DRONING ON

      Every Winter, it seems lately, Americans have to go through some kind of National Panic Attack. In 2020 and 2021, we had the Scamdemic's beginning and resurgence. The next year, we had the whole Stand With Ukraine hysteria. In 2023, we had Chinese spy-balloons. At the beginning of this year, we had election dramatics, trying to keep Trump off the ballot and 'immigrant invasion' hysteria. As we go into 2025, the new panic centers on drones being sighted over the New Jersey Meadowlands.

     Drones are fairly common these days. Governments have them, businesses use them, and there is a lot of popularity with them among the public. However, like seasonal flu outbreaks, foreign conflicts, weather balloons, and immigrants sneaking across the border, somebody suddenly noticed them and a media firestorm broke out. 

    All of these Panic Attacks follow a predictable pattern. The public has a meltdown, and the Political Class grabs the chance to grab more publicity---and with it, more power. The Republicans are screaming that these drones "need to be shot out of the sky"  and are blaming them on Iran, while the Democrats are demanding further Government regulation to deal with the problem. This, in spite of the fact that both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security state that "None of the reported UAV sightings have so far been corroborated with electronic detection. The reviews of available footage and photos have established that many of the reported drones were in fact manned aircraft, being operated legally."

     Naturally, though, when something generates both media and political capital, the default reaction is Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste. That is especially true when the 'crisis' is a wholly manufactured one. It's also unfortunately not a very difficult feat to accomplish in a culture where drugs have conditioned the public mind to be afraid of their own shadows and poor diets have impaired reasoning powers. 

   Mass-Paranoia is also a useful tool to distract the public when too much discussion starts about real issues. The recent shooting of the United Health Care CEO (in the same general vicinity of the drone sightings) had too many people complaining about our untouchable Overlords. The Police State has reacted there too: locking up a few potential criminals as examples against those who might have inappropriate thoughts against the Majesty of the Managerial Class. That too should be a topic of discussion, but since we have the Republicans largely to thank for these types of police over-reactions, our rulers would prefer us to panic over drones.

   

   

CHINA SCORES ANOTHER SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH

      While the Tech Lords in the US are busily scrambling about trying to buy political influence and whatever is left of NASA is recovering from last month's Pride events, Chinese social media is buzzing at the recent discoveries found in lunar samples from the successful return of Lunar Probe Chang'e-5. At China's Institute of Physics, researchers discovered a previously unknown mineral compound which is enriched with water molecules and ammonium, which they have named ULM-1.

     Since the Apollo Moon Missions---from an era when the US still had a space program---scientists have held that the moon is completely arid. The last Apollo Mission was in 1972 when technology for more detailed analysis had not yet been developed. Instead of accepting the settled science and focusing on celebrating diversity, China developed its own space program with qualified engineers. 

    China's most recent lunar probe, Chang'e-6 returned to earth this year. The Chinese opened an international Space forum with a goal of building a permanent station on the moon, which they hope will be manned by 2035. The discovery of hydrolyzed water crystals opens new possibilities for bringing such a plan to fruition. 

      Zhang Chuanjun, a senior aerospace engineer stated that "if in the future our taikonauts can extract water vapor or water from these crystals, it would solve a major issue in future manned lunar missions and the construction of lunar research stations, as we would no longer need to transport water from Earth. This would address a significant concern in manned lunar exploration, meanwhile saving substantial costs."

    Chinese scientists have also discovered that the newly-discovered lunar crystals have properties similar to basalt crystals formed on earth near volcanoes. This not only raises interesting possibilities about volcanic activity on the moon; but it greatly facilitates experiments leading to an extraction process which could be applied on the lunar surface. China currently is decades ahead of the US in biodome and terraforming technology, so the possibilities of building manned lunar colonies is well within China's reach. 

    The anti-China hawks in the US could do little more than seethe with impotent rage at the discovery. The real issue, though, goes back to the old saying that Nature abhors a vacuum, and the real reasons that we've fallen behind China are twofold. Wang Yanan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge Magazine, stated the most obvious problem: "One of the root causes for such problems is that the US has developed many large technology conglomerates, which for a long time have benefited significantly from government orders and industry monopolies. Consequently, in many complex engineering fields, the level of attention given is greatly insufficient. It also reflects the US' lack of long-term strategic planning for its manned space program...it reflects a systemic issue in the US space industry - the overall weakening of engineering capabilities."

   On top of turning over our entire Space Program to crony capitalists who have anything but the interests of the United States in mind, government regulations imposed by these and other special interests discourage innovation and rewards for actual merit. Wang was completely correct in noting that this is a systemic problem, although it actually goes much deeper than what mere bureaucratic incompetence reflects. In the first place, we have a culture, now deeply rooted in our institutions, which has wholly alienated a generation of young men (primarily) from pursuing careers which would be of enormous social benefit. Another issue is that we no longer have a culture that prioritizes education. It was learned during the Trump Administration that the failed No Child Left Behind policies of the Bush Years created an enormous deficit in educational opportunities in STEM throughout most of our public schools. Vice-President Pence also led an initiative to revive the moribund Space Council; but Americans chose to panic over a flu outbreak and today we're right back where we started from.

