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Kill It With Fire: Elon Musk’s Painful Commentary About War and His Starship Mars Rocket

Elon Musk raises a little-noted aspect of war which helps to explain why his Starship Mars rocket is not already in space.

Kill It With Fire: Elon Musk's Painful Commentary About War and His Starship Mars Rocket

Elon Musk raises a little-noted aspect of war which helps to explain why his Starship Mars rocket is not already in space.

Bill Whittle, Scott Ott, and Stephen Green, create 260 new episodes of Right Angle each year.

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26 replies on “Kill It With Fire: Elon Musk’s Painful Commentary About War and His Starship Mars Rocket”

The problems with war removing regulation is that it seizes production direction and regulates consumption initially, then grows itself by both directing the war and directing the economy. The growth of the state remains after the war and the bureaucrats soon uses the directive power granted for the war emergency to accomplish their regulatory goals. Any easing of regulation when peace is restored soon evaporates under the presedent of the wartime expansion of both the growth of the state and its “emergency” powers to regulate.
How did Nixon justify fuel rationing and price controls? How did Biden justify mandatory immunization? How are all the regulation of energy sources being justified? Never let a real or imagined “existential threat” go to waste. Now the opposition to the progressives are identified as domestic terrorist (“threat to our democracy”) and we get 80,000 new IRS agents fully kitted up with lethal force to call them to heel.
If we can’t cut its funding it will continue to grow and over reach. War is not the answer to either of those problems.

This is already happening with Europe. The looming gas crisis has been averted. They are burning the red tape to stay warm.
Europe had gas terminals that can convert liquid natural gas to gas in the pipeline in Spain but the Spanish gas pipeline system was not plumbed into rest of Europe. That connection is being built. It will finish in weeks.
Bureaucrats in France tried to stop it but both the police refused to enforce the order, so the work did not slow and heads started rolling in the bureau a day later.
They also did the impossible in the north; they built 30 gas conversion systems in three months and bought all the LNG on the high seas, regasification plants. It takes 3 years to license and build a LNG to gas plant. Making the plumbing and sticking them on a barge or old gas tanker took only a few months. The EU’s gas storage system is now full.
All across Britain & Europe fracking projects are racing a head. The greenies are screaming. Nimby is loud. There are small earth quakes. When someone complained that the tiny, 2 on the Richter scale, quakes were causing things to fall off shelves the local government sent a carpenter to add a rail onto the shelf to keep thing from falling. No one is taking any BS! All that fracking gas comes on-line in December.
YouTube and Hulu is full of cheap, make it yourself, portable home heaters. A candle under a plant pot with bricks under it. That will heat a room. It will also set a few on fire so fire safety people are getting on YouTube and Hulu to fix that.
Four poster beds with warm side curtains are suddenly all the rage. Camping sites are telling you how to camp out in a cold living room. Lining the walls with tapestries, large insulated paintings, etc is suddenly in style.
Governments have already started turning off the decorative lights, the Eifel tower is dark, turning the heaters down in empty buildings.

What is supposedly saving Europe is the Baltic Pipe funded by the globalists at the EU. It opened October 1, 2022, a day after someone working for the globalists blew up the Nordstream pipelines, which, after Biden shut down our energy exports and nixed our support for the EastMed pipeline set to be complete in 2025, were Europe’s only remaining connection to a non-globalist source of fuel.

Just like everything else, the globalists created an energy emergency so they could solve it with further control.

Why would Biden make Europe more dependent on Russia for gas a month before Russia rolled into Ukraine?
They’re also inconsistent in their logic, allowing Europe to use natural gas and (gasp) nuclear as “transitional” green energy sources for a transition not supported by science or public opinion.

