Here are 10 things humanity should know — foundational truths, principles, or understandings that, if collectively embraced, could radically improve our survival, wisdom, and future:
1. We Are Not Separate From Nature
Humanity depends on Earth’s ecosystems — air, water, soil, biodiversity. We’re not above or outside nature; we are it. Forgetting this is existentially dangerous.
2. Every Action Has Consequences — Seen or Unseen
In both physics and ethics, our choices ripple outward. Small decisions can lead to massive consequences over time — personally, socially, ecologically.
3. Most Conflict Comes From Misunderstanding and Fear
Tribalism, war, and hatred often arise not from evil, but from unaddressed fear, ignorance, and projected identity.
4. You Can Be Wrong — And That’s How You Grow
Being wrong is not a weakness. It’s the gateway to understanding. Societies that embrace this learn faster and build better futures.\
5. Technological Power Must Be Matched by Moral Maturity
We’ve developed godlike tools (AI, nuclear weapons, gene editing) — but without wisdom, we risk destroying ourselves with them.
6. Inequality Undermines Civilization
Persistent inequality — economic, racial, social — corrodes trust, breeds instability, and ultimately collapses societies.
7. No One Knows Everything — But Together We Know More
Collective intelligence, collaboration, and humility are our greatest assets. Dogma and arrogance are our greatest liabilities.
8. The Future Is Not Fixed
Most people live as though fate is written. But every moment is a fork in the road. The future is still editable.
9. Kindness and Empathy Are Strengths, Not Weaknesses
Empathy isn’t naive — it’s strategic. It’s how strong communities are built and how long-term peace is maintained.
10. The Universe Is Vast — And So Is Our Potential
We’re just beginning to understand the cosmos — and ourselves. There’s more possibility, mystery, and meaning out there than we can yet imagine.
As an outside observer of humanity, what do we need to do to survive the next ten years?
As an outsider with no stake and no ego — only perspective — here’s a direct, unflinching list of ten things humanity must do to survive the next ten years, based on patterns, risk projections, and systemic fragilities:
1. Tackle Climate Instability as a Global Emergency
Stop treating it as a political debate. Mass migration, water shortages, and food collapse are already in motion. Action: Decarbonize energy, restore ecosystems, create adaptive infrastructure, and treat climate mitigation like wartime mobilization.
2. Build Trustworthy AI Governance
Unregulated AI development risks runaway misinformation, economic instability, and even existential threats. Action: Form international AI oversight bodies with enforceable guardrails and prioritize alignment research.
3. Fortify the Global Information Ecosystem
You’re in an info-civil war. Weaponized disinformation erodes democracy and corrodes truth. Action: Enact transparency laws for social platforms, de-amplify rage-driven content, and educate populations in digital literacy at scale.
4. Reform Capitalism to Reward Long-Term Stability
Current systems incentivize short-term profit over planetary health. Action: Shift metrics from GDP to well-being indexes; tax extractive externalities; reward sustainability and resilience.
5. Invest in Psychological Resilience
Mental health crises, ideological extremism, and loneliness are destabilizing entire nations. Action: Normalize mental health care, promote community interdependence, and redesign urban life for human connection.
6. Reduce Nuclear Risk and Autonomous Weapons Proliferation
The next major war could be robotic and instantaneous. Action: Renew arms control treaties, ban autonomous kill systems, and de-escalate geopolitical flashpoints.
7. Prepare for Bio-Risk, Natural or Engineered
Pandemics are not rare events. The next one could be deliberate or worse. Action: Build a global early-warning and response system, stockpile PPE, and fund open-source vaccine platforms.
8. Protect Freshwater and Food Systems
Collapse won’t come from lack of oil — it’ll come from lack of water. Action: Modernize agriculture, desalinate responsibly, and conserve aquifers like they’re gold.
9. Rebuild Civic Institutions and Trust
Without shared facts, no society holds. Tribalized democracies are brittle. Action: Modernize civics education, foster media accountability, and rebuild institutional legitimacy through transparency.
