Welcome to Genocide School. This is a short course, just a one day recurrency, during which you review the history of a genocide and consider how its history rhymes, with current events. There will be a documentary and then discussion by Alexander Hinton, a PhD level, leading expert on atrocities and their prevention.

As you watch, take notes on the material and consider what Hinton and other experts have said about predicting genocides:

1. Genocides are predictable, like tropical cyclones. People can have grievances just as warm oceans can have latent heat. Under the right conditions, those can be gathered and then, triggered to form horrifying storms. Fuel, upheaval, and trigger, then the storm, followed by an aftermath.
2. Charismatic leaders set up and motivate the atrocities, helped by their loyal true believers in the cause.
3. Ordinary people can commit atrocities; they simply need motivation and opportunity.
4. Propaganda and disinformation are critically important tools used by perpetrators. There will be a narrative about history, victimization, a need to settle scores, wrong thinking, and an enemy which must be eradicated. Truth doesn’t matter as much as the narrative.
5. Some kind of upheaval or crisis sets off the main events of the genocide. They could be natural disasters or man-made. It is the hardship and disruption which count. People under pressure can be motivated to commit atrocities.
6. After the genocide has ended, there can be no lasting peace and reconciliation until the truth is faced by all sides, with no propaganda or disinformation.
7. Facing truth means perpetrators are held accountable in trials and sentences are applied.

I have listened to lectures by genocide scholars and, after that, it is hard to not recognize the pieces fitting together in historical accounts. Once you start to see it, you cannot unsee it. What the Khmer Rouge did to Phnom Penh, ICE / MAGA would do to Chicago.

Think of “Annihilating Difference” as an early term for “Culture War,” or perhaps the “Spiritual War” spoken of by today’s Christofascists. Here, Hinton talks about the trial of Comrade Duch (pronounced “Doyk”).

You bet your ass it can happen in the United States, under a MAGA regime such as Trump v2.0. Pay attention to the symbols — a snake, a fire, a boulder, and a four digit code.

Hinton was testifying in Cambodia when early comparisons of Trump to Hitler were already circulating in the media. As one who studies the history of mass violence, it was becoming alarming to see some of the elements coming together in the USA. The risk is real.

Always be aware that otherwise ordinary people have participated in genocides. Everyone has their own war. Consider the Cambodian genocide to reveal not a flaw in the people who were involved, but to actually reveal a general human flaw. Bring a group of the right factors to bear on any group of people and the risk of atrocities escalates. It is not so different from having latent heat in warm ocean water, with some upheaval and favorable wind profile, which results in a deadly tropical cyclone.

Consider what Hinton said about charismatic leaders, who foster personality cults and take advantage of humans in distress. In the case of Trump, I am certain that he tried to leverage the 2020 pandemic and is now stoking multiple crises, just like an evil bastard agitating a beehive. He is hunting for the right stick which will provoke the swarm.

Document: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

For what it is worth, countries which are parties to the Convention have an obligation to act in order to prevent or stop genocides. That means Blue Hats have a “responsibility to protect,” including the use of force, against the sovereignty of perpetrators.

For extra credit, this last talk is from a meeting earlier this month and focuses on stopping atrocities happening right now, and attempts to prevent other conflicts from escalating into genocides. To prevent a genocide, prevent the several factors from coming together.

Rwanda. All of the elements which add up to genocide were there. Especially the question of who is a citizen, who does not belong, who is human, and who is not.

Recognize the echo in the issues. Wherever EUGENICS goes, DEATH follows.

I have one final suggestion, to wrap up this session. Make note of Trump’s use of upheavals or crises to stir up mass violence. He did it in his first term and he is doing it now. All these catastrophic fuckups are intentionally used tools for advancing his movement!

No Moss on a Rolling Stone

I had been Chicago based for most of my time at ATA Airlines. They had hired me almost eleven years before, when I was a restless Saab 340 captain, based in the northeast. ATA needed people who were willing to fly a mix of scheduled flying and global charter operations in an expanding industry. Great experience, interesting places to go, with decent working conditions and decent pay. They remained true to the deal, although the industry seemed to be either in a boom or bust situation.

