https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2026/01/13/05/105463645-15458125-image-m-20_1768281568843.jpg

Star Trek Real

Pete Hegseth makes oddball Star Trek joke while hyping the Defense Dept's non-'woke' AI

Pete Hegseth joked about Star Trek being 'real' during an event named after a dystopian episode of the sci-fi television series.

The defense secretary appeared alongside Elon Musk at the billionaire's SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas on Monday as part of his high-profile 'Arsenal of Freedom' tour.

As Hegseth walked on stage to promote the Pentagon's push for a non-woke artificial intelligence, the rock anthem 'Seven Nation Army' by The White Stipes played in the background.

'How about this,' Hegseth said as he flashed a Vulcan salute while standing next to Musk. 'Star Trek real.'

Musk laughed at the pop culture reference from Hegseth. The lectern on stage read: Arsenal of Freedom, which is also the title of a Star Trek episode about a civilization destroyed by its own weapons.

In his speech, Hegseth spoke about the global arms races, government bureaucracy and technological stagnation.
 

'Department of War AI will not be woke,' he said. 'We're building war-ready weapons and systems, not chatbots for an Ivy League faculty lounge.'

The Arsenal of Freedom campaign aims to reshape how the US military builds weapons, adopts AI and partners with Silicon Valley.

Musk also addressed the crowd to make clear his ambitions extend beyond defense contracts and into outer space.

'We want to make Star Trek real,' Musk said describing a future of interplanetary travel and even journeys beyond the solar system as he welcomed brought Hegseth to the company's rocket manufacturing and launch hub.

Hegseth's visit to Starbase marked a major stop on his month-long 'Arsenal of Freedom' tour, which the Defense Department says is designed to rebuild the military by engaging directly with the defense industrial base and speeding up innovation.

'You are the foundation of our defense industrial base - the foundation of great American manufacturers - who we trust to usher in that new golden age of peace through strength under President Trump,' Hegseth told the crowd.

He declared the United States 'deadly serious' about dominating space, calling for 'a larger, more modern and more capable constellation of American satellites launched by American rockets from American soil, built by American engineers.'

The secretary framed his message as a sharp break from the past, criticizing what he described as years of bureaucratic inertia at the Pentagon.

'Until President Trump took office, the Department of War's process for fielding new capabilities had not kept up with the times,' Hegseth said, lamenting 'endless projects with no accountable owners' and 'high churn with little progress and few outputs.'

'That sounds about like the exact opposite of SpaceX,' he added, calling the contrast 'a dangerous game with potentially fatal consequences.'

The most pointed lines of the speech came as Hegseth took aim at what he called a 'risk-averse culture' inside the defense industry and vowed to upend it.

'This is about building an innovation pipeline that cuts through the overgrown bureaucratic underbrush and clears away the debris Elon-style - preferably with a chainsaw,' Hegseth said.

As part of that effort, he confirmed that the Defense Department plans to integrate Musk's Grok AI platform into Pentagon systems, alongside Google's Gemini model, deploying them across both classified and unclassified networks.

Hegseth said he has directed that 'all appropriate data' be shared across every service and component so it can be 'fully leveraged for warfighting capability development and operational advantage.'

'We must ensure that America's military AI dominates,' he said, warning that adversaries could exploit the same technology if the US hesitates.

Hegseth also took aim at what he labeled 'woke' artificial intelligence, signaling that the Pentagon under his leadership will push past previous efforts to limit military AI use.

'We can no longer afford to wait a decade for our legacy prime contractors to deliver a perfect system,' he said. 'Winning requires a new playbook.'

Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems means that they operate 'without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications,' before adding that the Pentagon's 'AI will not be woke.'

Musk developed and pitched Grok as an alternative to what he called 'woke AI' interactions from rival chatbots like Google´s Gemini or OpenAI´s ChatGPT.

In July, Grok also caused controversy after it appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and shared several antisemitic posts.

SpaceX has become one of the government's most important defense partners, authorized to launch sensitive national security satellites and holding billions of dollars in contracts with NASA and the US military.

Starbase itself serves as the primary production and launch site for Starship, Musk's massive next-generation rocket designed to carry cargo, and eventually people, to the moon, Mars and beyond.

The Biden administration enacted a framework in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is unclear if those prohibitions are still in place under the Trump administration.

During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and speed up technological innovations within the military, saying, 'We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.'

He noted that the Pentagon possesses 'combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.'

AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we´re going to make sure that it´s there,' Hegseth said.
 

Replies: @S1, @QCIC

A local TV meteorologist came to my elementary school one day. Someone had told me to ask about ball lightning, but it was a very big crowd, and I was afraid it would be misinterpreted.

Replies: @QCIC

"...I believe if Russia (not Putin) ends the war without defeating the Western forces in Ukraine, then NATO will rearm in Ukraine and revive the war in short order. I think the second round is even more likely to result in World War Three. "
 

Russia must be so embarrassed that it has not defeated Ukraine in four years that obviously its failure must be blamed on NATO, which means it has to be made the new enemy. I recall a little over four years ago, before the troop buildup in Belarus, NATO was regularly ridiculed on RT for its weakness. Then within a few weeks, after Russia's military coup attempt failed, it was suddenly an existential threat that justified nuclear escalation. Then, shortly after the NATO summit in July 2023, NATO was characterized as weak again, probably because Swedish and Ukrainian membership was rejected. Toward the end of the summer there was a major Ukrainian counter-offensive, and Russia had to retreat. Now the campaign is to vilify NATO again, as was highlighted in the essay above. This circular silliness is like the fashion shows that occur through the different seasons.

Replies: @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC

You want JewISH. Here.

https://imgur.com/OxKxJv0

Replies: @Felpudinho, @QCIC

"I care that the USA is insanely trying to start World War 3 in Ukraine. "
 

Replies: @mulga mumblebrain, @QCIC, @Derer

"Translation: the AFU Air Force did poorly because of Russian air defenses, despite having some upgraded aircraft and probably full US live intelligence from the beginning."