   The other main issue is that the same Corporate takeovers of our Space Program (another problem for which we can thank the Bush Administration) has led to the massive diversion of otherwise valuable technology into programs expanding Domestic Espionage and so-called 'National Security' programs. American technological advancements during the 21st Century has overwhelmingly focused on expanding the Surveillance State and paramilitary capabilities. What's worse, the current trend, led by Silicon Valley disciples of the Dark Enlightenment, seek to 'deregulate' the Oligarchy's power even further, proposals which have drawn praise from no less than Jeff Bezos.  

   As a culture, we need to stop pretending that China's successes are part of some nebulous 'China Threat' and that somehow Chinese motivation stems from envy of our way of life which, for some always unspecified reason, they seek to destroy. Unlike the US, China is working for its own good. If our technology has become inferior to theirs' we have no one to blame but ourselves. China recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their moon project---we need to ask ourselves what we have been investing in during the past two decades. 

    

FRUSTRATED DEEP STATE LASHES OUT OVER SPACE DEAL

        While the American Political Class is busy trying to pretend that Elections are relevant by putting each other's party operatives on trial, other countries are doing constructive things. This morning, for the Russian congress passed a treaty, which was signed by President Putin, establishing a joint project with China to build a research station on the moon. The move follows China's successful Chang'e-6 Lunar Probe Mission which returned to earth with lunar geological samples last week. 

       "The Moon station meets Russia’s interests because it will contribute to strengthening Russia’s strategic partnership with China and will provide for the consolidation of Russia’s leading role in the exploration of outer space, including in the exploration and use of the Moon,” Putin said. Russia produces some of the world's best scientists and engineers, mostly because their educational system actually is focused on leading the young to become productive members of society---unlike our exceptional system where educators seem to have other priorities. In fact---also unlike the US---Russian educators are being recruited globally to help developing countries build better school systems. 

     The proposed lunar station is expected to become operational within the next decade and include manned missions. The American Space Program has been all but dead for decades; most space exploration has been farmed out to Corporate robber barons and there has been little investment in American schools and universities to promote so-called 'hard sciences.' President Trump did try to address the problem, but Orange Man Bad and now other countries are filling the vacuum left by American negligence. 

      As China began announcing its lunar project, NASA and the Corporate gangsters who actually run our space program have been trying desperately to launch a moon probe, too, but the results have been less than spectacular. Boeing, which has had issues with aircraft safety including allegations of silencing whistleblowers and shady defense contract dealings, was put in charge of the latest US attempt at putting a manned mission into space despite some serious questions about the craft's viability. In 2022, Russian Space Agency Director Dmitri Rogozin ruled out the possibility of sending Russian cosmonauts on board. “It flew for the first time with trouble. The second time it couldn’t fly at all. The delay of the launch has been going on for over two years now. Now, they will try to launch it. But we will definitely not put any of our cosmonauts [on board], we cannot risk their lives,” Rogozin said.

    Frustrated beyond measure at these developments, the Biden/Harris Junta flew into a rage and began slapping further sanctions on Chinese firms. Their cover-story was that these sanctions were aimed at military technology, but the timing between the sanctions and Russia's space treaty is probably the more likely reason. At any rate, Deep State foaming will have little effect on the joint space program.

  "The achievements of China's ongoing Chang'e-6 moon probe mission thus far have evidently become a source of anxiety for the US amid the Western media's fabricated hot saga of the US-China space race. The anxiety and sour grapes mentality are quite evident on the US side," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. "The US wants to create a scenario of mutual confrontation rather than cooperation, which has led to the so-called space race the US desires. However, at present, the conditions for such a race do not exist because China and other countries are not willing to participate. If only the US is invested in it, it can't be called a race. In the end, it becomes a one-sided effort by the US."

   Li is correct. The US' loss of leadership in Space Technology is entirely of our own making; and, no, our decline in this sector didn't just start under Biden. In 2017, Trump had to re-open the National Space Council which had been abolished by the Clinton Co-Presidency in 1993. From 1993 onward, the US Space Program was wholly neglected with Neocons joining in the chorus that space exploration wasn't cost-effective and funding plowed into projects like domestic espionage and global military adventurism. Sadly, other than some tough-guy bleating and posturing from both wings of the Uniparty, there's no real motivation for the US stay relevant in the New Frontiers of Space. 

     

BALTIMORE AND BEYOND

     The hyenas in the Mainstream Media have, predictably, been devoting what little coverage of the Baltimore Bridge Disaster they think that we should hear to deflecting any actual questions of what caused the catastrophe. The story has followed a standard pattern: the Deep State pronounces that "there is no indication that terrorism was involved" within a half an hour of being informed. The off-hand denial causes certain elements in the Controlled Opposition to spiral.

     That reaction draws a counter-spiral from the paid army of 'fact-checkers' and so on until the next crisis, meanwhile, the parties who should be under scrutiny go their merry ways conducting Business-as-Usual.