The boom times ended sometime in 2005, as operating expenses (mostly jet fuel) increased and the marketing side of the company struggled to keep fares up amid tight competition. We were getting squeezed hard by the “big three” U.S. airlines, American, United, and Delta, who would cut fares and operate routes against us at a loss, then wait for us to surrender and move onto seek profit on other routes. It was my first clear lesson on how oligopoly works. It was crazy, in a way, as the big three were not necessarily profitable, but they could choose how much borrowed money to burn against a competitor. They would burn everything down if there was a probability of surviving and not having competition when the smoke cleared. Actually, call our competitors the “big three plus” to include Southwest Airlines, which was similarly competitive.

Our best business at ATA Airlines had always been government contracted charters. The military was in constant need of transportation for troops. I worked a lot of those during my time on the 757, especially after 9/11: marines to Thessaloniki, Navy people to Diego Garcia, Army and Marines to Kuwait and Incerlik. More Navy people between Norfolk, Rota, Naples, and Sigonella. Crews went to a lot of diverse places and we honed our abilities to operate safely and smartly handle unusual situations.

By the summer of 2005, the scheduled business was struggling so badly that the company had to do a reorganization and downsize. ATA Airlines furloughed its most junior pilots, bumped captains, including myself, to smaller aircraft, and drastically refined the operation to trim expenses. We were scheduled to fly more trips, with shorter down time, and pulled every trick in the book to save fuel. We were all planning for the possibility of more furloughs, but hoping the company could drum up more charter business and survive. Just in case I had to move on, I more frequently updated my resume and logs, subscribed to more job boards, and took more pictures so I wouldn’t forget those times.

Booms and Busts

Looking back from 2026, the more aware and astute me can see a distinct pattern of economic booms being followed by busts. To put it another way, feeding frenzies are followed by famines. What happens seems to be that every period of good economic conditions fosters the emergence of pigs, who pig out, as pigs do, and strip everything they find. After the pigs have, figuratively, scoured the land and chewed up the last turnip or truffle, they leave a barren terrain. Everyone must then suffer the ensuing collapse.

It wasn’t just a subprime mortgage bubble which burst in 2008; it was a more broad feeding frenzy based on the recovery after 9/11. Perhaps you know about Tulip Mania. It is something easy to see and understand, but there are numerous Tulip Manias which have happened and are happening now, and in more broad realms than strictly economics. There are political and religious versions of Tulip Mania happening right now. Their common trait is leading figures, driven by greed and narcissism, who have figured out how to plunder on a vast scale.

Consider the differences between a people surviving by hunting and gathering versus family farming versus terrascale industrial farming. One can sustain smaller numbers of people, while the next order of scale sustains more, and the highest scale knows no moderation and is destructive enough to crash the entire endeavor. Except in recent economics and politics, the pigs can be bailed out, surviving to be piggish in the future.

We had arrived at a late hour in Honolulu on April 1st, 2008, and I had been restless and didn’t sleep until about sunrise. After a few hours, I was up again and decided to go for a stroll. From our hotel, Waikiki beach was a short walk away, and it was a great place to enjoy some sun and a good cup of coffee. The plan was to hike about the area on foot, have a meal, and rest for the overnight trip back to Phoenix.

What was bugging me that day was speculation that the company was not recovering. There were issues regarding the team of companies servicing government contracts and whether the teams were being rearranged. Whatever was going on wasn’t good. On top of that, the company bought a very, very used DC-10, and crews were talking to each other about how it was eating money in fuel and maintenance. Such was the speculation on the cockpit crews’ internet forum.

What I missed on that forum, as the messages were posted while I had arisen and was preparing for working flight “Amtran 4586” to Phoenix. Unscheduled payroll deposits were going out to employees, stirring suspicion that something serious was going on at headquarters. I don’t recall the issues relating to our departure delay, but a friend and colleague later told me that the plane had actually come from the mainland as a flight to Maui, and had to be ferried over to Honolulu for flight 4586.