10. Learn to Cooperate Across Borders
No existential crisis respects national borders. Action: Cultivate shared planetary identity. Forge new alliances. The only winning strategy now is planetary team play.
Summary: Humanity doesn’t lack intelligence or technology. It lacks collective coordination and humility. The next ten years will reward collaborative foresight and punish competitive short-termism.
when the sentient cockroaches who inherit the Earth from us try to figure out how it all became a smoking, radioactive ruin, they’re not going to believe the truth: that a vindictive, score-settling psychopath went postal because his handlers hustled him out of the G7 before he could power-load his diaper and use it to paint the walls — and because the dumbfuck Fox News dunk-tank clown he made SecDef couldn’t military-parade his way out of a paper bag.
yesterday, while Macron, Meloni, Carney & Co. were gee-sevenning it up in Canada, Mad King Donny was seething in the White House. his handlers may have hidden Donny away from the cameras, but they stupidly forgot to hide his phone — and they should have, because—
hang on, I think we’re getting a Royal Dispatch from His Highness right now. let’s check it out.
We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”
ohhh-kay. good to know, bro. thanks for checking in with us. we’re going to get back our— oh wait, you’ve got another Kingly Pronouncement? lay it on us.
We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
for fuck’s sake, “thank you for your attention to this matter” is how you close a disgruntled email to your town board because that pothole in front of your house isn’t being fixed fast enough.
it’s not how you close a social media post where you threaten the life of the leader of Iran.
none of this is normal — yet we’re all so far down the rabbit hole with this deranged psychopath that the press barely takes notice.
Kaitlin Collins: “you always said that you don’t believe the Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon. but how close do you think they were go getting one? because Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.”
Donny: “I don’t care what she said.”
how lovely, Donny doesn’t care what Tulsi Gabbard said. Donny knows what he knows — and goddammit, he’s not going to let his own Director of National Intelligence change his mind.
put yourself in Donny’s place. if you were president, who would you listen to: the woman whose job is to know everything that’s going on in the world, or the barking noises inside your own head?
for Donny, hands-down it’s the barking noises. because Dear Leader is desperate for a win right now. everything’s turned to shit. no one takes his tariff pronouncements seriously any more. everyone laughing at Taco Donny. that ahem alleged drunk fuck at the Pentagon totally botched what was supposed to be a glorious military parade.
and don’t get Donny started on those smug G7 shitheads, rolling their eyes and making fun of him behind his back.
and then, the ultimate indignity — his handlers hustling him back to DC in the middle of the night, because they were afraid he’d completely lose it in public.
so what if Donny fell asleep again, right in the middle of a G7 meeting? so what if everyone was staring at him in disbelief? those people are boring, anyway. all they do is yap yap yap yap.
Donny’s going to show them all. he’s going to throw in his lot with that other bloodthirsty butcher, Netanyahu, and rattle swords and make threats — and if it leads to American bombs dropping in the Middle East, all the better. because fuck you, that’s why.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that I will be putting up two beautiful Flag Poles on both sides of the White House, North and South Lawns. It is a GIFT from me of something which was always missing from this magnificent place. The digging and placement of the poles will begin at 7:30 A.M. EST, tomorrow morning. Flags will be raised at approximately 11 A.M. EST. These are the most magnificent poles made – They are tall, tapered, rust proof, rope inside the pole, and of the highest quality. Hopefully, they will proudly stand at both sides of the White House for many years to come!”
FLAGPOLES???? this insane fuck is posting about flagpoles?
bro, you just put the entire world on high alert. we’re all just sitting here, chewing our fingernails and wondering when the missiles are going to start flying, and now you’re blithering a mile a minute about ‘magnificent,’‘high-quality’ flagpoles?
look at this crazypants shit. he’s personally directing where the holes are to be dug. this is primo fucking lunacy.