“President Biden is withdrawing U.S. support for the EastMed pipeline that would bring natural gas from Israel to the European continent. Europe is currently in an energy crisis with record prices for natural gas and electricity, potential rolling blackouts, low supplies of natural gas, millions of citizens in energy poverty and increasing coal consumption, which the continent has wanted to end. Increasing reliance on intermittent renewable sources that have not produced to their potential has put pressure on other sources the Europeans have discouraged. The result of Biden’s most recent decision is making Europe even more dependent on Russia for its natural gas. Currently, Western Europe gets over 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia via a pipeline that runs through Ukraine. Russia wants to activate its Nord Stream 2 pipeline that runs under the Baltic so that it can avoid the current route through Ukraine.
Biden gave Russia the go-ahead in July for the continued construction of Nord Stream 2, which Russia predicted could go on-line by the end of the year. Rather than helping an ally, Biden is helping Russia dominate Europe’s energy system and gain economic strength in doing so. The only explanation that Biden’s administration has given to withdrawing support is: “Washington’s interest is now switching to renewable energy sources.” While the White House is using its dogged support for the switch to renewable energy to justify its decision, the European Commission drafted legal text that pronounces natural gas and nuclear power as “transitional” green energy sources to be used to bridge countries away from coal toward technologies like wind and solar.”
https://www.americanenergyalliance.org/2022/01/biden-abandons-israeli-pipeline-in-favor-of-russian-gas-via-ukraine/

This has shattered all the EU globalists plans. Remember in the past two years while the globalists have held on to Brussels and the capital in Paris and Berlin they have lost all the middle sized cities to the nationalists like Le Pen and Alternative for Germany. Its the nationalists at the city and province levels that control the infrastructure. In many places in Germany the CDU/CSU are still in charge but conservatives have replaced the globalists at the local level. Biden is trying to keep the global scam alive but as it gets colder the green left faces a mutiny on the ground. He may have dropped support for the Israeli pipeline but he can’t blow that one up. The Israelis are watching it too well.

I’m not sure the globalists ever had the areas outside of Brussels and Berlin and Paris. Don’t know for sure, but I’ll wager the “deplorables” of Europe favor populism and seek LePen, Meloni, Orban and other leaders. ‘

Sure the working men man the infrastructure and would support a revolt, but until then, I believe they go along to not rock the boat in anticipation and hope of a peaceful revolution at the ballot box.

Biden is surely being given scripts to keep the globalist scam alive using fake emergencies pulled from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (a.k.a. Agenda 2030), but the levers of power have failed…woke/equity, climate, pandemic…now trying to shift to hunger/poverty created by inflation. Everyone is onto them. The jig is up. Censorship thru social media which they relied upon is no longer possible.

The EastMed pipeline was to be delivered in 2025. So the “sabotage” was withdrawing political support. Dynamiting a hole in the dirt doesn’t make headlines. LOL.

Appreciate your knowledge and perspective. God bless.

There’s also the EastMed and Trans-Saharan pipelines coming into play. Perhaps what the European nations really needed to get off the greenie bandwagon was a war with Russia that would force them to consider more reliable, less political hydrocarbon energy sources.

The two Nord Stream pipelines cannot be repaired and carrying gas until well into the late spring and early summer if they can be repaired at all. The EU (26 of 27 countries voted for this …) has been curtailing Russian gas consumption and was scheduled to reduce Russian energy imports to Europe by a factor of 2/3rds by the end of this year. So there’s some question about how much Russian gas actually plays a role in the overall energy environment for Europe.

Add that to the fact that no matter what measures are taken Europe faces a long, cold winter where things like flower pot heaters, ‘buddy burners’ and increased room insulation might be unavoidable.

Even if Europe can make the conversion from LNG to propane the price is going to remain pretty high. Europe won’t die but it’s going to get mighty chilly over there. The poorer someone is the chillier they will be. Richer people might be more comfortable but the price of energy is going to make them steadily less wealthy. Let’s see how that plays out in European politics.

Europe is about to get a serious wakeup call regarding green energy and it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of nitwits. Taking cheap, reliable, high output energy sources offline long before ‘renewables’ can take over at the same level of economically tolerable output is a stupid idea that puts the cart before the horse. Texas learned that same lesson a while back.