Groover Breaks the News

Greg (Mark) Groover was the captain assigned to the trip, and I was a couple of steps behind him as we went through the agriculture and security checks. If you have never flown from Hawaii to the continental 48 states, what you do before going to the gate is get screened for fruits, vegetables, agricultural pests, and weapons. During that process, Groover received a call on his mobile phone. When he terminated the call, he turned to me and said, “The company is shutting down, our flight is the last flight.”

So, what do you do when you show up to work a five hour flight and the guy you’re flying with tells you your jobs will vanish just after you finish the flight, deplane the passengers, and hand in the the post flight paperwork? You still have to stay focused, get home, and then worry about what will be next.

We accomplished all our preflight tasks, thanked the Honolulu station people for their hard work over the years, and then off we went. Before closing the door, folks took some pictures of the cabin and cockpit crews preparing for departure. We passed around cameras and said farewells, then got on with our duties. After pushing back from the gate, our ground crew gave us a snappy salute and wave-off, which we reciprocated, and that was it. ATA Airlines flight 4586 was on the move for the last time.

Greg and I just worked the flight, and I don’t recall talking much about what would follow after finishing the trip, short or long term. Everyone had been thinking about the next job, or possibly getting out of aviation. Some of the older pilots were considering retirement. In the short term, I just wanted to get back to my Chicago apartment without too much hassle. Perhaps I could hop a jumpseat on Southwest, to Midway Airport, or ride on United or American to O’Hare. On the flight deck, we mostly drank coffee to stay awake, made our position reports over the radio, and tracked our progress on our paper charts.

Eventually, the sun came up and beamed brightly onto our faces. Such is the awakening for pilots flying east into the sunrise. We landed, parked, shut down and did the last checklists, and then opened the door to see our last passengers deplane. More camera photos and bye byes. After the last passengers were gone, we handed the plane over to maintenance and all of us cabin and flight deck people went our various ways home. Southwest had a flight going to Midway, and the flight crew kindly granted me a ride.

Pretty quickly, all of us who had taken photos for that last revenue flight of ATA Airlines had started uploading them to the forums. I had images of Greg Groover and myself taken both before departure and after landing, which are now out there on the web. Wikipedia has at least one, and other copies have appeared in aviation forums over the years. I am still mildly amused at Greg. The first cockpit image I posted was postflight, with a bright sky outside and the two of us scruffy, with no neckties. The other shot of us, which is now on Wikipedia, is before departure, with darkness outside and the two of us wearing proper ties and ready to fly. Greg contacted me after that no neckties image was posted and asked me to swap it for the other one, as it looked more professional. No problem, I swapped it out that day. But I was thinking no one really cares about neckties — our Airline just went out of business.

“Dude, is that you?”

The summer of 2008 was stressful, as I was looking for another airline gig while the global economy imploded, especially in the USA. Jet fuel prices spiked hard, the financial crisis accelerated, and everything in the West turned to crap. Asia was in an airline hiring boom, however. Countries in the Middle East, Far East, and Africa had growing airlines and wanted those pilots who were dumped to the streets in the USA.

I did preps, interviews in far away places, and went to join another low cost carrier, this time to fly 767s out of Macau. That company also struggled against big competitors in a highly consolidated market. Those big competitors could not only afford destructive ticket pricing, but also had friends in the government and fuel suppliers who could cause problems. That company folded after a year, and for the second time in as many years, I went interviewing and joined another airline over there. This time, for a fat cat of a company which operated in a much more friendly business environment. It was like night and day.

From afar, I watched people who I thought had better sense fall prey to the far right. There is no excuse for anyone who supports the Trump regime. You all should have known better and could have done better. The MAGA pigs you support are going to make bacon out of your asses.

Charlie Kirk, Trump, and all the right wingers can go piss off to hell about pilots. I ended up with three ATP licenses, with at leas the 767 type rating, and in a couple of cases the 737 too. Come fly with me into some hell and we shall see who pukes and shits first. Okay, let’s get back to those pictures…

From time to time, friends and colleagues would cite the Wikipedia picture of Groover and me, and ask, “Is that you?” I would respond, “Yeah, that’s the day I lost my job at ATA Airlines.” Looking at either of those images today, I recognize the the big changes afoot in all of our lives who worked for ATA Airlines. I still feel that they were operationally the toppermost of the poppermost. The company trained us really well and we went out there into the world and took good care of our passengers. We didn’t lose any of our people in crashes. We got people to their destinations without a scratch, and that is more than I can say for a lot of our competitors. When it was over, I said, “job well done” and moved on with pride.