    The Duran had one of the more rational articles theorizing about what most likely caused the disaster---at least it was one of the few which solicited input from people who understand something about cargo shipping. The Corporate Media has been focusing mostly on the economic impact of the incident, while the Controlled Opposition, aside from gloating over the fact that the bridge workers killed were all immigrants, are complaining that the industry is over-regulated and that Wall Street doesn't have enough control over American infrastructure. The probability is that ruthless Corporate cost-cutting played a direct role in the collision. The Dali’s sudden loss of power raises serious questions about the condition of the ship, which was already involved in a collision in 2016 and recently cited for propulsion issues. Shipping conglomerate Maersk, which has the contract for the ship, was cited last year by our own Labor Department for attempts to silence whistle-blowers exposing substandard safety issues. We previously delineated all of the Corporate rat-lines surrounding Maersk before, and said then:

   "Maersk is a US Government contractor supplying the Pentagon's forces abroad, among other things. Why our own Navy isn't doing this, we don't know; but what we do know is that Maersk was fined for price gouging the Pentagon in 2012 and caught again in 2014 committing fraud in defense contracts. Maersk has also been caught violating sanctions; as well as retaliating against whistleblowers. However, not many objections will be raised, since they have a significant lobbying presence inside the Beltway, most of whom are Revolving-Door former Federal bureaucrats. 

   The former CEO of Maersk, Jim Hagemann Snabe is now CEO of WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner, the Siemens Corporation, Snabe is also a member of the WEF Board of Trustees, along with Bush-Machine apparatchik David Rubenstein. Rubenstein is involved with the Carlyle Group which is heavily invested in major ports worldwide. The current Maersk CEO, Soren Skou, is a WEF Agenda Contributor. Thomas Thune Andersen, another former Maersk executive, is now a Board member of WEF Board of Trustee Member Marc Benioff's NGO which is trying to exert control over the world's oceans."

   Maersk in fact was invited to participate in what was tellingly called a stakeholder listening session convened by Transportation Commissar and WEF Young Global Leader Pete Buttigieg on Thursday. Maersk was joined by representatives from Norfolk Southern Railway which was involved in the rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio (among others). Israeli shipping cartel Zim also participated along with at least a dozen other Wall Street combines. Also invited to join the panel were several port-related bureaucrats and largely toothless labor unions which represent American workers about as much as Congress represents the American public. 

    Bear in mind that none of this was an inquiry into the cause of the disaster. By Buttigieg's own admission the purpose of this Committee was "to assess and mitigate the supply chain impacts due to the suspension of vessel traffic, and for their continued collaboration through regular calls and data sharing." If there is any actual conspiracy going on here, it probably boils down to these key points:

   1. To make certain that the Corporations involved in the disaster are protected from any potential liability;

  2. To obtain taxpayer subsidizes by playing the Victim Card over 'supply-chain disruptions' meanwhile ensuring that fat contracts for rebuilding and cleanup will accrue to themselves;

  3. To make certain that no Government officials are held accountable for failures to enforce safety regulations.

  4. To ensure that Union Bosses get their cut in exchange for keeping quiet about substandard working conditions and safety issues.

   Notably absent from the Government-Media Complex' collection of spokesxhes and pundits are people like Civil Engineers. The American Society of Civil Engineers reported that America's Inland Waterways  "reports a $6.8 billion backlog in construction projects and ongoing lock closures — totaling 5,000 hours between 2015 and 2019 —  harming the industries that rely on the waterways to get their goods to market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates delays cost up to $739 per hour for an average tow, or $44 million per year." Of American bridges they inform us that "42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. Unfortunately, 178 million trips are taken across these structurally deficient bridges every day...A recent estimate for the nation’s backlog of bridge repair needs is $125 billion. We need to increase spending on bridge rehabilitation from $14.4 billion annually to $22.7 billion annually, or by 58%, if we are to improve the condition. At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 to make all of the repairs that are currently necessary, and the additional deterioration over the next 50 years will become overwhelming." The State of Maryland's overall infrastructure assessment was underwhelming to say the least, but it was actually better than most US States. 

    The 'experts' also say that rebuilding the Key Bridge will take about ten years. It should be noted, by way of contrast, that the world's two largest suspension bridges are in China---they were actually built at the same time in 2009---in under three years at the combined cost of around $13 billion US dollars. Both of the Chinese bridges service high-speed rail lines, which our exceptional country also doesn't have. All of the billions of dollars cited above for waterway upgrades, bridge repair, and new bridges are about 1/4 of what the GOP Congress and the Biden/Harris Junta just appropriated for the Military-Industrial Complex and expanding the Security State. 

   These are the issues which aren't being raised in connection with the Baltimore Disaster; nor is it likely that they will be given the current state of our political and media systems. Instead, we'll be told to make do with less while more wealth and power gets transferred into the pockets of the Oligarchs---who'll make sure that there are never any supply chain disruptions of drugs and distractions to keep our minds off the real issues.

    

AND YET ANOTHER FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN ISSUE...

       A little over a year ago, the Controlled Opposition Media was foaming with outrage over a railway disaster that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio. The issue disappeared before the off-year elections and hasn't been brought up since, although problems from the chemical spill still exist, and in fact, railway accidents on our freight lines have been on the increase; in fact, there was another spill into a major river just this week. Working conditions on our freight lines have gotten so bad that even the tepid, accommodating railroad workers' unions threatened a strike recently but were vetoed in their attempts by our Corporate-controlled government. Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the shipping cartel involved in both accidents received a substantial pay-raise, however.

      Even though both leading Presidential candidates did photo-ops in East Palestine, very little has been said about either the accidents or the massive lay-offs that are sweeping through the industry---at least the subject is not deemed as urgent as defending the shipping cartels' interests in the Red Sea. 