If America under Biden tries to stymie or restrict European hydrocarbon energy availability Biden is going to lose allies like flies dropping. As Europe re-transitions back to gas energy the arguments for ‘renewables’ start to unravel both there and here. In a way, this current situation might be just what the world needed to get over this silly climate change infatuation.

It’s pretty easy to complain about the taste of food when the cupboard is well stocked. It’s a whole different thing when the cupboard is bare and you’re out scrounging for something to eat. That’s the situation Europe finds itself in as a result of their foolish energy policies and I think hunger for affordable energy is going to become a significant factor. No matter what elite globalists have to say about it.

Time will tell but as they say …

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Meanwhile I’ll sit here nice and toasty this winter with low electric rates from energy provided by nuclear power and watch what happens. I’m already as energy efficient as I can make myself. Not from concern for the planet, concern for my wallet. I rarely ever have to turn on any heat inside this building because my equipment gives off all the waste heat I usually need.

My personal problem is cooling that stuff down not heating and I have at times been forced to run AC and/or leave windows open even in the winter. Right this minute my main server has a CPU socket temperature of ~ 105F and being water cooled that heat is being blown into this room through the machine’s radiator. That’s not the only heat contributor but it’s a significant one.

My house, a separate building from where I sit now, is heated by electricity, propane emergency backup (and the tank is full, I rarely use more than 25% of it in the winter) and wood of which I have a more than adequate supply. (This year I’m burning well seasoned pecan tree wood and it smells heavenly while it burns.) There are three electrical service boxes on the property and each has backup generator with power sufficient to run everything I would run while on the grid. So that’s fairly well covered too.

Point being I’m a long way from the living conditions of someone in an urban apartment building somewhere in London, Paris or Berlin …

While this winter holds little worry for me I’ll be watching what happens in Europe with great interest and in reasonable comfort. Personally I hope it gets cold enough here in the States for people to feel the bite of Biden’s stupid energy policies by the time the November election comes around.

Its worse for Russia. If they can’t pump gas mid winter then the gas well heads will need to be closed off. Some can’t be reopened. Others would cost millions to re open. Its a back pressure problem. When the system is full the well heads break from the back pressure.

All I have to say about that is … Good. Let them flare all that unsalable gas.

Russia needs raw petroleum to sell at around $70-$75 US per barrel to break even. This information is available publicly but is notoriously difficult to find and sift the wheat from the chaff. I get it, or confirmation of it, from a reliable personal source who deals with this sort of thing. So that’s a pretty firm figure and I’m free to repeat the information. There are other estimates on the internet ranging from around $50 per barrel upwards. The truth is closer to the upper end than the lower. The lower estimates fail to take into account the enormous overhead costs in toto.

When prices were below that Russia still sold oil because they needed the hard cash inflow. I wasn’t aware of the well head issue but that makes sense and is another reason why they kept selling oil/gas even when they were losing money.

If things keep going the way they are, Russia can eat their nukes because they don’t produce sufficient food and won’t be able to buy food either. Russian food production is only sufficient to meet the needs of 42% of its people. Russia buys a lot of food, it has no choice but to do so.

In that scenario Russia, despite what Putin says, will be forced to go begging from global financiers. Like the WEF and their ilk. That is the only place Russia can hope to get enough money to buy food for its people. Hungry people mean food riots and revolution and Putin is all too aware of that. People that think Putin is ‘standing up to the WEF’ are reading nonsense on right wing opinion pages spouted by cretins who are selling them what they want to hear.

Or outright Russian propaganda which is the same result either way. Don’t think for a second that those content providers, be they garden variety scumbags or propagandist scumbags, don’t know how to take advantage of confirmation bias. There are few so blind to facts as a pissed off crotchety old conservative. The Left does not hold a monopoly on self-delusion, it’s a human trait.