But I have to chuckle when folks find those pictures and recognize me, or Groover. It was not a happy night (or day), but doors did open after ATA was gone. You take lemons and make lemonade as best you can. Today is April 3, 2026, and Trump is causing yet another crisis. Fuel prices are spiking hard in the war with Iran, which is 100% not necessary. Airlines run on the thinnest margins, and some WILL GO BANKRUPT because of this. And not just airlines. Trump and his pigs are stripping the land again, so beware. If you can, stand like a badass and don’t let the bastards strip it all, and certainly don’t let the pigs decimate your soul.

If you are affected, I offer my sympathies and understanding. Listen to me: the world turns, and none of us know what tomorrow holds. It might be different, but it might not be bad. Roll with the upheaval and enjoy your share of the sunlight when the night ends. Everyone gets another sunrise. Be willing to go in another direction when you can see your ways to go. You get another day, and maybe it will be a decent one. Or perhaps the one after that.

Yesterday, I was digging through some of my web archives, a directory on an old USB drive, where I keep copies of web pages, code worth saving, and so forth. Although searching for a copy some page styling code, the gem which turned up was something I had posted around the time of the pandemic. At the time, I was shocked and enraged at the high loss of life, the excuses for why it happened, and the lack of will to take effective action against it. Trumpers suggested horse paste, bright lights, and smoke up the ass, while we knew that vaccines worked.

That page was written to argue that we have already seen an example of what is possible when leaders recognize that competency comes from experience and effort. It is not inherited and cannot be bought, nor can it be showered upon any lucky group of people. Competency requires a mindset and great effort, perhaps well beyond the ten thousand hours of work as described by Malcolm Gladwell and a few others.

Here, we shall consider the leap of understanding which was necessary for humans to travel to the moon, walk upon its surface, and come back safely to this oasis named Earth. It was the accidental fire and loss of the Apollo 1 crew which taught a lesson which Gene Kranz recognized and distilled into a teachable concept. We must take ownership of our roles in the triumphs and catastrophes. Big triumphs require all hands, all-in, and no excuses.

Without further pontification, I turn the spotlight toward the words of Gene Kranz:

Foundations of Mission Operations

The Foundations of Mission Operations, in its simplest description, is a set of core values and guiding principles that governs everything we do in Mission Operations, whether it is operations in Mission Control, astronaut and flight controller training, or mission planning, design and analysis work. The Foundations were mostly born from a series of challenges and crises that the team faced in the early days — during Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

1. To instill within ourselves these qualities essential to professional excellence

Discipline: Being able to follow as well as to lead, knowing that we must master ourselves before we can master our task.

Competence: There being no substitute for total preparation and complete dedication, for space will not tolerate the careless or indifferent.

Confidence: Believing in ourselves as well as others, knowing that we must master fear and hesitation before we can succeed.

Responsibility: Realizing that it cannot be shifted to others, for it belongs to each of us; we must answer for what we do, or fail to do.

Toughness: Taking a stand when we must; to try again, and again, even if it means following a more difficult path.

Teamwork: Respecting and utilizing the abilities of others, realizing that we work toward a common goal, for success depends upon the efforts of all.

Vigilance: Always attentive to the dangers of spaceflight; never accepting success as a substitute for rigor in everything we do.

2. To always be aware that suddenly and unexpectedly we may find ourselves in a role where our performance has ultimate consequences.

3. To recognize that the greatest error is not to have tried and failed, but that in the trying we do not give it our best effort.

Origins of the Foundations

Atop the “series of challenges” mentioned in the introduction was the fatal fire aboard the Apollo 1 spacecraft during an exercise at the launchpad. In the wake of the fire, Kranz assembled his flight control team and defined what became known as the Kranz Dictum. The dictum assigns two mandatory and preeminent characteristics to flight controllers: toughness and competency:

Tough

We are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into mission control, we will know what we stand for.