Ukraine had far too weak air forces and some Western fighter planes could not change the situation. About NATO versus Russia, I paste an AI answer, it agrees with what military analysts think:
"NATO's combined air forces significantly outnumber and generally possess greater technological sophistication (like fifth-gen fighters, integrated C2, and extensive training) than Russia's air force, enabling them to achieve air superiority through overwhelming numbers and superior network-centric warfare, despite Russia's strong air defense systems and potent long-range missiles."
So, that is the idea in the NATO concept, they have made an effort to make this idea realistic, and looking at the technology, I think it is realistic.

"In other words, perhaps the West declined to send more aircraft because they knew these would be lost without making a major difference due to conditions on the battlefield. Therefore, sometimes you really do need more artillery shells."

Making a combined arms offensive is difficult and Ukraine is not yet capable of it, neither is Russia, this is why the war turned into an artillery war, but now it has changed to a drone war. Ukraine's lacking capabilities made it useless to give them more aircraft and besides, these weapons are very expensive (but Ukraine will get more planes and it will have some effect). Also, the West has not tried to help Ukraine to win the war, the goal has been to stop Russia and to get to peace negotiations. But this does not mean that the war is a proxy war between NATO and Russia (it is not), and it does not give the correct picture of NATO's capabilities (but it does give the correct picture of Russian conventional weapon capabilities).

Replies: @Commentator Mike, @QCIC

“Thus, wouldn’t it just take the Russians a few hours or a day or so to pretty much neutralize all NATO airpower? And with NATO airpower eliminated, wouldn’t the Russians have won the war?

I’m totally ignorant but that’s how it looks to me….”

Both sides would lock you up because of your ignorance. In a war between NATO and Russia neither side wants the other side to lose, so neither side wants to win. This is because the war is mad when there is MAD, because MAD means the second strike and the dead man hand.
 

Replies: @QCIC, @j2

It is an intriguing incident, but the lack of details is frustrating. What I would like to know is if such a weapon can be used in normal war, would it be as effective operating in close range to things like electronic warfare, jamming, etc.Would it's support systems have to get close to a more effective opponent and risk getting bombed or droned?

Replies: @QCIC

1. he says he has 2-300 hours of Epstein interviews on tape and is trying to sell a book but so far no publishing corporation has stepped up.

2. one of the show's high lights was Wolf comparing his self to Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolf and his co-star mocking his short fat bald nerd ass to his face.

3. another interesting claim is that he spent the first 10 months of 2017 doing little else but sitting on a couch in the reception area of the White House west wing offices with his notebook M-F 9-5.

There's lots more but this is late night low energy time listening and I sure ain't gonna take any notes on it.

Replies: @QCIC

Please don't tell me you believe the best AI, or even truly representative AI, is available for free or a modest fee! AI is a world changing, strategically pivotal technology. None of the high profile men backing AI show any evidence of being benign actors who would readily distribute the crown jewels of this technology to the masses. They are not philanthropists yet. Maybe after they control the world we will get some crumbs.

A high percentage of repetitive human tasks can be copied by AI and robotic mechanisms. This process can be cumulative and perhaps will expand exponentially because of how AI works. Multiply Musk's predictions by 2X since he is trying to sell stock, but 10 years is still really fast. The longer ten year window of opportunity is only because people will wake up and start protesting wildly against AI in a year or two and then will attempt to slow it down. The momentum will probably be unstoppable by then but it might not be too late now.

AI is BAD and is an evil genie: a Djinn.
 

How can outright replacement of human thinking be good? There is nothing after that.
 

Replies: @Emil Nikola Richard, @Mikel

Are you familiar with Nick Land’s work?
 

Replies: @QCIC

You probably don't watch Michael Wolf's daily beast show but he has lengthy personal experience with Trump, Epstein, and RFKJ. Last week he told a story about Epstein giving him a pair of shoes. When Epstein saw a variety that he liked he bought a hundred pairs in all different sizes. Afterward guests to his salon (he saw himself as a modern Madam de Stael) would be asked their shoe size; the ho on duty would be sent to the storage to fetch the latest style in their size; the guest would be invited to try them on, take them home. On the house!

Anyway he also several weeks ago had a report on RFKJ's voice. Not a vaccine injury as RFKJ claims. Excessive crack smoking.

Replies: @QCIC

Mike Netter
@nettermike
8:21 PM · Jan 9, 2026

This account from a Venezuelan security guard loyal to Nicolás Maduro is absolutely chilling—and it explains a lot about why the tone across Latin America suddenly changed.

Security Guard: On the day of the operation, we didn't hear anything coming. We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation. The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn't know how to react.

Interviewer: So what happened next? How was the main attack?

Security Guard: After those drones appeared, some helicopters arrived, but there were very few. I think barely eight helicopters. From those helicopters, soldiers came down, but a very small number. Maybe twenty men. But those men were technologically very advanced. They didn't look like anything we've fought against before.

Interviewer: And then the battle began?

Security Guard: Yes, but it was a massacre. We were hundreds, but we had no chance. They were shooting with such precision and speed... it seemed like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute. We couldn't do anything.

Interviewer: And your own weapons? Didn't they help?

Security Guard: No help at all. Because it wasn't just the weapons. At one point, they launched something—I don't know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.

Interviewer: And your comrades? Did they manage to resist?

Security Guard: No, not at all. Those twenty men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us. We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I've never seen anything like it. We couldn't even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.

Interviewer: So do you think the rest of the region should think twice before confronting the Americans?

Security Guard: Without a doubt. I'm sending a warning to anyone who thinks they can fight the United States. They have no idea what they're capable of. After what I saw, I never want to be on the other side of that again. They're not to be messed with.