Putin has no choice in this matter of finance because Russia is a poor country with a relatively small economy. The US economy is 14 times that of Russia yet people think of Russia as some sort of latent superpower capable of challenging the Allied West. (Which BTW you are part of in Oz. I take the mick out of Aussies all the time but you are a valuable and honorable ally which we are very grateful to have. Most of the time.)

The truth is that California, Texas and New York each have a larger economy than all of Russia. Turns out we in the US have 47 more States even if you ignore those three. The Russian economy only makes up 1.31% of the global economy and brother, the sanctions and economic retaliations are hurting real bad.

By contrast the US and our European allies, not including other allies like you guys Down Under, Japan etc. — Comprise 40% of the global GDP. 40% compared to 1.31% … Do the math, who’s on top here?

The only thing, and this is made even more obvious with the pathetic showing of Russian conventional forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War, that makes Russia a global concern is their strategic (not tactical) thermonuclear arsenal. Tactical nukes are still nukes but they’re a whole different colored critter.

That strategic arsenal, which they dare not use no matter how bad things get for the exact same reason we dare not use them either. Thermonuclear warheads do not give a fig about what flag you fly. Neither side dares to use them because if they think things are bad, they haven’t even dreamed of truly bad until they try to survive a nuclear holocaust. There are no scenarios where either side, or the world, gets anything at all good from that. It is as pure a negative as is possible for the mind of man to conceive. They know this. We know this. They know we know this and vice-versa. The Russians aren’t stupid, just the opposite. They’re crooked, corrupt, manipulative lying git but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Far from it.

So the information you’re highlighting about the well head situation suits me just fine and dandy. Thanks for that.

In the toilet paper crisis the janitor at work that knew where the business stored its toilet paper was a hero. Many storerooms were looted. In the organization I worked for one junior staffer had those keys to a cooperate storeroom. She became a hero supplying 1000 disabled people and their carers with loo paper.

There is hope, the hope is in selecting good leadership. Donald Trump was exceptional in this regard. As I recall he had a rule that for every new regulation adopted 2 (or more) old regulations had to be discarded and nullified.

In this manner Trump showed us the way. He proved that someone like him could get elected and do what needs to be done. He wasn’t afraid of dynastic bureaucracies and the petty fiefdoms that had crept into our governmental machinery and taken root.

I say “someone like him” because Donald Trump isn’t a singular anomaly, there are other people who have his same views on government. Trump represents a common political type. A type that until Trump hasn’t had much political success. That political type had been convinced by the lies of the Left that they didn’t have a chance at being elected. Trump proved them wrong, fought the lies and now others are willing to step into that same battlespace and fight for us.

Those people need to be supported, prepared and run for high office. The fact that they’re like Trump is what’s important. The fact that they’re not Donald Trump himself is irrelevant.

Donald Trump isn’t a savior, he’s evidence that the salvage of our nation is possible. No matter how much you love Donald Trump it is a grave mistake to base your support for him on his personality. Which was lacking when it comes to being POTUS but that’s a different subject for a different time. Suffice it to say that his personality is assailable, whether you like it or not and whether you believe it or not. It wasn’t Trump’s personality that put this nation back on a productive track. It was his policies which did that.

Unlike personality, policies can be adopted and applied to great effect.

Add to that the fact that in the 2024 election year Donald Trump will be 78 years old and if elected would be 82 by the end of that Presidential term. Bad things can happen all by themselves to people when we reach that age. Trump isn’t going to be around forever but we want to put this nation on a footing that will far outlast him. I think even Trump would agree to that last.

Trump was a pathfinder President, not the path itself. Many feet must trod that path if we want to save this nation.

So there is hope. If that sort of policy portfolio can be shown to succeed it will grow in support from voters. Ron DeSantis is doing quite well politically along those lines.

No matter who’s running when 2024 rolls around there are only two real questions for Conservatives.