Competent

We will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission control will be perfect.

It was a failure to be tough and competent which had cost lives. It would be a failure to be tough and competent in the future which would put lives and whole programs in jeopardy. No one would be granted entry to the ranks of flight controllers without those two traits, nor would controllers remain without maintaining awareness of the human cost of lacking those traits.

Directors would have to be masters of both qualities and would have to infuse their teams with them.

Popular speculation is that tanker flights are extending the range of bombers, and that the bombers cannot get diplomatic clearances for overflights of lands abroad. I submit that they don’t want to get spotted by observers on the ground, or by airline passengers who might look out of their windows and see them. It is a valid worry, as Air Force One has been optically tracked before, over Europe, and passengers with cameras sometimes spot interesting things in their shots.

Furthermore, the crypto and event markets have recently had players making heavy trades. Check the charts! Someone just dumped a quarter billion USD worth of bitcoin. Word is that serious ETC volume is going into positioning before the missiles start flying.

The biggest problems with Trump and Hegseth is that they are terrible leaders. They feel entitled to have positive outcomes, as if they were promised by God. They have an idea of the world they want and expect, not the world as it is. That is a good way to bring about a catastrophic debacle. Both Trump and Hegseth admire Putin, as the strong and brutal Christian nationalist they aspire to be and as a partner in the new fascist world they have dreams about creating. Except war is different that it was even four years ago.

New technologies and asymmetric fighting methods devalue stealth and mighty weapons. Attackers have to survive the trip to the target to hit it, and the whole region is awash in networked radars, SAMs, and drones. The LAST thing a wise person would do is attempt fighting an unapproved war in such an environment.

If a cowardly congress and feckless courts won’t do anything about Trump and Hegseth, perhaps adjudication would come from the next wave of gold star others, fathers, brothers, or uncles.

I observed a video clip today, of a MAGA Trump supporter reminding a journalist that Trump ran for election based on mass deportations, implying that it was migrants who would suffer, not “Americans.” Aside from the issues of who is a citizen and who is not, or who has rights, Trump is directly harming Americans. Those who oppose him are being jailed and murdered. Another category, faithful military personnel, are about to be squandered.

Why is there so much disregard for what is at stake? It is because the fascists who run the government believe they have accomplished a revolution. As so-called “originalists,” they have reestablished the First Republic of the United States and owe no obligation to any law or interpretation newer than Dred Scott or the Twelfth Amendment. For his part, Trump sees himself as the unitary leader of a kingdom. His supporters agree. Let me give a warning: to “see oneself as” is not the same as “to be.”

This is happening because a quarter to a third of Americans support the lawless and fantastical Trump regime and two thirds are unwilling to stand up and do whatever it takes to end it before it personally costs them vast amounts of death and suffering.

Keep a watch on the OSINT gatherers. The assets in movement cannot simply travel and then become idle. Crews, fuel, maintenance, expense. They must either fight or go back home.

Trump’s government can’t bring about this fantasy of an ethnically cleansed America.

• They’ll never have enough ammo.
• They’ll never have enough punks with guns.
• They’ll never have enough blood.
• They’ll never have enough balls.

If you still think this is about so-called “law enforcement” then I don’t know what to say to clear up such a misperception. It is Trump’s coup / insurrection / revolution / genocide disguised as law enforcement. I have been saying this for years.

Here is one of my anti-trump classics from July of 2024:

Trump is the leader of the U.S. executive branch, with a duty of acting in good faith to carry out the laws of the land. Laws which are written and passed by congress and interpreted by the courts. Right now, his executive branch is behaving LAWLESSLY, as though not bound by any laws or the constitution itself. It the behavior of the beneficiary of a successful coup, as though the USA has been replaced by a fascist government of the same name, over the same territory, but no obligation to the previous country’s laws.

What is to be done about such a lawless regime? Wait for God to solve the Trump problem in zero through twenty years? Or grow enough spine to impeach, prosecute, and imprison Trump and his entire cabinet and agency heads. There is a third option: do nothing and let this all be settled in the streets. Good luck with that.