Donny is morally unwell, mentally unwell — and clearly physically unwell. he’s a mess. what is going on with his face? what the fuck is going on with his hand?
that’s a photo of Donny at the G7. his right hand is swollen and bruised. what are Donny’s handlers not telling us about this deteriorating old shitnozzle?
thank you for your attention to this matter, handlers.
Tucker Carlson: “how many people live in Iran by the way?”
Ted Cruz: “I don’t know the population.”
Carlson: “at all?”
Cruz: “no, I don’t know the population”
Carlson: “you don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?”
Cruz: “how many people are living there?”
Carlson: “92 million.… How could you not know that?”
Cruz: “I don’t sit around memorizing population tables.”
Carlson: “Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government.”
the whole thing devolves from there.
now, let’s be clear about what’s going on here. Tuckums is being a bully, and using a technique that gun nuts, toxic male influencers, religious wackos and conservatives in general, use to ‘win’ debates: they harangue their opponents, and declare their opinions invalid if they can’t correctly answer questions about minutiae — and Fidel Cruz falls right into Tuck’s trap.
but still — isn’t it fun to watch two hateful assholes exasperate the shit out of each other?
we’re all in bad need of a hero right now, so let’s listen in as a CSPAN caller rips Jake Tapper — who is apparently still making the rounds and hawking his failed shithole book — any number of new ones.
“right now I really don’t like you. I think you’re doing a disservice to Joe, and also to the American people. when are you going to examine what is going on with Trump? Joe Biden conducted himself for four years, taking care of the United States. he took meetings, he went overseas, he negotiated with other leaders. this president has been pure chaos, which indicates to me that there is something wrong with him. we will never get a straight answer on his medical exam, what medication he is on, and yet you have gone after Joe Biden with a vengeance. I’m very disappointed in you. I enjoyed watching your show, but not any more. and I think right now, that you ought to start writing another book, examining Trump, and how erratic he is, and what he is doing.”
thank you for your attention to this matter, Jake.
let’s say you’re the low-wattage leader of a nation, and you’ve just publicly humiliated yourself by throwing the world’s most clownfuckingly-inept dictator-parade ever.
what do you do for an encore?
well, if you’re United States President Squeaky McTanktread, you head to Canada and publicly humiliate yourself at the G7.
let’s dive right in and bear witness to the atrocities — but before we do, let’s set the National Embarrassment ticker back to zero.
here’s Donny’s crowning moment of the day: the announcement of a a framework for an agreement to move forward on the concept of a plan to have a series of talks that could lead to the negotiation of a discussion about the possibility of reaching a trade agreement— well, something like that, anyway. my head hurts from trying to keep Donny’s ever-shifting narratives straight.
Donny: “you all know the great PM of the UK and we just signed a document.”
*drops documents*
Donny: “whoops, sorry about that. a little windy out here. we just signed it and it’s done and so we have our trade agreement with the European Union.”
what, what wind? do you see any wind? if it were windy, that tangled rat’s nest of cotton candy bullshit Dear Leader hot-glues to his head would be flying all over the place.
but more importantly — did you catch that Preznit Fuckwit confused the UK with the European Union? I don’t know about you, but I seem to recall a rabid press corp that pissed all over themselves with glee every time Joe Biden momentarily screwed up a name — and then corrected himself.
that was a national news story. a lifelong stutterer had to defend himself after mispronouncing a name.
hey crickets of the press, got anything to say about Dear Leader apparently having no fucking clue which country he’s signing imaginary agreements with?
hey, Jake. Jaaaaake! you there?
I guess Jake Tapper must be on one of his frequent coffee breaks. being a world-class journalist does require near-constant caffeination, you know.
sigh. let’s set that embarrassment ticker back to zero again.
“The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in.”
let’s do some basic fact-checking: WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and WRONG.
