Little Donald and his Trumpettes" (2025 Edition)

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The political landscape that emerged in 2016-2017 now seems like a preview of what was to come. When Trump first entered the spotlight, his peculiarities – from his "tiny hands" to his Twitter tirades – were treated as comedy fodder. Today, after his presidency, a second defeat, and now his controversial return to power, these seem less amusing and more symptomatic of the broader political deterioration we've witnessed.

What started as a ripple in 2017 has become a wave. The "Trumpettes," as we called the European populist leaders who emulated his style, weren't just cover artists – they became headliners in their own right. Geert Wilders, once dismissed as a Dutch Trump impersonator with his anti-immigration rhetoric and inflammatory tweets, now leads the Netherlands' government. His victory in 2023 marked a seismic shift in Dutch politics, proving that what seemed implausible in 2017 had become reality by 2024.

Marine Le Pen in France, though unsuccessful in her previous presidential bids, has maintained a stronghold on French right-wing politics, with her party gaining unprecedented local power. The AfD in Germany, which seemed marginalized in 2017 when Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected president, has since grown from a fringe movement to a major political force, sending shockwaves through German democracy. Steinmeier's re-election in 2022 with 78% of the vote seemed like a bulwark against populism, but the AfD's recent surge suggests Germany isn't immune to these trends.

Brexit, which was still in its infancy in 2017, has played out like a cautionary tale that nobody heeded. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage's "bragging and humiliation" strategy proved devastatingly effective, leading to years of economic uncertainty and political upheaval in the UK. Scotland's renewed push for independence and Northern Ireland's complex position post-Brexit have only underscored the prescience of those early concerns about British unity.

The "Trump playbook" – personal attacks over policy, social media warfare, claims of fake news, and the demonization of immigrants – has become a global political template. What we once saw as uniquely American political theater has become a worldwide phenomenon. The tactics that seemed shocking in 2017 – attacking opponents' families (like the "Penelope-gate" scandal that damaged François Fillon in France), crying fraud before elections even occur, and undermining democratic institutions – are now standard political strategies.

Trump's return to power in 2024, after Biden's presidency failed to heal America's divisions, has emboldened populist movements worldwide. The "torches and pitchforks" we metaphorically feared in 2017 have manifested in various forms, from the January 6th insurrection to growing political violence and democratic backsliding globally.

Looking back, our 2017 hope that Trump's chaotic first term would serve as a cautionary tale proved naïve. Instead of being deterred by the American example, populist movements worldwide have been inspired by it. These "cover bands," as we dismissively called them, have learned to play their own tunes, each adapted to their local audience but following the same destructive melody.

The question now, in 2025, isn't whether democracy can survive populism – it's how democracy can be reimagined to withstand it. The music of democracy, it seems, needs new composers.

Rethinking Space Exploration

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The popular narrative around space exploration often focuses on establishing colonies on Mars and the Moon, with figures like Elon Musk promoting these destinations as humanity's backup plan. However, a closer examination reveals that this approach may be misguided, both in its premises and its priorities. Instead, focusing on asteroid mining could offer greater benefits with lower costs and technical barriers.

The argument for Mars colonization often rests on the idea of preserving humanity in case of an Earth-based catastrophe. Yet this reasoning faces several critical flaws. First, even a catastrophically damaged Earth would likely remain more habitable than Mars, with its toxic atmosphere, harsh radiation, and minimal gravity. Second, humanity itself is rapidly evolving through genetic engineering and technological integration, making the concept of "preserving mankind as it is" increasingly obsolete. The massive resources required for Mars colonization might be better invested in protecting Earth's environment and advancing sustainable technologies.

By contrast, asteroid mining presents a more practical and economically viable path forward. Near-Earth asteroids offer abundant resources that are often more accessible than their planetary counterparts. While planets and large moons have concentrated their heavy metals in unreachable cores through gravitational differentiation, asteroids often contain valuable materials distributed throughout their smaller bodies. For instance, the asteroid 16 Psyche is estimated to contain vast quantities of iron, nickel, and precious metals in an accessible form, while 1986 DA potentially holds thousands of tons of platinum group metals.

The technical challenges of asteroid mining, while significant, are actually less daunting than those of planetary colonization. Operating in zero gravity eliminates the need for expensive launch and landing infrastructure required on Mars or the Moon. The lack of atmospheric interference and lower gravity wells makes resource extraction and transport more energy-efficient. Additionally, the development path to asteroid mining can be more incremental, with smaller-scale missions building experience and capability over time.

Many technologies needed for asteroid mining could be developed through orbital research stations and targeted missions, without the enormous overhead of maintaining planetary colonies. While some technological overlap exists in areas like life support systems and radiation protection, these could be developed more efficiently through focused research rather than as byproducts of planetary colonization programs.

The economic potential of asteroid mining also far exceeds that of planetary colonies. While Mars colonies would require constant resource input for marginal returns, successful asteroid mining operations could provide rare earth elements, precious metals, and industrial materials at scales that could transform Earth's economy and enable further space development.

This doesn't mean we should abandon Mars exploration entirely, but rather that we should prioritize our investments in space development based on practical returns rather than romantic notions of planetary colonization. The path to becoming a spacefaring civilization might be better served by focusing on developing our capabilities to access and utilize space resources efficiently, rather than rushing to establish colonies on hostile planetary surfaces.

The future of space development lies not in recreating Earth's environment on other worlds, but in adapting our approach to take advantage of the unique opportunities space offers. Asteroid mining represents a more pragmatic and potentially more rewarding next step in humanity's space journey.

(Credit picture SciTechDaily)

How The Omniverse Works

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I have always been deeply fascinated by the phenomena of our universe. Solar and star systems, the Big Bang, black holes, dark energy and matter and especially the theories surrounding quantum fields and relativity intrigued me endlessly.

This fascination brought forth questions that constantly occupied my mind, such as: "What existed before the universe and what comes after?" "Why can’t we properly relate gravity to the other three fundamental forces?" "Why do we know so little about dark matter?" "Will we discover more elementary particles after the Higgs?" "What is spacetime and what happens if it ceases to exist?" — and many more.

These questions are no different from those that have puzzled renowned scientists for decades. Yet, after reading something by Penrose and with a nod to the inspiring TV-series "How the Universe Works", I felt that even his perspective did not present a fully holistic view. Something was still missing, leaving all the above questions unanswered.

I became ambitious. I wanted solutions and extensions of existing theories and although speculative and divergent from the mainstream consensus, still rooted in physics. 

To explain the concept of the Omniverse, I propose the existence of a new fundamental and (fermionic) quantum field: the O-field. Unlike the quantum fields we know from modern physics, which exist only within the framework of spacetime, the O-field is more fundamental and omniversal. It exists everywhere — even in regions where spacetime itself does not. Key to its role is the generation of energy through differences in entropy within the field, a process that gives rise to what we perceive as dark energy.

Want to read the full story? Get it here: How The Omniverse Works as PDF or as EPUB here. 

Enjoy!

Update: The first version calls the proposed O-particle an O-Quark. While this is an appealing term to most readers, it is misleading to physicists. By definition, a quark has color charge. The O-particle does not. So in the latest version of this booklet, the name of the particle has been changed to O-Fermion. A 1-minute scan and replace, but still it was a mistake. My bad.