Interviewer: And now that Trump has said Mexico is on the list, do you think the situation will change in Latin America?

Security Guard: Definitely. Everyone is already talking about this. No one wants to go through what we went through. Now everyone thinks twice. What happened here is going to change a lot of things, not just in Venezuela but throughout the region.

https://twitter.com/nettermike/status/2009843044028428714
 

Replies: @QCIC

The aggressive foreign development which Maria-what's-her-name mentioned was very common in Venezuela in the past. There were impressive (world class) iron, aluminum and other smelters and mines, automobile assembly plants and of course the big dams. Some of the industries were extractive and some productive. From what I recall, most of these projects failed, but the problem seemed to be the "Dutch Disease" and not anything about Venezuelans or some Chavez version of voodoo economics. The Dutch Disease describes the situation in an oil rich country where all the productive effort is inexorably drawn into more profitable petroleum-related ventures leading the people to simply buy everything else. This makes it difficult for a petrostate to prepare for a future with low oil prices or depleted oil fields.

The Venezuela project checks many boxes for Team Trump. The idea that Jewish/Zionist interests launched this attack as a punishment of Venezuela is fairly compelling. Additionally, someone made the point that interdiction of the shadow fleet has now been legitimized which is potentially a pivotal step in the NATO economic wars against Russia and Iran.

Trump at 79 years old is not coming up with any of this. It would be helpful if people point out the names of the actual policy creators and enactors so the American people can hold them accountable. Trump is a front man, a master of ceremonies and is simply maintaining his version of the "American Brand".

Replies: @Derer

"Western militaries are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine,"

This refers to artillery ammunition. The West does not use artillery in any major way in a war.

"“I am a retired professor of military technics, not working for anybody”. You’re a Zio flunky whose Mother begged Mossad’s Disinformation Section, 4th floor, to be placed as an internet gaslighter. Gefilthy Fish. Processed seagull offal poop. "

So again, I am a retired professor of military technics, not working for anybody, and you are a troll. But you know that you are what you are, so do yourself a favor: get out of this site, nobody will miss you, not even Ron Unz.

Replies: @QCIC

"Never mind all the scheming by Russian expat Jews who hate Russia as they have for centuries. Why do you want to do their nasty bidding?"
 

Replies: @QCIC, @Derer

https://youtu.be/n5e_KZHCdnc?si=8imz0fgHnWJzYXTX

Replies: @QCIC, @Emil Nikola Richard

Why Vice President Vance?
 

Why covertly?.
 

He has many more important things to do.
 

Go off the beaten path in former East Germany and one might do well. There are probably a goodly number of villages that have kept Muslim migrants away. They would be better run and more civilized even if they are not particularly wealthy.
 

Replies: @A123, @QCIC

Trump should send Vance covertly to one of these German cities, to begin touring off the beaten path, and away from the Potemkin villages, and bring the cameras with him.

Dortmund is looking pretty bad these days. Sort of like an ex-Soviet city, that has fallen on hard times, only stabbier.

https://youtu.be/BDnds3ycDpE?si=yu-afj8EMdT5eACI

Replies: @A123, @QCIC

((( ))) is reserved for the so-called 'chosen people' and is a helpful shorthand punctuation to indicate Jewish lineage. I don't make the rules. Please keep it straight.

Replies: @QCIC, @A123

((( ))) is reserved for the so-called 'chosen people' and is a helpful shorthand punctuation to indicate Jewish lineage. I don't make the rules. Please keep it straight.

Replies: @QCIC, @A123

Replies: @QCIC, @socratesjr

I guess you are saying Muslims work for Jewish interests. That sounds about right. Thanks.

Replies: @A123, @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC

Why would Team Trump allocate slots to (((Islamic people)))?
Especially (((CryptoMuslims)))?

There are no doubt a batch of (((Muslim diversity hires))). Trump's wise choice to bring back merit and eliminate DEI should wash out these low-IQ and otherwise dysgenic (((Islamists))) as unqualified. ;-D

PEACE 😇

Replies: @QCIC

Whenever you look at some internally-produced video of a space contractor, you are practically guranteed to see a zoom up of some black guy working on the product.

That black astronaut riding the rocket - doesn't he need to rely on the black guy building the rocket? I assume they check the work...

I don't think it will blow up, but, at the same time, I wonder if it blowing up would cause some kind of perestroika.

One interesting thing to see is if Trump will quash the diversity on the other missions. somewhat explicitly, the program has been about sending blacks and women to the Moon. But the crews for the other missions haven't been selected yet. Seeing as how the Chinese want to send a woman to the Moon, I don't know if he will do it, but black woman to the Moon may be out. Indians (feather) rejoice.

Replies: @QCIC

"...US-led aggression against Russia which goes back to at least 1999 when NATO began expanding in violation of a direct promise made to Russia. "
 

Replies: @QCIC

The West wanted to destroy Russia and Ukraine physically and culturally. The partial destruction of Ukraine in the SMO is a consolation prize for the West, so their project may be considered partially successful even if it ends now. Once Russia prevails, Ukraine will be a costly and painful problem for Moscow for a couple of decades. However, the West slightly underestimated Russia economically, militarily and culturally. I think it was a near thing and the Western plan only failed by a small margin. In my view that failure is good, because a "victory" could have backed Russia into the nuclear weapons corner. Of course the West is still trying to salvage the plan.

I suspect some people are bitter that the West did not immediately drive Russia out of Crimea in 2014. This was a more important missed opportunity than it may have seemed at the time. I guess someone said, "Nyet!" Maybe someday we will learn the crucial details of the behind the scenes activities.

Replies: @Beckow

Replies: @QCIC, @Bashibuzuk

Replies: @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC

Martyanov was educated at a third-rate maritime school in Azerbaijan (according to Anatoly Karlin) and was an officer in the Soviet coast guard prior to defecting to the West decades ago. Martyanov knows nothing about the technology and doesn’t really have any inside information regarding the Russian military in the last few decades.