Infrastructure already exists for communicating about combat operations, so I do not believe it is about contact with any overseas adversary. I am with all of the watchers who think this meeting is about upcoming events within the USA and what is expected of the armed forces. I smell some kind of illegal and corrupt demand:

1. Trump is very ill and will die soon. The demand is to swear allegiance to Hegseth, instead the constitution. Illegal orders are going to be issued and he wants commitments to follow them.
2. Trump may be unhealthy, but not terminally ill. The demand is to swear allegiance to Hegseth, who will be loyal to Trump, instead of the constitution. Illegal orders are going to be issued and he wants commitments to follow them.

Watch closely for signs of schisms in the military after the meeting. There may be firings, arrests, or possibly groups in conflict with other groups. Especially, watch for deployments of the armed forces in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. If that happens, things are going to get very interesting, and not in a good way.

To look on the bright side, Hegseth is greatly outnumbered by his 800 flag officers. If they decide to take him, that would put a serious crack in the Trump regime. Watch the people and follow the money, whenever possible. Things are in play.

I am surprised that people are still surprised that Trump lies. Trump lies all the time, about EVERYTHING. It is the perfected usage of a tactic we all should have recognized from the time the tobacco industry went active against medical experts. The truth was that smoking dramatically increases a person’s cancer risk. Highly paid industry lawyers attacked the data and capitalized on doubt.

No matter how strong the evidence, industry lawyers and lobbyists would argue that somehow the data was flawed. Not only did they sow doubt, but they also gathered support from effective persuasion. Smoking is masculine, and an expression of rugged individualism. You need your cigarettes!

We have seen similar things happen with the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel exhaust is unhealthy. It contains tiny soot particles which will kill you and me. It also contains greenhouse gases which are trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. These things are true and we know it. Scientists in the fossil fuel industry also know the truth, but they are highly paid to know and exploit doubt. Not only have fossil fuel supporters sown doubt, but they have also gathered support from effective persuasion. Fossil fuels bring POWER to their users. You need your gasoline!

The lawless and genocidal Trump regime has taken lessons demonstrated by big tobacco and big fossil fuels and distilled it into cult juice for the MAGA movement. An extra ingredient is expertise in manipulating people through fear, rage, and victimhood.

Trump is essentially sticking a hot wire into MAGA people’s lizard brains and making them act on his behalf. Another way to grasp the concept is to think of this manipulation as striking people’s pressure points — hitting just the right groups of nerves to get a desired reaction. He actually doesn’t need a truncheon or a hot wire; he just needs the right words. Not true words, just words which get emotional reactions.

Suppose I spoke to you every day about your partner being unfaithful? Suppose I spoke to you every day about a neighbor mistreating your kids? Feel that twinge? Lies work just fine! People have murdered others because they were lied to. Do we need to talk about the January 6th insurrection? Truth no longer matters.

Trump has lied like this from day one, mostly using racism, sexism, and religious bigotry, to manipulate white Christian nationalists. It was the basis of birtherism, for example. He might as well have said, “your country is being run by a terrible black person who is not even an American (and probably Muslim)!” It was the basis of his claims that immigrants are almost 100% rapists, drug dealers, and murderers.

The key to how he hits the pressure points is to know what his base hates and / or fears most, and what makes their lives difficult today. He then calls out the difficulties and lays blame on an enemy he wants to beat down. Acetomenophin (Tylenol) is a perfect example from this week. Studies have shown, with strong evidence, that acetomenophin is NOT a cause of autism. However, Trump and RFK Jr. are laying blame and making quite a show of defending MAGA families by advising pregnant women to not take the drug, but instead suffer through pain and fevers.

They are casting families as victims, portraying autism as a side effect of a drug company taking advantage of pregnant persons. Just as Trump’s other enemies have been portrayed as victimizing the MAGA base.

I don’t know why Tylenol is being attacked. Perhaps Trump and RFK Jr. want to be seen as defenders and gather loyal supporters, with the producers of Tylenol simply being unlucky. Perhaps there is a hidden vendetta. But the bottom line is a repeat of the narrative of victimization, which only Trump can fix.

