the gates to great fanfare.  Biden made it clear in the debate that he's in no condition to lead the U.S. for a second term.  If it were more clear that he wasn't running for re-election, perhaps the selection process could have been more concise.  Harris was basically coronated upon Biden's stepping down.  Now we're left wondering if Biden was right all along... could only he have defeated Trump?"

I still don't think Biden would have beaten Trump after that shitshow of a debate performance.  It was clear he wasn't able to continue.  What wasn't as clear is Trump's utter incapability in relation to his first term, which in and of itself was a disaster.  He began circling the drain immediately on starting his second term a year ago.  Kamala, on the other hand, pulled a Hillary and pretty much coasted to election day on her once-upon-a-time popularity.  Both were left stunned because they dropped their guards and got knocked out before the ten count.

Let's make it clear here... EVERYONE thought Kamala Harris was about to be the next president.  This is a fatal mistake in complacency.  To me, it was clear when Elon Musk made it obvious that he was going to interfere in the election when he showed up with a black baseball MAGA cap, which is a trademark for hackers on the internet.  Clear in retrospect, I mean.  But if one person contributes over a quarter of a billion dollars toward a far-right campaign, that should be alarm enough to wake people up.  But it fucking DIDN'T.  

Harris didn't have ample time to really mount an effective campaign.  Here's the ugly truth:  The very people Trump threatened all of his campaign to deport voted him into power.  Hispanic voters put him way over the top.  There was no shortage of black voters for him either.  I really hope that Muslim voters for Trump survive this, because they need to see what they've done to themselves.  And that's IF they get to stay.  And IF they survive the hate that's about to swarm their existences.

Wow, I hate to say it, but how accurate was that???  Seriously, I HATE to say it.  Who wants crap like this to come true?  But people are literally being swept out of the country now.  It's "You're white, or you're not right" territory.  Worse than the slavery era.  That's coming next, by the way, if it isn't happening already.  But the hatred fomented from this regime couldn't be more visible.  It's so bad, that even MAGA supporters themselves are finally getting a glimpse in the mirror.  I say it often, though.... I love a good redemption story.  I welcome the enlightened with open arms, regardless of your past.  And that, my friends, is "Christian".  And not the MAGA version.

And here's my takeaway from the whole ugly situation - this election was all about estrogen vs testosterone.  On Kamala's side, you had the "swifties" (that's a small 'S' on purpose there), Beyonce fans, movie stars, and countless celebrities vouching for her.  On Trump's side, you had your Dr. Phils, Kid Rocks, Dana Whites and Joe Rogans.  The fact of the matter is this:  America is not ready for a female leader.  They should be, but they are not.  They are not evolved enough.  Neither is Canada, for that matter.

I stand by everything I said.  And update.... the U.S. is Still not ready for a female leader, which actually they so very desperately need.  Canada is close, but not there.  In the meantime, we have the best leader on planet earth governing our country right now.

Rogan has a massive, massive audience, rife with machoism and alpha-male delusion.  Trump's campaign was a counter to Kamala's women-can-do-it-better appearance which very much upset the egos of the right.  She went on Fox and basically did the job, but she skipped Rogan, who fully endorsed Trump upon his interview with him.  Not being on Rogan may have been the tipping point.  She was fully capable of handling herself, so her decision not to appear on the podcast is a puzzling one, especially in retrospect.

And it's still puzzling to this day.  Kamala would've torn any potential Rogan attacks to shreds with education and facts, thus exposing his at-the-time machoistic bravado favoring Trump.  Not showing up to do just that turned out to be pivotal.  In the meantime, Rogan has since re-examined his beliefs of the day.  Not a fan of Rogan, never was, but I'd love to see another redemption story there.

Looking back, not giving Gavin Newsom, governor of one of the world's biggest economies (California), should have been given much more serious consideration.  Instead, he wasn't given any.  The fact that he's a man evidently would've given the Dems more of a chance.  One must wonder how different this outcome would have been had Newsom been in Harris' place.  The short-sightedness of Trump voters is staggering.  The dirt poor actually helped billionaires elect a faux-billionaire into power... again.  The entire rest of the free world sees what a threat he is to the world's democracy factions, steadily being whittled down by the far right.  