And even while Martyanov knows nothing, he calls Ted Postol (B.S., physics, MIT; Ph.D., engineering, MIT)— who worked at Argonne National Laboratory and was chief advisor for missile technology for the U.S. Navy— and idiot. Martyanov is a clown extraordinaire.

Replies: @James of Africa, @QCIC, @Kingsmeg, @L.K

"Having our Congress make a fuss over this entirely US-created Ukraine disaster would be enormously helpful by moving the needle of public opinion."
 

Replies: @QCIC

You are spinning a narrative based on a selection of few events in the last few months and you shallowly over-interpret them. The reality is that Russia is winning the Ukraine war - the most important war since WW2. That reality undermines your story: your focus on the minutia and the emotional floats aimlessly on the surface, its only purpose is to distract.

What really happened is the failed NATO expansion and attempt to absorb Ukraine. It is falling apart with Ukraine paying a horrible price. There is no talking you way out of it - it is a catastrophe. Victories are always costly, one has to commit to a high risk strategy. In Ukraine both sides started out tentatively, lots of bluff and offers to go half-way - but eventually both sides fully committed.

In all existential wars at the end there are only two sides - one wins, one loses. No matter how you spin it the US started out on the Ukraine side so they will be among the losers. Trump's genius is in mitigating and to some extent hiding it, he managed to shift the loss to the hapless Europeans. He is the boss, so it wasn't too hard.

Everything else is a meaningless minutia - like a blocked river finding multiple meandering slow-moving channels. The only thing that matters is that the river - the NATO Ukraine project - has been blocked. The verbiage put around this loss is amusing but totally irrelevant.

Replies: @QCIC, @Emil Nikola Richard, @Regis Leon

That wouldn't end the war.

The most Congress could do is vote to cancel the remaining aid passed under Biden. Majority support for such an action does not exist.

In any case the war would continue with European support. They would switch to the British satellite system.

Blowing up Russian oil refineries with drones doesn't even require the help of the US or British.

The locations of the refineries are public. They don't seem to move much.
https://refrat-oil.com/en/russie-2/

Long range bombers and oil depots can be found with Google maps.

A better path to peace would be for Putin to accept the compromise of the current lines. I don't see why he needs to turn another 3 cities into rubble. The leading Zed blogger has turned against the war and said it is a waste of men to take DPR cities in ruin. I'm going to agree.

Replies: @QCIC

The Russian campaign seems to be limited in Ukraine by military manpower and weaponry and is forced to go slow.

The remaining cities in the former DPR are heavily defended. There is a huge mine belt they have to go through.

That is why Putin is offering to walk if he can have the rest of them.

There will be another hundred videos of Russian APCs and tanks from the 1970s blowing up on open plains if he continues with the current strategy of GO FORWARD.

Russia and the rest of the world may be better off if Russia nukes several Ukrainian cities before these two attacks fully heat up and push them into a WW3 corner.

Most Ukrainian cities are at least 20% ethnic Russian.

So Russia has to nuke Russian families to save Russians? Yes I'm sure the world would love that.

Putin wants an end to the sanctions. Russia is not the economic fortress that Scott Ritter would like us to believe. They have shortages in medicine and machinery. Putin is raising taxes and selling gold reserves.

Replies: @QCIC

Most recently a nuclear command center or the Russian president, take your pick. If you are worried about MAD you should contact your congressman and tell him to stop this unilateral nuclear brinksmanship by the USA.

What exactly should be said to your congressional rep?

Ukraine has been attacking Russia with their own drones and missiles.

Go ahead and tell us exactly what should be said. You seem to mistakenly think that all Ukraine aid comes from the US and Trump has some button he could push to stop the war.

You might as well call Putin and ask him to accept the compromise of the current lines. That would end the drone attacks.

It is Putin that pushing for the remaining Donbas cities even though they are well fortified.

Of course you never criticize Putin because as a Russian sympathizer you believe in giving him the Putin Pass. He can do anything and you'll find a way to blame the US or EU.

Ukraine in fact now makes their own cruise missile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXBigU6C3MI

The design is similar to a V-2 but supersized.

Replies: @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC, @meamjojo, @Anonymous

I agree with your comment. The problem is that as Russia gradually chips away with the SMO and chews through NATO-ized AFU forces, the USA and NATO are escalating in various ways and threatening others.
 

... or maybe they have nothing better to do.
 

Replies: @QCIC

Did MAGA people vote for this?
 

Replies: @QCIC

I am slightly more positive. Many people have a lot to lose so they may figure out a way not to lose it.

On the other hand, I was thinking about an updated version of the classic bumper sticker just the other day: "Giant Meteor 2026".

Replies: @Beckow

How does the cocaine and sex slave and fancy machine gun grenade launcher trade continue without coolers filled with 100 bills? How do the Cayman Bahamas off shore banks thrive without them?

Digital currency is a solution that does not have any real world problem that it can solve. Those nerds who write those plans have zero real world experience. They have no idea that when the young rap star and crack peddler goes out on his first date with a real ho with fake tits he doesn't pay with any gold american express card. CASH MONEY BABY it's all about the benjamins.

Alex Krainer (lead euro promoter of Donald the Fat 4D chess) says the London offshore banks have over 50 trillion in black book money and an annual churn bigger than all but the two largest world Industrial Powers. Mostly fueled by stacks of green american currency from the contraband markets.