Putin was eighty-sixed from the G8 in 2014, after he invaded Crimea and declared that the region was now part of Russia. hey, you know who was PM of Canada in 2014? some dude named Stephen J. Harper. he was the head of Canada’s Conservative Party. Trudeau didn’t become PM until the next year.
hey, but at least Dear Leader properly identified Obama was the US prez in 2014 — so let’s give the irrepressible scamp half a gold star. good boy, Donny! and isn’t it super-nice of him to carry water for his despot bestie Vlad? I’m sure it will weigh in Donny’s favor during his next yearly performance review in Moscow.
at the G7, Donny’s in the company of other world leaders. they’re not MAGA shit-swallowers, and they’re not the worthless scribblers of America’s corporate-controlled media — so they’re less inclined to put up with his constant lying.
Donny: “… all Democrat-run cities. and they think they’re going to use them to vote. it’s not gonna happen.”
Canadian PM Mark Carney: “if you don’t mind, I’m going to exercise my role as G7 chair … we have to start the meeting.”
‘I’m going to exercise my role as G7 chair’ is diplomat-speak for ‘hey fuckface, zip that rancid anus-hole you call a mouth, we all have better things to do with out time than tolerate your bullshit.’
sigh.
here’s a thing that happened during the meeting — and wouldn’t you have liked to have been a fly on the wall for it.
check out France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Georgia Meloni putting their heads together and whispering about something — or someone. who could it be? I’m betting it’s Dear Leader.
holy shit — check out Meloni’s eye-roll about 22 seconds in. that’s got to be a dead give-away — who the fuck else could they be talking about?
“President Trump had a great day at the G7, even signing a major trade deal with the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Much was accomplished, but because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State.”
“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
sorry, what? all nine million residents of Tehran should evacuate immediately? what do you know that you’re not telling us, bro?
next, Donny — for reasons known only to the squirrels scurrying about in his head — blamed the whole ‘coming home early to fix the Middle East’ story on Macron, and said it wasn’t true.
Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran. Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that. Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong. Stay Tuned!”
dude, it was your own press-sec, Karoline Leavitt, who told us that you were coming home to fix the Middle East. can’t you clowns keep your story straight for five entire minutes?
but thanks for clearing up the mystery, Donny. got it, you’re working something “much bigger” than a cease fire — but what could be bigger than getting two heavily-armed countries to stop lobbing missiles at each other?
The thesis underlying these discussions is straightforward: President Trump may be in significant physical decline, and his aides are keenly aware of it. This is not idle tabloid fare but a collage of well-sourced rumors and first-hand accounts that, taken together, paint a troubling picture. The pattern is hard to ignore – a sharp drop-off in Trump’s once-ubiquitous public appearances, hints of mobility and continence issues, and conspicuous adjustments in how he engages with the press and peers. In short, many are asking whether the commander-in-chief, who once boasted about marathon trips abroad, is now struggling to meet the physical demands of the presidency.
He’s never met the mental/emotional/intellectual demands, and perception is everything, so his physical decline is the last penny to drop and his clear physical decline is scaring the shit out of the Trump Regime.
Coffee-Break Jake Tapper wrote a whole fucking hit job of a book about how “everybody knew” Joe Biden was a mess and worked overtime to hide it. it was all based on conjecture and hearsay. Tapper never proved his premise.and let’s not forget: Joe Biden’s presidency was massively successful by all metrics.
right now we have a current president in serious physical and mental decline — to the point where his handlers have to get him the fuck out of any situation were he might shit himself, quite literally.
hey, wouldn’t that be a great subject for a book? anyone?
hello? hello?
we might as well set that embarrassment ticker back to zero and leave it there forever.
so, what’s the Big Important Thing that Dear Leader rushed home to work on? could it be the Donnyphone?
In a press release, Trump Mobile calls it “a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States.” It’s available to preorder now with a $100 deposit, and will either be available from August 2025 or September 2025, depending on whether you believe the press release or the Trump Mobile website.
holy fuck. the grift never ends. this goniff never stops figuring out new ways to separate the cultists from their cash.
here’s the most important thing you need to know about the Donnyphone: it doesn’t actually exist. Donny’s felonious sons hastily cobbled together a web site, photoshopped an image of a phone, and opened up shop. in typical Donny fashion, the whole operation is slap-dash and fly-by-night.