I stand by that still, too, but something about Newsom recently has come to light to me, in that he still takes megabucks support from billionaire donors.  Compare that to someone like Zohran Mamdani (NY governor), who took no endorsements from any corporate entities.  If your support is dependent on support from the ultra-rich, then you clearly can't resonate with voters on your own, and that's alarm bells to me.  Newsom would probably win today, and that would be an improvement of course over today, but come on, U.S.A.; you can do so much better than this.  At this point, if you're a supporter of Trump, you are a self-harmer.  And you need help.  I'm serious.  

The ramifications of the results of this election are going to be felt for many, many years.   

Kind of a no-shit-Sherlock calculation, but at the time, maybe not so much.  But it is so much worse than even I expected.  We are currently this day talking about the bankruptcy of the U.S. and the concurrent fall of its empire.  Trump has not single-handedly done this.  Stephen Miller is the Oz behind the puppet strings, among his billionaire buddies.  It's fascinating how no news org, online or on TV or anything else, has been tailing Jared Kushner since the Saudis gave him a couple billion for..... we don't know.  Trump was in illegal possession of documents at that time, too.  Infamously.  But the Saudis conspicuously get away with everything they do against the United States.  I don't understand the lack of scrutiny.

Ukraine will now be forced to surrender to Russia, who will then proceed to invade more European territories in its bid to re-establish the Soviet Union.  

Thank God this hasn't happened.  It doesn't look like it's going to, either.  The world, minus the obvious countries, is united with Ukraine to win this war, which was supposed to last all of three days.  Over three years later, and wow, is this situation upside down right now.  Russia is on the verge of falling.  All Ukraine really needs to do now is survive the winter strikes.  They will prevail.

Trump will stand idly by while this happens. 

It has never been more clear where Trump's loyalty lies.  Putin is as evil as they come, and there are U.S. citizens who adore him.  Not many, I don't think.  Or hope.  But Trump's obvious adoration for the Russian authoritarian tells you he has something on the O
range One.  Let me hypothesize something:  You have Putin, connected to Israel's Netanyahu, connected to Trump.  Add a dash of the Epstein files, with a surprise pee-tape, and you've got lots of blackmail to go around to getting done what you want.  Elon Musk may be the world's richest man, but make no mistake... the most powerful is Benjamin Netanyahu.  Also in the running for most evil with his other two pals.

Tariffs will be erected and crush taxpayers. 

I think we all knew that might happen, but wow, he is tariffing the country into oblivion.  I mean real oblivion.  This is a collapse of epic proportions that could go down in history right there with the fall of Rome.  

All the criminals responsible for the Jan. 6 debacle will be freed. 

He said it, he did it.  Now they're ICE agents with a blank check to pretty much purge whatever city they go to.  It's Bane's army from "The Dark Knight Rises" come to life.  

White supremacist groups will be empowered.  

And promoted.  They're well-paid and protected ICE agents.  Wait, let's call them Legal Criminals.

Jobs will be lost. 

Though that's not quite true, yet, it's about to be.  And compared to two million jobs gained a year ago, there were 584,000 gained this year, with layoffs accelerating as the year wore on.  World currencies are pulling their gold out of the Federal Reserve with the erosion of the U.S. dollar.  Something drastic needs to happen in the exact opposite direction soon if Americans are going to get through this.  

The poor will remain poor, and perhaps become more so.  Lumber trade in Canada will be choked by Trump's protectionism. 

I really don't like where things are going on the poverty issues, that's all I can say right now.  But the lumber trade is changing gears.  Canada is now entertaining offers overseas for its lumber after Trump decided a 45% tariff is needed.  The problem for Trump here is, when we make other alliances, we're not coming back.  Many other nations are pledging the same.  What, are we all supposed to think, "well, when the democrats get back in, they'll fix it again." I think the world is sick and tired of republican governments fucking up the entire world order.  I said it and I meant it, it's an illness.    

NATO will once again be bullied by him, and will return to its weak pre-Biden stature.  Under Biden, NATO was never stronger.  That will change.  By the way... Trump has said outwardly that he would not support a country that doesn't pay the full 2% of its GDP on the agreement.  Canada pays around 1.6%.  Also... after Alaska, Russia is right next door to us.  Literally. 