I am sure Aella had a blog post about this exact topic but google isn't putting it atop my search results today.

https://aella.substack.com/p/how-to-be-good-at-sex-starve-her

You could put a lot of this together from the Epstein files which is the real reason they will not be released. Most (if not all) of the dead dude's powerful friends were erect-ejaculation-incapable and the sex blackmail evidence amounts to almost nothing. ***

*** Spook file redaction is never 100 percent effective and clever autistic obsessives with nothing else to do will be able to put some great information together on the money laundering businesses of Jeffrey Epstein from what little sneaks past the censors. They are probably using LLM robot machines to do most of the redaction edits because of course how the hell else would anybody do it?

The world has been dehumanize for our entire lives. It is rigorously documented daily by the Daily Mail. Last week some fool did a FAFO at Disneyland of all places when he objected to some tough guy jumping a line right in front of him. Who gets into a fight over a Disneyland ride line spot? Men who have been de-human-ed to beneath the water line.

Replies: @QCIC

And while the Soviet system had many flaws, it was self sufficient in natural resources, which China probably isn’t (although technology might alleviate that).
 

Flipping it from a disadvantage to an emerging advantage is probably the most significant driver of shifting long-term global geopolitical balance of power. My biggest mental update over the last decade has been raising my ceiling on Chinese economic development. If you asked me a decade ago, I would have been skeptical that China could catchup to the U.S. in per capita GDP, due largely to the energy factor. I thought it might be able to reach Japan/Korea/Taiwan levels (which also suffer from poor fossil fuel access).

But In the last ten years China has taken a decisive lead in renewables, driven incremental energy generation costs below the cheapest fossil fuels, and built its entire economy and infrastructure around electrification. Such a meaningful change forced me to re-consider (and update) priors.

This is why understanding the development of China's energy sectors and transport electrification has been such an important idea that I think most people still don't understand. Today, due largely to the energy transition in the PRC I have raised my baseline expectation to China catching up to the U.S. in PPP per capita GDP terms over the next 40 years. The geopolitical power balance implications are of course enormous.

The other less-appreciated factor is how China is increasingly dragging other less-developed countries Pakistan, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia etc in the right direction. These less developed economies often suffered from the same problems that China faced (and is overcoming), like energy access. In other words, their developmental ceilings have also been raised by energy democratization/equalization. This will naturally draw them closer economically to China, without funding any proxy conflicts, at least not in the traditional sense.

Yeah but what about food and water?

With new technology (vertical farming, desalination) you can start to view food and water as merely second-order derivatives of energy. China is not going to stop building solar/wind in 2040. It will continue building hundreds of GW a year and convert that energy into food and freshwater, China's agricultural productivity is increasing by about 1% a year give or take.

A graph of China's rapid urbanisation.

https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/270162/urbanization-in-china.jpg

Replies: @QCIC, @Dmitry

Russia popularized this idea roughly 10 years ago (concept is probably older) by advertising a containerized cruise missile launcher which could be sold to countries and kept invisibly on a normal container cargo ship. It looks just like any other container. The Chinese ship in the picture shows a bunch of other naval accoutrements which is probably intentionally misleading.

Showing the ship may be a hint that these weapons are already out there protecting the Chinese commercial fleet.
 

Drones on non-military ships have always been seen as a natural combination. It would be surprising if both military technologies are not already fielded, so this new ship is a natural extension. The cargo ship can be largely un-navalized. This makes it much less expensive but gives little armor or military fire protection and perhaps it is mostly indefensible and unsurvivable in battle. So is the ship and crew seen as more expendable than a normal Navy vessel?

On the other hand, maybe now even the stoutest Navy ship is readily destroyable by "smart weapons", so any perception of protective capability may just be a misleading mental safety blanket.

I think with autonomous killer drones the situation may change. Remotely blowing up ships and planes is more fun for the guys, but is also very dehumanizing.

Once the fighting is dehumanized by drone warfare, why not use a lot of small cheap drones to kill the people individually? (see FPV drones in Ukraine) What could go wrong?
 

Replies: @Torna atrás

The NATO HQ isn’t a hardened bunker, so a conventional warhead would be fine. The key thing is that by providing plenty of warning time, everyone can evacuate and NATO can ring the building with all their best anti-missile defense systems.

So when the Russian missiles get through anyway, and the HQ is destroyed, the NATO countries would realize that they’re totally vulnerable to Russian missiles with conventional warheads and maybe they’d finally be willing to end the dangerous war.
 

Replies: @Been_there_done_that, @QCIC, @Ron Unz

But that isn't a "Rods of God" type weapon, which doesn't use any explosive, depends of kinetic energy and is launched from satellite.

Replies: @QCIC

..."whoever you vote for, you always get McCain”. If we get this with a cabinet that includes Tulsi, RFK jr and Vance, we can elevate that old saying to the category of the McCain Theorem.
 

For the average American - or European - the life is exactly the same with Obama, Bush, Biden, Trump...nothing changes. The media stuff about migrants, narco-terror, NATO, no NATO, is a remote distraction.

reckless Trump doesn’t confront Russia....we might luck out.
 

Greenland or Venezuela can be abandoned in a nano-second, the only way to salvage something from the Ukraine-NATO project is to go for the escalation. At least we all go down together, but it is obvious by now that the Western leaders simply can't take the loss in Ukraine. That includes Trump, his brinksmanship doesn't work in this complex situation, you can't play for both sides and also try to be a referee. But Russia also can't back down so there is no solution. Maybe an asteroid will save us.

Replies: @QCIC, @A123

The Escalation Ladder:

Recently, China disclosed the existence of a commercial vessel that has been transformed into a naval asset by outfitting it with shipping containers that house vertical launch systems (VLS), command and control, close-in weapon systems (CIWS), radars, air defense etc.

This is a very interesting concept and one that China should be able to materialize at much greater speed and scale than anyone else in the world. That’s probably why they are fine with others knowing. “Match us if you can.”

But what’s most interesting about this picture in particular is that it shows how mobile catapult launch capabilities for UCAVs can be deployed on these new containerized “warships.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9tzWwpbwAIiwIC.jpg




I’ve seen lots of questions about how these drones will be employed, so I thought I would do a quick assessment per my understanding.