     The aforementioned Norfolk Southern is one of only six shipping monopolies in the United States dominating freight rail. All six have significant lobbying power inside the Beltway, to wit:

     1. Norfolk Southern: $2.4 million in lobbying dollars last year. They maintain 41 lobbyists, of whom 32 are revolving-door former federal bureaucrats, including former US Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott, as well as former Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, Patrick Meehan. 

     2. Burlington Northern, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway: $6.9 million spent on 79 lobbyists, 49 of whom are revolvers including former US Senators the aforementioned John Breaux and Tom Daschle, as well as former Republican Congressman from Kentucky, Ed Whitfield.

    3. CSX: $1.7 million, with 15 lobbyists, 13 of whom are revolving-door.

    4. Canadian National: $1.1 million with 20 lobbyists, 13 of whom are revolvers including former Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania Ron Klink and former RNC Chairman, Haley Barbour. 

    5. Canadian Pacific Kansas City: nearly $1 million with 23 lobbyists, 19 of whom are revolvers including former Democrat Congressman from Kansas Jim Slattery.

    6. Union Pacific: $3.3 million with 12 lobbyists, 9 of whom are former Beltway operatives, most prominent of whom is the shady Kirk Blalock. 

    

      Well with about $16 million in lobbying cash and 200 hired henchmen to spread it around, it's no wonder that the Political Class has lost interest in things like railway safety, substandard working conditions, and rising freight costs. On top of this distressing situation, consider that the freight cartels have considerably powerful stakeholders involved in the process too. Let's see:

     1. Norfolk Southern: top shareholders include WEF Top 100 Strategic Partners BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, and Lazard for a combined total of about 17%.

     2. Burlington Northern: is owned by WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway is owned by Warren Buffet, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

     3. CSX: About 10% is owned by WEF Top 100 Strategic Partners BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch International, a subsidiary of WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner, Bank of America.

    4. Canadian National: top shareholder is the aforementioned Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (and WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner). Others include 'woke' NGO, the TCI Foundation, and the Royal Bank of Canada which played a major role in Tienanmen Trudeau's bloody suppression of the 2022 Truckers' Protest.

    5. Canadian Pacific Kansas City: about 10% is held by the aforementioned TCI group and the Royal Bank of Canada.

   6. Union Pacific: About 10% of stock is owned by BlackRock and BOA's subsidiary, Merrill Lynch.

  So, essentially, BlackRock's Larry Fink, British billionaire Chris Hohn, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and Justin Trudeau dominate North America's freight rail system and pay politicians to see to it that nobody gets in their way. One would think that this, too, would be a major campaign issue; but it doesn't appear that anything to do with railways---or infrastructure in general---is a very high priority with the American Electorate. It isn't like when we had a real Conservative movement which believed in free and fair competition and enforcing the law. The Dead White Males who were in charge back then produced a railway system that was the envy of the world with low freight costs and even a stellar passenger service. 

      Today, the massive job cuts, the Corporate looting, and 'woke' ideology has created an atmosphere where increased costs and higher accident rates are inevitable. But the important thing is that we all pretend that it isn't really happening: that farces like Super Tuesday really matter, and voting out the Democrats magically will fix everything. 

NOW IT'S THE CRANES

    So cranes are in the news now, yet another in the seemingly endless China Threat that the Government-Media Complex has been using recently to distract American attention from our multitudinous domestic and international failures. On Wednesday, the Biden/Harris Junta by Executive Order "announced a plan to invest billions in domestic manufacturing of cranes, citing concerns that Chinese-made cranes could pose a potential national-security risk." 

    At first, this sounded hopeful. With all of the hysteria about Chinese-owned farmland, I hoped that would mean that the production of Crane Potato Chips was coming back. They were my favorite during my childhood years (OK, unless readers are over 45 and grew up in the Midwest, you probably don't remember those 😇)

     Sadly, we learned that this Executive Order had to do with cargo cranes at American ports. “Every day malicious cyber actors attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Marine Transportation System’s control systems and networks,” thundered a White House spokesxhe, "the administration is highlighting a plan to invest over $20 billion over the next five years in port infrastructure including an effort to reestablish domestic crane manufacturing to end Chinese dominance in large cargo cranes."

     This latest round of hysteria originated in the Controlled Opposition media outlet, The Wall Street Journal about nine months ago. Though Murdoch's mouthpieces had nothing but praise two decades ago when the Bush Administration was fast-tracking Chinese inclusion into the World Trade Organization and couldn't seem to uproot and outsource American manufacturing communities to China fast enough, these days Chinese-manufactured cranes are a "Trojan Horse" and another of those nebulous national security threats. 

    Now, since the US hasn't invested anything---from infrastructure to education--- on heavy-equipment manufacturing in decades, one might logically inquire who is going to build cranes in America?

    We learned today that the Junta has already tapped San Diego-based Paceco Corporation as the recipient of this sudden commitment to Making America Great Again. However, there is one small detail, that the anti-China hawks seem to be overlooking: Paceco is a subsidiary of a Japanese-owned industrial consortium, at the top of which sits WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner and major corporate component of the Japanese Deep State, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. 