  1. What are his policies?
  2. Can he win an election?

Outside of those two questions — things go fractal. Those are the only two real issues that matter. If you want hope for the future then you need to work towards those goals. We owe Donald Trump a great debt of gratitude, we do not owe him or any other human being blind devotion and worship. Choose well.

Sorry but you don’t take the ball from the guy who had the balls to put it all on the line, took all sorts of abuse, continues to do so, exposed the deep state and the fake news and did it all FOR FREE since he loves the country and saw what was happening and give it to some other guy to punch it in the end zone and spike the ball on Pelosi’s head.

I could care less about the baseless claims that President Trump, which he still is, isn’t presidential. As defined by whom? The pearl-clutching, cologne and cuff link, never Trumper “elites” who sold us down the river for the last 50-60 years while lining their pockets?

No thanks. I can name dozens of destructive and divisive lies by the fake news that such people “offended” by Trump’s tweets allowed to go unanswered and damage the country. I’ll bet they would struggle to name a single tweet from President Trump that did the same.

Now after we did all the heavy lifting to expose and cast off the fake news and the globalists in Davos and took all sorts of abuse as his supporters, the same globalist RNC leaders in the Swamp who have done ZERO to earn the right…the same ones struggling to beat stroke patient Fetterman in PA and withdrew funding for Blake Masters in Arizona…the same ones who refused to challenge 2020 or the J6 show trial…want to jump in front of our parade greedily rubbing their hands together while eyeing their unearned opportunity..

Hell no. I don’t think so. They can’t even run the midterms correctly. We lost a 13% lead in general polling over the summer. We should be slaughtering the Democrats in November. Instead we get their same spineless crap.

NO ONE worships Trump as a savior…not that such is what you’re claiming by using the word per se. But we know a once-in-a-lifetime leader when we see it. The claims of cultish behavior are completely unfounded and come from the same people who swallow the fake news unquestioningly as those in an actual cult.

What we do is recognize commitment when we see it and reward it with loyalty, and screw Ben Shapiro and the rest who don’t.

Trump not only has nothing to lose as a non-establishment politician, he’s assembling a war machine of loyalists to drain the Swamp, has the experience as President to know what he’s facing, has the experience as a CEO to make the required changes quickly and will not quit until the election rigging—hacking into the machines from overseas to rig the totals and all—is solved.

Tactically, President Trump is he best choice BY FAR. He’s not “divisive.” The fake news and the communist Democrats ignored by the RINO’s are he divisive one. On top of that, DeSantis or whoever else can pick up in 2028 where Trump leaves off.

Running anyone else in 2024 would be unjust. At 78, Trump still outworks people half his age.

You are absolutely correct that others can follow Trump’s lead…when he’s finished doing what he set out to do.

Funny thing about what you said. I agree with the bulk of it and you always try to make out like I don’t. That’s called a “straw man fallacy”, you create something that I didn’t say and proceed to attack it as though I had said it. That’s a classic definition of a “straw man” and I don’t really care if you realize that or not.

If Trump gets the nomination in 2024 I’ll vote for him. Again. For the third time. So I’m obviously not some sort of absurd “Never Trumper”. The idea is preposterous.

I’m not a Trump cultist like you either. I want what’s best for the country I fought for and you didn’t. Remind me what military branch you served in again? I was in the Marines, as you know by now and I’ve gotten my opinions from broad experience all over the world. I’m not citing myself as an authority either, I’m citing you as a non-authority. I don’t care if people believe me, or you, my arguments stand on their own merits. I’m not single-mindedly blind to everything else like you are.

If what turns out to be best for the United States is Donald Trump, again, I’m all for that and will support him with vote and word to the best of my ability. No matter what arguments anyone makes Trump has proven by his policies that he can do the job much, much better than any Democrat opposition can. Trump is always going to be the better choice over his opposition and Potato Joe is making that argument very effectively for him.