1. Are these inflatable decoys? No. They appear covered to protect the drones from being exposed to the elements.

2. How will these drones be recovered? They won’t be recoverable on the smaller ships. The concept is not that these ships will be used for true blue water deployment in most scenarios. They will instead be used closer to the Chinese coast, or to artificial islands and perhaps to other cargo ships that can support their recovery.

3. What’s the point if you can’t get the drones back?

A) Better air defence as the ship gears up to launch its own strike missiles and fulfill its core mission.

B) A dedicated reconnaissance asset that can support real time target data acquisition for missiles as they hunt moving targets, such as ships.

C) Supplemental strike in case of high value targets.

D) Kamikaze drone launch, Geran, Shahed etc

4. So does this concept entirely preclude recovery?

No. This particular ship which we’ve seen in images is a rather small container vessel. The large container ships are many times the size and may support landing operations as well, with containers configured as a landing strip equipped with arresters. And don’t forget, China has rotary wing drones which could both be deployed and recovered.

By taking this approach, China has turned VLS cells on the water, hull numbers and naval sensor/shooter nodes into a pure industrial production play. “Match us if you can.”

Mass manufacture containers. Mass build ships. Plug and play, recombine. All the while, augmented and protected by a blue water navy with specialized, conventional ships.

Replies: @Bashibuzuk, @QCIC, @songbird

The claim that Americans can't do it is like a bizarre echo of colonial mercantilism. They don't want manufacturing in America, because it means paying Americans. Paying Americans means losing leverage over Americans to force them to hew to the current Jewish dominated political system, which is anti-white (really Anti-American - Jewish). The large and prosperous middle class in America seemed content, but what happens down the road if there isn't sufficient economic leverage on them to force them to keep their mouths shut?

Jews only have so many uses for America, and they've worked as quickly as possible to make whites a minority population. Whites are supposed to supply things like whores, soldiers, and shitlib overseers to keep the Christian population in check. If they constitute an organic society that is not too dependent on the favor of the government and the banks, they drastically the Jews feeling of security.

Replies: @QCIC

Replies: @QCIC

Ron is saying that he believes Russia nuking a NATO headquarters is LESS dangerous than what the United States military is currently doing. This is an extreme position but it is based on known facts.
 

Replies: @QCIC, @Been_there_done_that, @Levtraro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutually_assured_destruction

M.A.D. went thru my mind as i read the above posts. people are crazy. the book by annie jacobsen ron unz linked to mentioned that there's no one (or almost no one) left alive that actually witnessed an above ground nuclear explosion since the test ban went into effect in the early 60's. it scared the hell out of them and made them realize just what they had unleashed. no one today can get their head around it. it's kinda like seeing the grand canyon for the first time or a sequoia tree. god help us.

Replies: @QCIC

"although it was American theorists who came up with the idea of very famous “Rods from God” weapons system almost a half-century ago, it was the Russians who actually built it. "
 

Replies: @QCIC

"The USA long ago made a conscious decision to not have any air defenses protecting our country. Instead, we rely on geographic isolation and controlled and compliant border countries for protection."
 

The Iron Dome for America
EXECUTIVE ORDER
January 27, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including my authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.

President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized. And since the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and initiated development of limited homeland missile defense, official United States homeland missile defense policy has remained only to stay ahead of rogue-nation threats and accidental or unauthorized missile launches.

Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.

Sec. 2. Policy. To further the goal of peace through strength, it is the policy of the United States that:
(a) The United States will provide for the common defense of its citizens and the Nation by deploying and maintaining a next-generation missile defense shield;
(b) The United States will deter — and defend its citizens and critical infrastructure against — any foreign aerial attack on the Homeland; and
(c) The United States will guarantee its secure second-strike capability.

Sec. 3. Implementation. Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall:
(a) Submit to the President a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield. The architecture shall include, at a minimum, plans for:
(i) Defense of the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries;
(ii) Acceleration of the deployment of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor layer;
(iii) Development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept;
(iv) Deployment of underlayer and terminal-phase intercept capabilities postured to defeat a countervalue attack;
(v) Development and deployment of a custody layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture;
(vi) Development and deployment of capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch and in the boost phase;
(vii) Development and deployment of a secure supply chain for all components with next-generation security and resilience features; and
(viii) Development and deployment of non-kinetic capabilities to augment the kinetic defeat of ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks;
(b) Review relevant authorities and organization of the Department of Defense to develop and deploy capabilities at the necessary speed to implement this directive;
(c) Jointly with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, submit to the President a plan to fund this directive, allowing sufficient time for consideration by the President before finalization of the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget; and
(d) In cooperation with United States Strategic Command and United States Northern Command, submit to the President:
(i) An updated assessment of the strategic missile threat to the Homeland; and
(ii) A prioritized set of locations to progressively defend against a countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries.

Sec. 4. Allied and Theater Missile Defense Review. The United States continues to cooperate on missile defense with its allies and partners to aid in the defense of ally populations and troops and of forward-deployed United States troops. Following the submission to the President of the next-generation missile defense reference architecture under section 3(a) of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall direct a review of theater missile defense posture and initiatives to identify ways in which the United States and its allies and partners can:
(a) Increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation on missile defense technology development, capabilities, and operations;
(b) Improve theater missile defenses of forward-deployed United States troops and allied territories, troops, and populations; and
(c) Increase and accelerate the provision of United States missile defense capabilities to allies and partners.

Sec. 5. General Provisions.
(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/the-iron-dome-for-america/
 

Replies: @QCIC

I recommend calm meditation or running in your case for several months, then we can see what we see with respect to Venezuela. :)

If it turns out not much actually changes (~50/50) and Delcy remains the front man for the government then the Venezuelan expats are going to be the most disappointed of all. My guess is Trump wanted to bring in Machado after a few months but if the place is run by crooks they may know how to outmaneuver another crook on their home field.