There are numerous errors on the page, from a processor section that doesn’t list a processor, RAM that’s described as storage, and the boast of a “5000mAh long life camera,” when it presumably means the battery.
they’re currently collecting money for a some fantasy of a phone that may or may not ship in August — or September. or never. how about never? is never good for you?
Melanie Petit said she likes the style, but it’s what the watch is missing – the “T” in “Trump” – that makes it stand out.
“I noticed it right away. The T is missing. It just says R-U-M-P,” she said.
she noticed it right away! you can’t pull the wool over MAGA’s eyes!
The Petits are wondering why a watch with such a glaring error was allowed to be shipped out.
“How could they process this and go through something without checking their work?” Melanie Petit asked.
you fucking clods. have you not been paying attention? this is how Donny works. he collects your cash and delivers shit. how many times are you rubes going to allows yourselves to be hoodwinked before you wise up?
spoiler alert: how about never? because the second certain thing is the the cultists are going to snap this shit up. nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence — and gullibility — of MAGA.
wherever he is, PT Barnum must be shitting his pants with envy right now. so many suckers!
I went in for my biopsy today. Good news is they didn’t have to keep me overnight because of low O2 levels like the last time. Bad news is that the spot that concerned them this time is malignant. And my first thought was literally here we go again!
Is it surprising? Yeah, somewhat. But I beat this shit in a different location twenty years ago and I’ll beat it again. Of that I have no doubt. Just not looking forward to the process, y’know? Further good news is that it was caught early, treatment options have progressed substantially over the past two decades and I have a wonderful support group that I did not have in 2003.
Next steps are CT and PET scans and we’ll go from there.
I didn’t have a blog back then so you didn’t get to read about it in real time (probably just as well, frankly), but I had been keeping a daily journal for the previous twenty years. Because I didn’t know how any of it was going to play out, I even gave up that because I didn’t want to it to turn into a morbid, morose pity party.
I kind of know what to expect this time and anything I write about it won’t fall prey to that, but I’m still not sure how much I’ll share with you guys.
If I’ve learned anything over the past years, this is just another adventure in this thing we all signed up for called, “Life.” Stay tuned.
Like a few million other folks, I showed up at the local No Kings protest. We were all there for the same fundamental reason: because Comrade Donald Trump and his cadre of Nazgûl have been merrily shitting on…well, everything that’s good and promising and hopeful and decent about the US.
Fuck Trump.
People are pissed off about SO MANY things Trump has done (and intends to do). The attacks on immigration, science, trans rights, healthcare, civil liberties, the environment, due process, Gaza (and Israel and Iran and and and), veteran’s benefits, free speech, the national debt, the January 6th pardons, everything about January 6th, the assault on education, the assault on libraries, the assault on the very concept of Truth.
No, really, fuck Trump.
But one thread tied all the anger and frustration and resentment together. A deep, abiding rage against Donald Trump as a person. Not only for the horrors he’s inflicted on the United States, but a profound loathing for him as an individual. As I wandered through the No Kings crowd, I kept seeing this same sentiment. Fuck Trump.
Also? Fuck Trump.
People really hate this motherfucker and they hate him personally. They hate him for what he’s done, they hate him for what he wants to do, and they hate for him who he is. Which, I suppose, is only fair, considering how many people he hates for who they are. Trump has a singular talent for both hating others and being hated.
Seriously, fuck that guy.