    Isn't it interesting how many of these policies and programs always seem to lead back to the same people? Just a coincidence too, that this Executive Order and suspiciously well-prepared deal with Paceco just happened to take place while a high-level summit was going on in Tokyo between the US, Japan, and South Korea, we should suppose. 

     At the time that the WSJ article appeared, it was hooted down widely by engineers and others of the few remaining American authorities on ports and supply-chains. But American Liberals and Conservatives seem to be able to become very bipartisan when certain Corporate interests snap their fingers; and a public gullible enough to believe that Chinese weather balloons and Tik-Tok threaten our way of life can be convinced of about anything. 

     Granted, we should be manufacturing things like heavy equipment in America again, and American companies should be controlling such ventures, and American universities should be training competent engineers again. Wishful thinking aside, however, we can't simply wave a magic wand (or sign an Executive Order) and make all of that happen tomorrow. It would take years of national planning and investment---which there is no political or social will to do---so replacing Chinese cranes will have to rely upon supplies from some other foreign power. So, America takes the usual course: transferring wealth from one entity to the Crony Capitalists and propping up the popular illusion that American Industry is really making a comeback.

    

     

CULTS IN SPACE

    China apparently has launched a new initiative to combat the influence of the dangerous religious cult, Falun Gong. The cult's followers in the United States are claiming that the Chinese Government has been PSA's through social media and other outlets to warn citizens to beware of their activities. The Falun Gong originated in China, but their self-proclaimed 'messiah' now lives in a compound in New York. The Chinese recognize the danger of cults: here the Falun Gong, the Moonies, the Dalai Lama, etc. are patronized and used in the media as China Experts. Falun Gong and the Moonies even have their own media outlets: The Epoch Times and the Washington Times respectively. Newsweek is also heavily Moonie-influenced. 

    There was a time in America when Conservative leaders also recognized the danger of cults---and certainly didn't promote them as today's Conservatives do. The Reagan Administration actually turned the FBI loose on those rats and the Reverend Moon, several Scientologists, Satanists, and Megachurch leaders wound up in jail. But then, we got the kinder, gentler Neocon Administration of Bush Sr. who let most of them out and even recognized a few as legitimate religions. It was a good investment for the Neocons, because cults have been a substantial revenue and propaganda force for them ever since.

    

    China also has other, more practical interests in the heavens and interests in a different kind of moon. Their Aerospace program is planning a manned mission to the moon by next year, and they have been developing biodomes for potential space colonization. Years ago, they joined Russia as the only developed country with a manned space station and making progress in many other areas.

    This being an Election Year in the US, the Republicans in Congress have desperately been seeking any issue they can possibly find to distract attention from their hopeless incompetence. Some apparently have just recently noticed that the US hasn't done much of anything relating to space exploration in decades and other countries are now filling the void. Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas---one of the most paranoid of anti-China 'hawks'---screeched from the Floor on Wednesday that “It’s no secret that China has a goal to surpass the United States by 2045 as global leaders in space! We can’t allow this to happen!” 

    NASA, much like the Pentagon, has during the last few decades become more committed to Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion programs than anything relating to its original purpose. Also, much like the Pentagon, most of its budget has been outsourced to shady Government contractors to the point where we don't even manufacture rocket engines in the US for the most part and have to import the critical minerals necessary for components anyway. Like most of the Hot Air coming out of Congress, Lucas is doing nothing more than engaging in wishful thinking: imagining that somehow the Aerospace infrastructure that we abandoned years ago will re-appear magically complete with skilled workers, engineers, domestic supply-chains and materials---and it won't cost the taxpayers anything to do it.

    The Trump Administration did try to address the problem by funding long-term, sensible goals like we did in the 1950s. But Orange Man Bad: Americans chose instead the excitement of panicking over a flu epidemic and some mean tweets. NASA recently tried to cobble together a lunar program after the so-called China Threat started making headlines and the program is stalled after their probe blew up on the launch pad. 

   For their part, the Chinese deny that they are pursuing any sort of Cold War-style 'Space Race,' and this is probably true. I think that it is really more a case of how nature abhors a vacuum. China has the means and the skill to build a first-rate Aerospace program and they are doing it. 

   The American program in contrast suffered from the same problems that most of our infrastructure has since the 1990s. Our political and academic classes smugly proclaimed "the end of history" and the "New American Century" and assumed that nobody else could touch our superiority in Space. We stopped investing in the program and turned it over to chowderheads like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who couldn't wait to turn Outer Space into a money-making venture for Wall Street. Such engineers as we had in our universities were funded by Big Tech to develop things like space-shuttle limos for future versions of Las Vegas and Disneyland on Mars. China, meanwhile was investing in Space Technology to learn and develop new technologies that might have some practical value on Earth. 

    The politicians in Congress are flapping their arms over America losing its dominance in Space. This is also hyperbole. Our Space program was successful because we did then---what China is doing now---partnering with allied Space programs. Ours then mostly came from Europe and Japan. Those networks of cooperation are gone now too; thanks again mostly to Beltway bullying and hubris. Without any help from NASA, Japan landed it's first lunar probe yesterday, and India succeeded in doing so last year. Our Media has been guffawing over various mechanical problems these other countries have experienced and snort that we're still the only country which has made successful moon landings. Sure, in 1972 that might have been a cause for celebration, but today's NASA certainly has nothing to brag about. 