I think NATO will continue, perhaps under a different name, once the U.S. leaves, which it will inevitably do.  To think how powerful NATO had become under Biden and to see the state it's in now -- who do you think that benefits?  And with Canada, we'll be at 5% or more by the end of this decade.  Carney already sees the writing on the wall.  He's looking for 300,000 reservists and a revamping of the military and its equipment.  Being a world leader, much unlike Trudeau was, he sees what's coming down the pipe.  ICE is already today getting closer and closer to our borders.  With Trump in charge and un-elected wannabes like Stephen Miller overcharging their hate batteries, you can see the Nazism almost proudly glowing from their eyes.  But, the threat with Russia is getting less by the day, thanks to Ukraine, and no thanks to Trump.

The FDA is toast. Reproductive freedom, at best, will be state by state in its acceptance.  Trump himself may cause abortion rights to be completely eliminated.  If your crazy uncle raped your 12 year old daughter, too bad for her.  Miscarriage?  You might get charged and even go to jail.  Gilead is upon us. 

This one is still pending.  There's so much other stuff going on right now that this is kind of being drowned out.  But this is also only year one.

The Dems gambled on reproductive freedom being the sole issue for voters, basically ignoring the male electorate.  That's what a lot of it comes down to.... Trump catered to the men, Harris to the women.  Somehow, he managed to convince more men than Harris did women. 

One of the big catalysts in this whole debacle is the so-called Austin comedy scene and the accompanying "bro-sphere", rallying the young impressionable voters to the He-Man side of this slanted culture we're stuck in right now.  I remember the late '90s being like this - everything's in cycles I think.  But let me emphasize right now that Kamala Harris seems intent to take another shot at the presidency, which she has absolutely no place in anymore.  She lost this last election and then disappeared.  No rallying the people against the oppression that's currently raging across the U.S.  No placating victims of Trump's totalitarianism.  Just a short media blitz where she could promote a book full of excuses as to why she lost.  That's hardly the fighting spirit the Democrats desperately need right now.  But the next time a woman runs for the big job, she better not draw a line down the middle of the electorate and ignore the others.  This was her fatal flaw last year.

Elon Musk will get carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wants with the aerospace industry, including militarization, and also including colluding with Putin, which has already been happening anyway on a regular basis.  The U.S. will become Russia.  If Trump dies, J.D. Vance will take his place, which could be far worse.  Don't count this out from happening.  Trump is 78 and unhealthy.  Upon this happening, you may see Vice President Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Don't laugh or shrug.  There's a real chance of this coming true. 

Firstly, Elon got away with virtually murder.  He know owns the personal financial records of all Americans along with pertinent personal information, and together with Peter Thiel, another crazy billionaire donor, they're coming up with different ways to sway Pumpkin Boy to do their bidding.  Bear in mind, also, that Thiel is likely behind all the drone sightings that took place last year with his Palantir securities businesses (not UAPs or UFOs), and if he has that kind of technology, he may look to gain leverage for his own wacky human race becoming cyborgs ideas.  Laugh, but look it up.  It's well documented that Elon's a Special K special kind of person, but I'm not quite sure what Thiel's deal is yet.  Trump isn't dead yet, but he will be by summer, judging by his daily unraveling, that is when he's not hiding from the media, which itself is suspicious because he can't pass a camera without waving.  Then J.D. "smokey eyes" Vance will take over.  Couches everywhere will tremble in fear.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, supposedly has seen the light and rebelled against the Great Pumpkin, inciting his fury.  And I don't trust her in the least, except maybe to force the release, finally, of the Epstein files.  And the U.S. is more alike to Russia now than ever before - maybe more than Russia is itself right now.  All of the U.S.'s allies have been abandoned in favor of President Poopypants' favorite lineup of dictators.  With virtually no pushback.  The Democrats have never looked weaker than they have in 2025.  Not since I've been watching.

And what's the next January 6 going to entail?  Will the Dems peacefully hand over power?  They must.  Not to do so would undermine what the party is all about to begin with.  Biden appointed Merrick Garland to AG with confidence he would resolve the legal matters regarding the attempted coup in 2020.  Garland dragged his feet the entire way, only hiring special counsel Jack Smith near the homestretch of the election.  Smith didn't have ample time or resources to get the job done, as much as he wanted to get it done, and even with a real measure of urgency.  But the Supreme Court is already stacked in Trump's favor.  And the 6-3 republican ruled judges have Trump's back if worse comes to worse and he actually was looking like he had to resort to it.  I've said for years that Garland is in Trump's pocket.  I still think he is. 