Repeatedly, the Trump talking points are lies. He is lying about something whenever you see his lips moving. He lies about fossil fuels. He lies about renewable energy. He lies about climate change. He lies about black and brown people’s intelligence and character. He lies about history. He lies about sinking small Venezuelan boats. He lies about Muslim mayors and candidates for mayor wanting sharia law. He lies about tariffs. He lies about his health, or lack of health.

Trump lies about everything. EVERYTHING!

He is going to fuck up badly enough to endanger your life, wherever you are, and that is no lie.

A couple of days ago, I was noting the latest acts of the lawless Donald Trump regime, contemplating which would be the final straw, the thing which would be enough to cost him the presidency. If not the illegal ICE kidnappings and deportations, perhaps it would be the seeking of illegal denaturalizations of citizens. Perhaps it may be the coming imposition of martial law. These things were filling the headlines.

And then, something else appeared: offensive comments from the most unqualified and malicious appointee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). That secretary is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed by Trump and confirmed by a spineless congress. Department and Agency heads are most successful if they have experience in the field where the organization operates. They must be of good character and have a positive vision for their organizations, and be able to lead teams of people. RFK Jr. is none of these. Much like Trump’s other appointees, also confirmed by congress, Kennedy is fundamentally opposed to the department he leads and will destroy it from the inside out.

Kennedy’s comments were antagonistic toward children with autism and contrary to the body of related medical knowledge. Some said his words were simply lies. In summary, he asserted that the children will strain their families, be burdensome, and not lead fulfilling lives. It revealed a value system much like that of Donald Trump. Looking deeper into things RFK has said, I saw that he has a profound attachment to nineteenth century scientific theories, Darwinism, eugenics, and medical “terrain theory.” He doesn’t necessarily apply labels to his core positions, but once you see them, they cannot be unseen.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=EErAC4HBgy

Malcolm Gladwell has just released a podcast and video, entitled “the RFK Jr. Problem,” which shines light on what Trump and MAGA love, but most people see as critical flaws which make Kennedy the wrong person to be HHS secretary. Let’s take a closer look at the observations and what they mean.

All of the people Trump has picked for high office, and a central belief of the MAGA movement is Darwinism. Not the more refined “theory of evolution” as scientists think of it today, but the more narrow and popular interpretation of Darwin’s theory as “survival of the fittest.” To red hatters, it simply means “big fish eat little fish and the slow or weak die first.”

Eugenics is the theory that characteristics of living things are passed on to their descendants. The first eugenicists didn’t know what we now know about DNA; they only knew that physical traits were passed down. Not knowing about DNA, they wrongly ascribed numerous characteristics to heredity which were due to environmental influences. Eugenics became a tool for racists and social Darwinists to attempt to remake society according to their own value system.

Medical science became aware of germs in the nineteenth century. As with the heliocentric universe, evolution and heredity were disputed in multiple ways. The battle over “germ” versus “terrain” theories of infectious disease are critically important.

Germ theory is considered to be the proven and accurate. It came out of the work of Louis Pasteur. It states that specific infectious diseases are carried by corresponding bacteria and viruses. Prevention is a matter of preventing transmission from person to person, using vaccines to prevent infection, or using antivirals / antibiotics to treat an infection. Measles, smallpox, and polio had been nearly eliminated by mandated vaccinations with inert material from those viruses.

Terrain theory, promoted by Antoine Béchamp, argues that the internal condition of the body is the primary factor in the development of disease. A healthy body resists disease, while an unhealthy body provides a favorable place for diseases to develop. Béchamp said that microorganisms were generally benign, but could become pathogenic in response to an unhealthy internal environment.

No theory exists in a vacuum. Germ and terrain theories found acceptance or rejection among people who were also thinking about eugenics, the role of heredity, and whether human behavior plays a role in the spread of diseases. Do human beings have agency in the prevention of diseases, their spread, or their treatment?

Pasteur changed the course of human history, because microorganisms can indeed be controlled by practices such as sterilization of utensils, pasteurization of foods and the use of vaccines.