   Once again, we are confronted in America with a problem entirely of our own making. Blaming China is not going to help us improve, and the hegemonic attitude of our Political Class is only going to make things worse. The Universe isn't part of some kind of turf war that rival gangs fight over, though that's the position our politicians take toward every problem. As one Chinese analyst aptly said: "the US has become so narrow-minded that it not only undermines confidence in its ability to achieve greater success in space exploration but also raises concerns that it may hinder the progress of other aspiring space explorers. NASA employees are scientists...If even they become infected with Washington's pathological and vulgar atmosphere, it would be extremely disappointing."

   The problem is that American scientists, like most of the rest of our society, became infected with the Beltway/Wall Street pathological and vulgar atmosphere a long time ago. If that doesn't change, the next generation will see China reaping the benefits of space technology, while the best that Americans can hope for is watching Celebrity Big Brother on pay-per-view filmed live from a Space Station. 

    

    

THE ARROGANT DEEP STATE AND NATIONAL SECURITY

   There was an interesting story reported on Sputnik News---wholly ignored by our own Corporate Media---about a stupid plan by some Tech Company to sell cemetery plots on the Moon. The story is really more telling because of NASA's response to objections about the project. NASA spokesxhe Joel Kearns said: "We recognize that some non-NASA commercial payloads can be a cause of concern to some communities. Those communities may not understand that these missions are commercial and they're not US Government missions like the ones we're talking about."

  In other words, as the article summed up, "the US agency was powerless to intervene against the private companies." We've been seeing a lot of this lately. The US Secretary of Defense goes to the Intensive Care Unit for a week, and nobody thought that important enough to tell anyone about. Bill Gates launches a mass-marketing of 'alternative' dairy products---and doesn't even bother getting FDA approval. This same Gates NGO is engaging in a massive deforestation project---not a word of objection from the Department of the Interior. There are many examples of these: the Corporate Oligarchs are free to impose their wills on the environment, the economy, engage in social engineering and conduct both foreign and domestic policies and the so-called Elected Officials are unable or unwilling to do anything about it and hide behind the excuse that they have no authority over the free market and private enterprise. That, of course, is a complete lie: as we saw during the Scamdemic the State certainly isn't reticent to interfere with free trade when it involves us little people; but then too Wall Street got a free pass.

   

     All of these things naturally have an impact on actual National Security---not 'National Security' as commonly meant by politicians and propagandists. The verminous Media and revolving-door Academics use the term whenever their Corporate Masters need to restrict Civil Liberties or start a war to protect their vested interests. Actual National Security is exactly the opposite: that is about protecting civil liberties and promoting free trade and world peace. 

    Another story that went under the MSM and Controlled Opposition news headlines this weekend was an announcement by China that it was imposing further sanctions on US defense contractors who are manufacturing critical materials in China. This follows April's sanctions against Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin. Let's see if we can guess what happened next:

   "According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Pentagon relies on a handful of contractors for critical parts and materials, leaving the military vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. In recent years, supply chain disruptions caused by natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the Pentagon's vulnerability to such events. The GAO report also highlighted the Pentagon's inadequate monitoring of its suppliers, which has resulted in poor-quality parts and counterfeit products making their way into the military's inventory."

   What a surprise! There were a few of us warning back when the GOP-Controlled Congress couldn't assist the Clinton and Bush Administrations' outsourcing of our manufacturing base and military services out the highest bidder that this could happen. Of course, those warnings were met with sneers about putting on our tin-foil hats and learning how to code; but now it seems as though countries like China can throttle our Military Machine simply by freezing assets and sanctioning exports of critical materials which happen to be on their own soil. This wasn't a concern back then: that bottom line and fat stock returns were all that mattered. That includes Republican politicians like Senator Steve Daines who became a multi-millionaire outsourcing American jobs to China, but is now a prominent anti-China 'hawk' now that his assets and those of his Corporate owners are threatened.

    Let's take a look at the five companies that China has taken out of the picture:

    BAE Platform Systems and Services: "a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, advanced precision strike munitions and ordnance, and other technologies for the US," according to Wikipedia. 

    Alliant Tech Systems: part of Northrup-Grumman's Corporate Empire. Designs and manufactures aerospace technology including "tactical missiles, defense electronics, and medium- and large-caliber ammunition. The division also produces fuzing and warheads for both tactical missiles and munitions; precision metal and composite structures for medium and large-caliber ammunition, military aircraft, ground vehicles, and missile systems; load, assembly, and pack (LAP) of medium caliber munitions; and propellants and powders for the canister and commercial markets."

    AeroVironment: "The company is the US military's top supplier of small drones."

    Viasat: "a provider of high-speed satellite broadband services and secure networking systems covering military and commercial markets."

   Data Link Solutions: manufactures data-link software used by the US Navy and Air Force to coordinate communications between military bases.

   "The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Sunday that China has decided to impose sanctions on five US defense companies, including freezing movable and immovable assets and other types of property held within China, as well as prohibiting organizations and individuals within China from engaging in transactions, cooperation, and other activities with these companies," the Global Times reported. Maybe arming Taiwan and illegally patrolling the South China Sea when we rely on China to supply so much of our military equipment wasn't such a good strategy after all. 

