Blood Pressure and the Current Crises

It rained today.  Now it's cold and the wind is just howling.  The radar was fairly impressive.  There was snow in the high country.

I have no pictures today, yesterday was pretty much absorbed by seeing my PCP.  While at the ENT's office, my blood pressure readings were in the stroke region.  I sent a portal message about this to my PCP, and her office said to come in.  So, I did.  She did a manual blood pressure measurement, as opposed to the increasingly popular machines where the patient sticks their arm in the cuff, and the medical assistant stands there and watches it.  BP was fine, was what it always is.  So, I wonder, how many dentists (where I had a high reading) and ENTs are getting these terrifying numbers and then ignoring them, or saying nothing.  Did my blood pressure actually hit 190/63, or was it a machine error?  I'm thinking machine error.  The whole thing does not seem to be a worthwhile activity.

It turns out that I am really not a conspiracy theorist.  I'm referring to the paper on the neoreactionary (NRx) movement that I posted last time, that I believe is in the process of destroying this country.  

Yarvin is the guy that thought up the neoreactionary movement.  Remember that name.  Notice the names associated with him.  If 47 dies, I'm not sure JD Vance is going to be much of an improvement.  Wikepedia article is here. This is a brief description of their desired outcome.

Several prominent Silicon Valley investors and Republican politicians have expressed their influence from the philosophy, with venture capitalist Peter Thiel describing Yarvin as his "most important connection".^[10] Political strategist Steve Bannon has read and admired his work, and there have been allegations that he has communicated with Yarvin which Yarvin has denied.^[11][12][13] U.S. Vice President JD Vance has cited Yarvin as an influence.^[14][15][16] Michael Anton, the State Department Director of Policy Planning during Trump's second presidency, has also discussed Yarvin's ideas.^[17] In January 2025, Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington; Politico reported he was "an informal guest of honor" due to his "outsize influence over the Trumpian right."^[18]

The modern solution devised by Yarvin in "A Formalist Manifesto" advocates for a form of neocameralism in which small, authoritarian "gov-corps" coexist and compete with each other, an idea anticipated by Hans Herman-Hoppe.^[24][12] He claims freedom under the system would be guaranteed by the ability to "vote with your feet", whereby residents could leave for another gov-corp if they felt it would provide a higher quality of life, thus forcing competition. Nick Land reiterates this with the political idea "No Voice, Free Exit", taken from Albert Hirschman's ideas of voice being democratic and exit being departure to another society:^[12

The Guardian has an article that is very readable, and horrifying.  You really should read it in its entirety.

"One of the venues in which Yarvin has articulated the strategy include a podcast hosted by Michael Anton, a writer and academic whom Trump last week appointed to work in a senior role under secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio.""Although Yarvin once described Vance as a “random normie politician I’ve barely even met” in a July Substack post, in October the Verge reported that “no one online has shaped Vance’s thinking more”. The growing parallels between the incoming administration’s actions – especially Vance’s views – and Yarvin’s suggestions raise questions about his influence."

For years, Yarvin has consistently held to a number of explicitly anti-democratic beliefs: republican self-government has already ended; real power is exercised oligarchically in a small number of prestigious academic and media institutions he calls the Cathedral; and a sclerotic democracy should be replaced by a strict hierarchy headed by a single person whose role is that of a monarch or CEO.

“Essentially, you have to be willing to say, OK, when we have this regime change, we have a period of temporary uncertainty which has to be resolved in an extremely peaceful way. What that means is basically a state of emergency in the White House,” he said.

“It means the president is basically taking direct control over all law enforcement authorities, a state of emergency in basically every state,” he added.

In September, on the campaign trail, Trump said that “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” of unrestrained policing would end crime “immediately.”

“One rough hour – and I mean real rough – the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” Trump added.

It's hard to know how far this has progressed.  I am reading that the thing to watch for is if 47 declares martial law.  I look at the words I have just put on the page, and I wonder how the hell did we get here?

Here is a transcript of an interview with Elizabeth Sandifer done in 2022.  It covers a lot of the same ground, but it was an interesting read.  She's been watching this develop for years.

 
Yesterday 47 signed an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.  Allegedly it will be funded with previously seized bitcoin from criminals.  Why is this bad, you know it's bad because 47 did it.  This is from a man I follow on twitter who grasps this better than I do.  "The moment the US government touches Bitcoin like this, you know the game is over. It’s not about innovation, freedom, or some “crypto revolution.” This is straight-up asset laundering on a global scale, using Bitcoin like a mafia safehouse for all the dirty money Trump, Musk, and their cartel pulled out of public funds, government contracts, and global corruption pipelines."  So there you go.

47 is pissed because Canada will not bend the knee.  We import a lot of lumber from Canada.  Today 47 signed an executive order to clear cut the national forests (280 million acres).  This was his justification to do this. "What we're doing is freeing up our forest from the environmental nonsense that they put on 'em where you can't cut down a tree. We have to cut down trees to build the firewalls, and those trees are sold...Canada has been ripping us off for years."  We wonder if he meant fire breaks instead of fire walls, but it's tough to tell with him.

AP is reporting purges of images in the military photo archives.  Women and non-white men are being removed.  The word Gay, no matter where or how it appears is being purged. Hegseth has ordered this to remove any traces of DEI.  History is being destroyed, WASPS, begone.  Tuskeegee Airmen, away with you.

This lady is purged.

So are these guys.

Say good bye, Enola Gay.  She's currently in the Udvar-Hazy museum in Virginia.  If you haven't been there, go soon.  It's a magnificent museum, and since it's government owned as part of the Smithsonian, Musk may be wanting to sell it.  I wonder if they're going to spray paint over her nose art.  Enola Gay was the name of the pilot's mother.  Enola Gay is the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  There was another plane, Bock's Car, but apparently that name is not objectionable.

I could go on, but I won't.  Everyday I think we've reached peak awful, and everyday I am wrong about that.

Ok, one more thing.  This is an article about whistle blowers who are saying Musk is indeed hollowing out the government.