Eugenicists, both in the nineteenth century and today, really want the truth to be that “internal terrain” is passed down through heredity, as if infectious disease can be wiped out if “only the best people” breed future generations of humans. Does this sound familiar? Intelligence and health through superior breeding? How about survival of the fittest by letting nature run its course and cull the weak and useless eaters of humanity?

With RFK Jr., libertarian and antivaxxer thinking are all wrapped up in his thinking about health. In his twisted mind, vaccines interfere with nature taking its course. Health should be pursued through personal responsibility and good breeding, not compulsory vaccines or interventions which help the weak evade death. His position is shoulder to shoulder with Trump, who once told his nephew that his disabled son, Donald’s grand nephew, ought to just die. He might as well have have quoted the Nazis about exterminating “useless eaters.”

It is exactly the twisted antivax libertarian viewpoints of Kennedy which appeal to Trump. He knows there is no better an enemy of medical science who would smash the CDC and all of the other U.S. government organizations which promote health, good nutrition, and longevity of people. Kennedy stands very much at odds with career professional infectious disease experts, and especially Anthony Fauci. Kennedy basically sees disease as a personal problem, a “you” problem, while Fauci sees disease as a matter of microorganisms and medical science — and as an “us” problem.

Recall how the AIDS epidemic ran unchecked in the 1980s, mostly because the Reagan libertarians believed the afflicted people were limited to gays and drug users, who were getting what they deserved. Personal responsibility. Until HIV began spreading to broader populations of people. Dr. Fauci led the efforts to find the virus, develop vaccines, and create treatments. The religious far right has never forgiven Fauci for intervening against the so-called judgment of God.

With RFK leading HHS, the United States is not ready for a serious public health crisis. Whether it arrives in the form of bird flu, another coronavirus or something else, Kennedy and Trump would prefer to stand aside and let the herd be thinned out. That means potentially death for you, me, or anyone we know or care about. That is unacceptable. The only suitable solution is they need to be removed from office. Impeachment, 25th Amendment, or whatever other solution is effective and lawful.

This is a call to all the OSINT collectors who watch ADS-B or monitor voice and datalink comms: heads up. I have just read the Substack posting from Malcolm Nance, entitled “A War is coming…” which postulates an imminent bombing campaign against Iran. He has cited movements of aircraft out for refueling over the Pacific Ocean and arrival of bombers at Diego Garcia. Movements of logistical support or additional combat forces may indicate when (and maybe where) things will go kinetic.

Also, the Iran thing could be a feint. It is not the only powder keg.

If you are watching ADS-B, whether on your own radio gear or by watching sites like ADS-B Exchange or Airframes.io, keep a close watch on activity over the next few weeks. The balloon might go up today, or it might happen in several days. Pay attention to anything interesting or unusual.

If you are one of the MILCOM / HFGCS listeners, looking for datalinks or voices in the static, watch the datalinks. I don’t expect much in the way of voice, but leadership like the Trumpers can be notoriously careless when they think no one is paying attention. Someone is ALWAYS paying attention.

People of future times will want to know what happened and when. It is persons who observe and keep records who will support or refute testimony when the time of reckoning arrives.

I don’t know how things will turn out, but Trump is deeply corrupt, profoundly incompetent, and hateful to a degree that he cannot be redeemed. Ditto for everyone he has chosen to help run his administration. They are far more likely to fuck up and get people killed than to bring a favorable outcome to the decades-long tensions with Iran. If they actually do precipitate a disaster or atrocity, count on them to try and lie their way out of it, as they have for the Signal messaging scandal.

If some of you who read this are not sure what I mean about monitoring radio signals carrying voice and data, see my books for more technical details and hot-to tutorials:

• Airband Radio on the RTL-SDR (intercepting aero voice and data communications)
• The WebSDR Handbook (tuning broadcasts and comms via WebSDR servers)
• The KiwiSDR Handbook (tuning in broadcasts and comms via KiwiSDR servers)
• Censorship’s Grave (how authoritarians lost the ability to censor media)

OSINT can uncover what is actually going on. Watch the skies. Watch the seas. Watch out for yourselves too, as dictators hate people who observe events and think critically about what is true.