Venezuelan oil production rates are interesting. According to various graphs production seems to have increased by a factor of two since 2020, though some of the data seems to conflate production and exports. I suspect this increase involves some Chinese assistance, but the home grown progress down there in the oil sector may be more than some folks expected.

Replies: @Mikel

The top story on r/military is Tulsi Gabbard the Director National Intelligence was ghosted on the Venezuela operation. From Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/tulsi-gabbard-venezuela-trump-7506e52e

It is not accessible at the archive.ph server. The Wall Street Journal has temporarily put forth countermeasures against us useless eaters reading their garbage. What she has is your classic thankless job. There are only 3 reddit comments so far. r/ufo might be the most useless page on the internet. r/slatestarcodex was awesome for the three weeks that Ziz was in the news. It required around 6000 comments of the highest octane vitriol for them to arrive at the consensus that they were not going to speak about it if they know what's good for them.

Replies: @QCIC

https://meaningness.com/further-reading#fn_mark_5

by a rationalist/buddhist has a gobsmacking possibility.

The writer says he has unnamed sources who claim that Castaneda's fictional Don Juan who was the star of his fraudulent PhD thesis at UCLA was drawn after his PhD advisor Garfinkel who also was in on the fraud instead of an innocently hoodwinked guy like everybody has always assumed. This is gobsmacking on top of the extreme rarity of person calling themself rationalist AND buddhist. That is like moo goo gai pan alfredo.

Replies: @QCIC, @Bashibuzuk

Did you notice the summary of this event that I posted earlier? (1)

Here is an excerpt (2):

Key word “proposed” [read agreement] …”These elements will be European-led, with the involvement also of non-European members of the Coalition, and the proposed support of the US.”…

President Trump is presenting: The U.S. will provide intelligence *monitoring* assistance, but that’s it.

Not in our strategic interest. Not our war. Not our issue.

The U.S. delegation did not sign up to the statement the EU put forth after the meeting.
 

Replies: @QCIC

I think the human A123 hasbara troll was better. This AI version is not working out too well. More training required.

Replies: @A123

I think Padrino Lopez, Delcy Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello, and other top figures in the Venezuelan government may have sold themselves to Trump. I also consider the possibility, whether true or false, that even Maduro and Cilia Flores did the same, along with handing over Venezuela’s oil and gold to Trump

Replies: @QCIC

Has additional sanctions relief been discussed?
 

There are plenty of signs that the post-Maduro authorities are putting their pants and their underwear down. They've just announced the release of some prisoners. We may witness the most ignominious surrender in the history of Latin America, who knows, but you can't really change the spots of a leopard, especially from the distance, and we're dealing with some deeply ideological goons. Venezuela is also a profoundly impoverished, corrupt and dictatorial country. Sowing chaos in a country like that and plundering its resources may easily cause a humanitarian disaster. If it comes to that, the clown-in-chief will simply deny that it's happening, as he does all the time. He lives in his own world. In his own words: ""MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I’m doing. MAGA loves everything I do," Trump said. "MAGA is me. MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too."

I personally know a Venezuelan woman who was planning to return to Venezuela if the opposition won the elections in 2024 and the other day she was again talking to my wife about returning after she learned of the of military operation. She has now postponed her plans indefinitely. Much though some Venezuelans miss their country and the relatives they left behind, who wants to go to a poverty-stricken country where anything can happen at Trump's and the local thugs' whim?

Replies: @QCIC

Also, during WW2, the Danes cleverly exported their Jews to Sweden. They are a clever people.

Replies: @QCIC

We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors. The world is our stage
 

60 Minutes creates a pretend world.
CBS is the global production company.
60 Minutes writes the screenplay,
60 Minutes provides the directors, producers, and main journal actors.
The world is CBS's stage.

There is a reason faith in the "mainstream" Lügenpresse has fallen to unprecedented lows (1) They lied so much no one rational believes them anymore.

The latest 28% confidence reading, from a Sept. 2-16 poll, marks the first time the measure has fallen below 30%.

Media Trust at Record Lows Among All Party Groups
Although Democrats and Republicans continue to express different levels of trust in the news media, the percentages with high confidence in reporting are at low points among all party groups.

• Republicans’ confidence, which hasn’t risen above 21% since 2015, has dropped to single digits (8%) for the first time in the trend.

• Independents’ trust has not reached the majority level since 2003, and the latest 27% reading matches last year’s historical low.

• For Democrats, the narrowest of majorities (51%) now express trust in the media, which is a repeat of the low previously seen in 2016.
 

PEACE 😇
__________

(1) https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx

Replies: @QCIC

You answered a different question. I already assumed that Trump led the creation of the MAGA brand, though I think he is more of an actor and producer than a writer or director.

Others come up with these policy ideas and are probably considered part of the MAGA team. Moreover, I don't think Trump has the inclination much less the time to be detail oriented except when it comes to the final tweaks in select instances. I'm sure he likes to visibly leave his fingerprints as much as possible. The policies have roots prior to 2016 and have been massaged until now. It would be natural if they are from think tanks or similar organizations with MAGA ties. I just don't know who these groups are. I know nothing about Project 2025 beyond the name, but there must be some shared goals with MAGA. As you know, some of these relationships are compromises or marriages of convenience. In other cases they are probably adversarial, "...the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Replies: @A123

Yesterday I wrote that, if Russia did something provocative like Ron suggested, the US could "double its military spending from $1T to $2T per year." Then Trump announced that even without any provocation, "our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, but rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars." I have no insider information. I'm just seeing where the world is headed, and it's sure not headed toward demilitarizing the US.