   The problem---like it always is with these unaccountable self-appointed Elites---is that they live in an isolated echo chamber out of touch with Reality. They have a tendency---because of their Superiority Complexes and Machiavellian cynicism---to believe that everyone thinks like they do and that Human Nature is predictable. They're probably not even worried about these sanctions because they imagine that China will cave in because they assume that their political leadership thinks exactly like ours and will sell out the National Interest for money when the price is right. This arrogance and hubris has led them into one blunder after another: Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Palestine are three recent examples, and Taiwan won't be any different. 

   The Oligarchy's wretched attempts to shift blame and divert public attention was exemplified this weekend when Bloomberg News published a ridiculous fake-news story about alleged corruption in the Chinese Military. As for the so-called 'Conservatives' their only solution is to hold your nose and vote for a Neocon who'll ban Tik-Tok, shoot down Chinese weather balloons, and ban China from buying US farmlands. 

   The problem with all of these 'Conservative' critiques is that they're based in fantasy and not reality. It's easy to talk about decoupling from China; it's not so easy to talk about how we're magically going to produce a skilled workforce, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and train managers and engineers who'll bring our manufacturing sector back to what it was pre-1990. The same is true of these war-hawks: where exactly are we going to get the tough, Iwo Jima-type fighting men or the competent, well-trained officer corps to win all of these glorious wars and impose the Pax Americana? When one reads stupid statements coming out of supposedly Conservative intellectuals like "How in less than five years did our elite universities destroy meritocracy, abolish SAT requirements, require DEI oaths and pledges, and mirror the worst commissariat institutions of the old Warsaw Pact nations and Soviet Union?" it is clear that these people are being dishonest or are at least hopelessly out-of-touch. Anyone who seriously believes that the rot in Academia only started five years ago is hardly qualified to give an opinion on anything. 

   We've said here all along that our problems as a Society are fixable, but they are at root a spiritual, not a political problem. From a political standpoint, the only way that Conservatives can regain trust is by repudiating Neoconservatism, admitting that the Neocons have failed, and pledging to uphold the spirit of our laws instead of dreaming up new legislation and trying to own the Libtards. From a popular standpoint, the American people need to put down the hookah pipes, stop looking for scapegoats, start worrying more about the nation than about stock-margins; in short, start taking some responsibility for self-government instead of shifting it onto to institutions who only offer virtue-signalling. It is unlikely that this will happen; and most likely learning to code will be a less valuable skill than learning to speak Chinese. 

    

   

    

    

US DEEP STATE HUMILIATED AT ASEAN CONFERENCE

      The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded on Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia. Likely haunted by disturbing memories of his former boss' experiences at ASEAN, Head-of-State Biden delegated representation to his flunky, Kamala Harris. At least Harris and her entourage were spared some of the indignities that previous US delegations received in the East; but despite this, Kamala managed to leave the Summit empty-handed while other regional nations came away with trade deals and other memoranda of cooperation. 

     Kamala arrived with Filipino makapili leader Ferdinand Marcos II, and Japan's nominal president, Fumio Kishida in tow. Marcos is under fire for intentionally grounding a Filipino ship on a Chinese-claimed islet; Kishida also has made himself deeply unpopular in the region, following his decision to release radioactive wastewater from Japan's failed Fukusihma Reactor into the Pacific Ocean. The President of Indonesia, who served as Chairman this year, cautioned members not to exacerbate regional disputes, saying that "We all have a responsibility to not create new conflict, new tension, new war and at the same time we also have a responsibility to reduce tensions." Kamala, of course, violated that precept from the first time she opened her mouth forward. 

      In reality, the US didn't offer the region much of anything other than a commitment to continue the Deep State's hegemonic claims. Kamala denounced the Burmese Government's campaign to suppress a Soros-backed rebellion which is tied to the international Heroin trade, and stirred up the territorial dispute between Indonesia and Timor. She announced the opening of a private-public partnership ASEAN Center in Washington, DC, as if this was supposed to impress anyone. The 'private' end of this arrangement is Arizona State University, an institution which is little more than a front for Corporate America and the Pentagon. ASU has received nearly a billion dollars of its bloated budget from corporations tied to Big Pharma and to exploitative labor practices in Southeast Asia. Recently, some local alumni pulled donations from ASU for its aggressive suppression of freedom of speech. ASU has been run with an iron hand for the last two decades by Michael M. Crow who, like many of his stripe, fancies himself among the elite vanguard qualified to transform the world. 

      Like most of the recent summits in this region, China stood out as the leader in development---mostly because, unlike the US, the Chinese could point to an actual record of tangible achievements. One of the most striking contrasts came when Chinese Premier Li Qiang participated in a test-run of Indonesia's first high-speed rail line, which is scheduled to open October 1st.

     The Jakarta-Bandung Rail Line links two of the most populated cities in Indonesia, reducing a three-hour commute to 40 minutes. The US has no high-speed rail lines in contrast, and our outdated Amtrak passenger-rail system is riddled with crime and frequent accidents. The Indonesian project was financed by China at a cost of $7.3 billion: a fraction of what our Military-Industrial Complex dumps on Taiwan or maintaining our unwanted presence in the South China Sea. Amtrak currently has a repair backlog of over $45 billion and experiences annually over 5,000 hours of commuter delays due to repair-related issues. 