I’m not going to put all my eggs in one basket like you. I don’t want Conservatives to become apathetic, delusional and defeatist if Donald Trump isn’t on the ticket. I don’t want people who think Trump is the only answer to throw in the towel if he doesn’t get the nomination. Even if he doesn’t, there is still considerable hope because he has shown us the way by proving what is possible. That, no matter how the political winds of the future blow, is something he should always be admired for.

I don’t give a fig for what’s ‘unjust’ for Trump. I care about what’s going to move us down the field towards our own goal posts. If that turns out to be Donald Trump, that’s fine with me. If not, that’s fine too, as long as the ball keeps moving in the right direction. I don’t worship Donald Trump enough to worry about his justification, I play by a bigger set of rules.

Your loyalty is admirable but just make sure it’s transferable to whoever gets nominated if it’s not Donald Trump. If that’s not so then you’re not a Conservative, you are a Trumpist. If it doesn’t happen to be Donald Trump then I want people who are going to follow his example. That’s the gist of what I said above.

As you insist on stupid straw man arguments and can’t even see you’re doing that, I have nothing else to say to you on this topic. Go ahead and bluster your little heart out, I don’t wrestle with pigs. I just get dirty and the pig likes it. Which is about as apt a metaphor as could be summoned to describe discussing anything with you.

Not a Trump cultist, but that’s the typical strawman from Trump opposition.
Your service is admired and appreciated but doesn’t grant you extra voting privileges. So stop.
For someone who isn’t a never Trumper, you sure act like it, though if you reread my post, that wasn’t my accusation.

I’ll transfer my loyalty to anyone who deserves it. To do so otherwise would serve as proof of membership in the RNC cult. So no. Would not prove I’m a Trumpist. Same logic that leftists use. I’m the arbiter of equality and if you don’t agree with me, you’re a racist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe, whatever.

Fully agreed with your assertion that Trump was an an example to follow, but you distinctly suggested that Trump shouldn’t be the one to run in 2024. Guess the Marines failed to teach you loyalty.

I never use strawman arguments. Ever. So stop asserting undeserved intellectual superiority. Didn’t accuse you of being a never Trumper. You asserted such and used it as a strawman to argue against. You are the one pushing strawmen and accusing others of being pigs jackass.

Anyone supporting any candidate by definition puts all their eggs in one basket. Not excluding another more qualified candidate. If you can present another candidate with an axe to grind, an army of loyalists, wealth to sustain him beyond his candidacy, near the end of life and nothing to lose while expressing full and complete support for our country including years of abuse from the establishment extending beyond his service in public office, I’m all ears.

Until then, vote for President Trump as the most deserving candidate and stop suggesting otherwise.

Very well-done Gentlemen, as usual. Scott’s treatise verged on prose, while Steve made some nice analogies that were relevant, and Bill’s prolog and summation packaged it all perfectly.
However, Bill’s production quality is still abysmal, with sound both muddy and grainy, while his color and lighting were continually shifting and washing out. His sound is no-where near as bad as when he lost his primary mic, but still rather poor to my admittedly compromised hearing. Yet both Steve and Scott sound and look fine to me!
Just sayin’ is all !

There’s frontiers and then there are FRONTIERS. There are unsettled lands and then there is space and distant planets. There are >80 trillion things happening on Earth relating to a magnetic core, ozone layers, a perfect sized moon, water, air, and just the right amount of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, et al that allow for our lives to go on normally. The “room for error” living on Mars is far too great to chance, much less the odds of bringing a community of humans from here to there.
I’ll feel far less fear and trepidation when we perfect the Genesis device.

Great episode guys.

On an unrelated note, I watch you guys on Rumble, exclusively now. I kept my YouTube subscription, well just because. YouTube hammers me pretty much every day with your content. I think that’s good? That isn’t true for other channels that I haven’t watched in a while.

No existential threat? Yeah, it’s not like we have the handlers of a dementia patient as President who has destroyed our economy, eliminated faith in elections, turned our FBI into the Stasi and has us on the brink of a nuclear war isn’t an existential threat.
On that note, happy Friday everyone!

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