Maybe all of that new spending will be totally wasted on corruption and nothing will come of it. But, more likely in my view, most of that spending will be wasted but some of it will produce fearsome new weapons systems (space lasers and military AI as extreme examples). As a bad man likes to say, "I'm not predicting. I'm just observing." Well, I'm not advocating, I'm just observing. I don't like it, but nobody asked for my opinion. Sadly, with US military spending rising from $1T to $1.5T per year, America is about to go from Greatest Terrorist on Earth to Even Greater Terrorist on Earth.

So, stop with the delusional "US is collapsing, Russia and China are going to save the world" wishful thinking. The US is not collapsing, Russia and China are not going to save the world. You don't have to like it, but you really ought to face reality. The world is about to go from bad to worse.

Replies: @QCIC

I think a crucial strategic aspect of Russia is that the crown jewels of the country, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, are relatively vulnerable to either conventional or nuclear attack. Destroying these two concentrated targets destroys the country. Simply pressuring these two targets adequately might destroy the government.

Russia is indeed dependent on two cities to administer a vast region of people.

A single Trident submarine would indeed destroy them.

But a single Russian submarine could also destroy the US. There is no modern economy if NYC and DC are h-bombed. You would have a complete breakdown in either scenario.

This puts Russia in a difficult position where protection of their centers of power (the crown jewels) seems to require them to escalate to nuclear brinkmanship earlier than the West.

I don't see the justification for escalation.

Neither side can win in a first strike. It makes more sense for both sides to discourage nuclear proliferation. The stockpiling of nuclear weapons never made sense.

As you point out, Russia is not able to tell if a missile aimed at Moscow has a nuclear weapon or not, so they are in a precarious position.

There is a phone line that has been used many times in the past. Moscow is told when a conventional missile is going to launch.

It isn't a precarious position because the deterrent doesn't change. There is no advantage in a first strike. Let's say we trick them into thinking a nuclear missile is a Tomahawk. Well they retaliate with submarines just the same. Both sides can retaliate even if the mainland has been completely nuked. That is why they are not going to panic if a Tomahawk is headed towards Russia. It sounds counter-intuitive but there isn't a logical reason to hit the nuke button. Let's just wargame it out.

An unidentified missile is headed for Moscow and no phone call was made

1. It was a nuke and you didn't attack when it was in the air (both sides destroyed)
2. It was a nuke and you attacked when it was in the air (both sides destroyed)
3. It was a Tomahawk and you attacked when it was in the air (both sides destroyed)
4. It was a Tomahawk and you didn't attack when it was in the air (neither side destroyed)

On the other hand, if Washington has such a cavalier attitude toward nuclear war, perhaps Russia should just stop the hand wringing and do what they need to do!

Do what exactly?

Replies: @QCIC

I want to write a long and detailed response to your idea that Russia should use hypersonic missiles to destroy NATO headquarters in Brussels...Would Trump give the Kremlin three days to evacuate before he obliterated Red Square? Maybe. No one knows. It’s a risk. And taking a risk like that is bad for Putin.
 

100% of the mainstream media in both the US and Europe would report Putin’s actions as unprovoked, criminal, and proof that Putin has all along been planning to attack and destroy Europe. This may be a ridiculous lie, but it is absolutely how the Western media would report it, and Western people believe the Western media, so almost everyone in the US and Europe would swallow this lie.
 

2. Long-term consequences. The long-term consequences seem much clearer to me, and would destroy Russia. Trump has jawboned the major European countries into agreeing to increase their defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. Currently, nobody expects Europe to actually follow through on this, but after an attack by Russia on Brussels, I believe they would double their defense budgets. The US might also double its military spending from $1T to $2T per year.
 

Now let me explain the premises behind my predictions, because this is where I think you and I disagree the most. You think the US is fragile. Your view seems to be that our formerly robust manufacturing economy has been hollowed out by financialization and we are now teetering on the brink of collapse. A few more years of deficit spending will create a debt crisis that will bring down the whole financial system. America can’t build anything anymore, and we have only survived this long because of the “exorbitant privilege” of the US dollar serving as global reserve currency, something that is coming to an end.

My view is almost the exact opposite. I think the US is antifragile...We have to remember how dysfunctional other countries are in comparison. America is the “cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry” as they say. If the US spends $1T on hypersonic missiles, we will get hypersonic missiles. Same with air defense systems. Same with space weapons. Same with military AI. If the US government tilts American inventiveness toward discovering new military technology, Americans will accomplish this.
 

Perhaps our underlying disagreement is this: What you see as the debilitating financialization of the economy, I see as the liberating computerization of the economy. Information underlies all production, after all. With enough understanding of physical processes, we can and will create space lasers that take simultaneous head shots at a million soldiers on the ground.
 

Russia doesn’t have a chance against the US in WW III. It would be suicidal for them to act aggressively in their current situation, and they know it.
 

The competition with China is more nuanced, so I will refrain from speculating...China is the US’s only peer competitor.
 

Replies: @QCIC, @Greg Garros, @A123, @Been_there_done_that, @meamjojo, @Eugene Kusmiak, @Eugene Kusmiak, @V. K. Ovelund

I think a crucial strategic aspect of Russia is that the crown jewels of the country, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, are relatively vulnerable to either conventional or nuclear attack. Destroying these two concentrated targets destroys the country. Simply pressuring these two targets adequately might destroy the government.
 

Replies: @arbeit macht frei, @QCIC

https://youtu.be/FLUUUZWjfGk?si=_bE-UcfWPGrY9gr0

"We have an incredible array of possibilities, of creating foreign companies that have no way of being traced back to Israel, shell companies over shell companies, who effect the supply chain in our favor."

“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay, we’re the directors, we’re the producers, we’re the main actors. The world is our stage."

"We make like Truman Show. Everything is controlled by us behind the scenes.”

 

Replies: @QCIC, @A123