    China itself has a sophisticated high-speed rail system and is adding new lines with regularity. Indonesia is not the first country in which China has invested rail technology; much of Indonesia's decision was based upon the highly-successful China-Laos Railway. Thailand and Cambodia are also working with China to create a spur which will feed into the China-Laos Line. 

     The reason that the US is losing to China isn't complex. The reason is, flatly speaking, because we have nothing to offer. The Chinese offer goods and services that other countries need in fair exchange for goods and services that China needs. The US offers military support for unpopular governments in exchange for exporting our cultural rot and importing resources at the expense of foreign labor and mass-unemployment and inflation in our own country. China talks about the need to expand cooperation as the world grows; our leaders talk of depopulating the planet so that more resources are available to the self-appointed 'elite.' 

    The people of Southeast Asia aren't buying into the exceptionalist malarkey any longer. The results of the two approaches have become apparent for anyone---other than the dumbed-down, doped-up American population---to see. Freight disasters like the recent East Palestine incident and violent crime and deteriorating conditions on Amtrak will continue, and Ameroboobs will accept it as another New Normal. 

     

PUTIN STANDS AGAINST TECHNOFASCISM AND TRANSHUMANISM

       Here in the Prozac Nation this week, the majority of American parents are marching their offspring away to nine more months of public-school hell; hoping that the kids will learn the skills necessary to function in postmodern America. Things like going-along-to-get-along; learning how to game the system; how bullying and cheating pay if one doesn't get caught, etc---failure to learn these skills however can result in points for playing the Victim Card, if handled adroitly. Behind this system stand the professional goons in agencies like the paradoxically-named Child Protective Services, which operates much like the Military Police once did in European Armies, standing behind the lines ready to take down soldiers who refused to charge into No Man's Land. 

     A few American parents here and there have made the news and risked CPS' dreaded midnight knock at the door by challenging things like gender ideological programming and a threatened return to imposing the Mask of Shame; but given the deep-set putrefaction of the whole system, these things are really peripheral issues. 

    Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin attended an awards ceremony at the start of the school year for a group of Russian schoolchildren who had won international academic competitions. The group didn't 'represent diversity;' however, it did represent Merit---something actually still considered important in Russian schools. 

      The attendees at the awards ceremony were mostly from Science-related fields; and President Putin addressed the concerns of new technologies.

      “Genetics is important and dangerous, according to experts. It is said that those who take the leading positions in the field of genetics will have a weapon of terrible destructive power in their hands,” Putin stated. "Russia, however, remains committed to maintaining an ethical approach to genetics research. The country will make sure that the positive foundations behind genetics will not turn into a threat to the whole of humanity." 

     These comments underscore earlier statements that the President made against abuses of Technology. Throughout the 20th Century, Russia suffered the effects of atheistic scientistic dictatorships, as well as the brutalities of unrestrained Cartel Capitalism after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Russian people have learned that an ethical approach to social challenges is the surest guarantee of a civilized peoples' survival. The discovery of bioweapons labs in former Ukrainian provinces and suspicions around the true origins of the recent Scamdemic have brought these subjects renewed attention. Recent legislation in Russia also imposed a nationwide ban on so-called 'gender-reassignment surgeries', tolerance of which elsewhere has established a gateway towards implementing the Transhumanist Agenda. 

   While our country was embracing Neoliberalism and exporting hegemony around the planet two decades ago, the Russian leadership realized what ours failed to grasp: that the root of Russia's problems was a spiritual one. To that end, the Russian Government adopted a council of national religious leaders who act as an advisory council to their nation. Since then, Russia has led the world in humanitarian and, when necessary, military aid to countries like the former Donbass Republics, Syria, North Korea, and elsewhere that our allegedly Christian Nation was throttling with economic sanctions. They ejected those nests of vipers---Western NGOs---from their borders which were disseminating the same sociopolitical cancer that has rotted our own culture. As a result, Russian families are growing, work and patriotism have become respectable again, and substance abuse rates have plummeted. The Russian Media has reported that, although abortion is still legal in Russia, clinics increasingly are refusing to perform them: a right that clinics here in the freest and greatest country on God's Green Earth don't possess. 

    Meanwhile, in our own country, things like religion and spirituality long ago became commodified---like everything else in America. We are well down the Transhumanist (i.e. antihumanist) path to the point where many pastors are now embracing Artificial Intelligence as a new marketing angle to sell their versions of Crony-Christianity. Some might argue that using AI to replace most American Ministers is simply making a virtue of necessity; but it does show the tawdry, superficial character of American spirituality. 

      Polls have shown that the younger generations of Americans increasingly accept atheistic materialism. The fact that these numbers are double those of previous generations indicate that American parents care no more for their offsprings' spiritual education than they do about any other aspect of raising children. Many, if not most, testimonies I've read on Catholic websites about younger people joining the Church indicate that they've little or no religious education in their background.

     Thus, it's small wonder that without a reverence for God, faith in humanity disappears and with it comes a disregard for concepts like the sacredness of life, human rights, and justice. Abortion, homo 'equality', and Euthanasia become fundamental liberties and the rates of suicides and addiction-related deaths rise. 

    It's also no surprise that the so-called Elites consider Russia a dangerous enemy. Russia stands in the way of the Technofascist world order that these people desire. Likely Russian resolve will strengthen and others will follow as the differences between their ethical approach and our amoral ones increasingly become apparent.