Firstly, Democrats should be so upset at Garland's lack of action that they really should impeach the former AG.  It's led to the destruction of the country, which may be entirely irreversible at this point.  Jack Smith brought the goods and nailed his case down, but he was appointed too late.  He had a solid case to put Trump away for good.  But the adjudicated rapists and convicted felon and fraudster from his crime family got in and is currently gutting the country of its money and reputation worldwide.  I'll go further than that.... Trump should be investigated for the murder of his last wife, Ivana.  This will come out.  He should also be looked at, of course, for the murder of Jeffrey Epstein.  There may be others.  If he's willing to go to places that dark, who knows what depths he's willing to go to.  As it is, Jack Smith has been indicted for his actions in his investigations of the Criminal in Chief.

Trump is to be sentenced later this month for his 34 felonies.  He can pardon himself when he takes office.  He will get away with everything.  Everything.  Tell me, "pro-lifers", is it worth it?  Because abortion will not be wiped out.  Only legal abortion will.  Support for newborns is the ideal anti-abortion strategy.  Quell the fear of what's to come for expecting mothers.  Don't fucking threaten them with jail time.  And stop giving excuses to deadbeat dads. 

And like I frequently keep pointing out, the patriarchy in charge of the U.S., and most of the world right now, will continue the virtual slavery of women for as long as it can keep them at bay and under control.  Pregnant?  As soon as the gov't finds out, you are under their control.  Miscarriage?  You may be tried for murder.  This stuff is right around the corner.  Maybe it's current already.  This won't change for at least a few generations.  Old white men especially are desperately fearful of bright young women.

So long to Obamacare.  Trump's "concepts of a plan" will take good care of you, I'm sure. 

Healthcare is still a massive problem in the States, but the ACA got a bit of a reprieve when a handful of republicans voted with the dems to extend the benefits before they ran out, as I understand it.  These "concepts of a plan" apparently still exist, in the make-believe world of the GOP.  Or Guardians of Pedophiles, as it stands to be.  The Epstein Files are being forever stalled for their release by Mike "Grindr" Johnson frequently, as is popular knowledge to this day.

Brace for more heartless deportations and more kids in cages, being separated from their families, likely permanently. 

That's happening under ICE everyday now.  Every day in the news is a new tragedy.  Just the other day a five year old was deported without their parents, with no one to care for them.  This is common now.  ICE is killing people who peacefully protest and kidnapping non-whites and having them sent to concentration camps.  I was sadly too accurate about this.

Oh, and one more before I go.... the next pandemic, if it happens with the Orange Turd in power like last time, will be an even bigger shitbowl than Covid-19.  A potential Covid-20 may just be unrecoverable.  And Robert Kennedy Jr. will see to it. 

Measles outbreaks happen regularly now with kids dying while vaccines are being taken out of the health curriculum for kids.  The CDC was gutted.  Research for pediatric cancer was stopped just when it was on the verge of major discoveries.  You have RFK Jr. telling people to drink raw milk because it's better for you.... if you can survive it.  I could go on and on about the debacles that he's racked up since he's been in charge, but I don't want to do this forever.

Because Pierre Poilievre, whose campaign is being run by actual Trumpers, is next here. 

And boy, is that catching up to him!  He absolutely blew his chance at becoming prime minister by being the same ignorant, petty, uninformed twit that his orange counterpart is down there - but I think Canadians are smarter and more privy to PP's hateful rhetoric.  People chose Mark Carney because he's none of those things and has intellect with a heart, hard to find in politics.  I have to ask conservatives... is this really your guy?  He's the one you're hanging your future on?  Even Stephen Harper credits Carney over PP.  I'd love to see a conservative leader that will actually push government to improve, rather than try to score cheap points on the House floor.

And here we are, January 25, 2026.  Things are looking up for Canada; not so much for the States.  The democrats have given up and ceded power to the republicans with barely any pushback.  Although there are signs that the public is waking up.  Politicians, not so much.

I'll ponder what might be ahead and post that next.  Actually writing this got my anxiety up, so it's time for a 'hit'.  

Please take care of yourselves, and each other.  More than ever.

---------------------------------------------

Farewell for now, Bob Wallace.  Mr. Wallace has passed... he was a teacher at my high school, and a family friend and contributor to the goodness of planet earth.  He is already missed.