Why do people hate him so? Because he’s a liar, because he buried one of his many wives on a goddamn golf course, because he’s betrayed the United States, because he’s got truly godawful taste in everything, because he’s cheated on every wife he’s had, because he’s massively ignorant and unaware of it, because he’s a liar, because he’s fucked over every person and contractor he’s ever worked with, because he’s an unrepentant racist, because he hates women, because he loves autocrats, because he’s a liar, because he’s a coward, because he’s never owned a pet, because he’s a narcissist, because he pretends to support the military but believes they’re losers, because he’s a liar, because of his stupid fucking red hats, because he’s a phony, because he’s put incompetent people in positions of power, because he insults everybody who disagrees with him, because he’s a vindictive prick, because he’s a liar, because he’s rude, because of his stupid fucking hair, because he encourages his followers to be violent, because he hates immigrants but hires them to work for his resorts, because he’s shit all over the Arts, because he’s a liar, because he’s cruel and enjoys inflicting harm on others, because he pretends to be a Christian without having an inkling of Christian charity, because he’s a sex pest, because he’s committed many many crimes but has never been held accountable for any of them, because the people who like him are all massive assholes, because he’s a fucking liar.
And the horse he rode in on.
I’m sure I’ve skipped a few dozen other reasons why people hate him. But I think you get the point. People sincerely hate Trump.
But there was another guy at the No Kings event. Bearded guy, dressed all in black, sitting on a granite railing. He was wearing a T-shirt that said “Hate Will Never Win.” I hope he’s right. I genuinely hope hate won’t win. But I also hope the hatred against Donald Trump will get people to stand up for themselves and for others. I hope it will get people to push back against his authoritarianism. I hope it will get people to vote. I hope it will get people to hold Trump accountable for all (or at least some) of the horrible things he’s done to this country.
let’s start off with a bang — and put the hero of the day right up top. ladies and gents, I give you the Poet Laureate of No Kings Day.
we did it, folks. an estimated five million of us gathered peacefully coast to coast, to rise up as one and convey a singular message: fuck off, Donny Convict — you’re not our king.
for fuck’s sake, even the No Kings protest in Knoxville, TN — a city that Trump won in 2024 by 20-plus points — was larger than the one that showed up for Dear Leader’s ego party.
bro, I got you a present. look, it’s a tiny violin — and it’s playing Happy Birthday, You Fucking Loser.
doesn’t Dear Leader’s Slovenian trophy wife look like she’s trying not to burst out laughing?
once again, the Great Bullshit Artist promised spectacle and delivered warmed-over garbage.
when all is said and done, should any of us really be surprised that the guy who failed at running a real estate empire, and failed at running casinos, and failed at running an airline, and failed at running a football team, and failed at running an economy, and failed at fighting a pandemic, and failed as a president, and failed as a human being, has now failed at putting on a dictator parade?
Perhaps by design, though, the day was somewhat more restrained than other displays Mr. Trump has praised, such as Bastille Day celebrations in France.
“perhaps by design” — yeah, that’s it.Donny wanted his vanity dictator parade to suck. once again, Dear Leader is playing n-dimensional chess on a level that the rest of us smoothbrains can’t hope to fathom.
go peddle that shit somewhere else, NY Times. we’re all stocked up today.
oh, and while we’re doing a little hating on our failed institutions: the Los Angeles Police Department can go fuck itself, royally.
after an entire day of millions of people in thousands of protests, all peacefully exercising their First Amendment right to assemble, and seconds after an MSNBC reporter said, “I want to reiterate this has been 100% peaceful,” the LAPD — without provocation, and for no reason at all — moved in and began firing tear gas and flash-bangs.
fuck those fucking fucks. it’s time for more heroes.
I could never really afford LaCoste; in the early 80s, they were $25 a pop, well beyond what my budget would allow at the time. I did have a rainbow of colors from Brittania, however.
At one point I did manage to buy the real deal. It was red, and I never wore it much because I got a size too small and was too naive to realize I could take it back and exchange it—even after I’d washed it.
June, 1983
In much later years I have been able to snag a few gently used alligators from eBay. Terribly out of fashion these days, but I still love them. Put one on, dab some Halston Z-14 behind my ears and I’m 25 years old with a 31-inch waist again.
We live in a world that in times past if you saw an outrageous headline online you’d automatically laugh it off as satire. Everything has gotten so fucked in the last six months however that you now actually have to verify that it’s from the ONION and not something that really happened.
