Elon Musk, the other day, opined that our Navy is living in the past and wasting money on weapons systems which will not be effective in the next war. He’s right.
I’m not of the school that holds the aircraft carrier to be obsolete in the face of modern anti-ship missiles but I am of the opinion that the Carrier Battle Group as the primary expression of naval power is not what it needs to be. Today it is, of course, the carrier and escorts – the carrier to be the strike force, the escorts there just to protect the carrier. I favor a more balanced approach – and I said some years ago that we need to revive the battleship concept (or at least the battle cruiser). In my view, the carrier might remain the primary strike force but we’d be foolish to rely only on piloted planes when we can fill the sky with missiles and drones. My revived battleship would fulfill that role.
The Burke class destroyer is 9,700 tons and it carries 96 Vertical Launch System cells. Imagine what a 50,000 ton ship could carry. Plus, that new battleship could be heavily armored (no modern ship carries anything like the Iowa’s 307mm thick armor – do keep in mind that the Nevada was missed by an atomic bomb by 1,600 yards and survived the blast – and she was built in 1916). It could initially carry a pair of 8 inch guns for shore bombardment and thus have space for the Rail Gun if that is ever worked out. With nuclear power it can cruise along at the carrier’s speed. With automation its crew would probably be about 300. It would incorporate all the modern stealth tech we can think of. And between missiles and drones it could put an overwhelming amount of ordnance in the air – and be a big enough ship that we might fit two or three reloads inside her.
It is important to always be thinking about things. We’re seeing on the battlefields of Ukraine that the tank is no longer Queen of the Battlefield. She can still do a lot of things, but she must be careful and stay hidden most of the time. Modern aerial tech means at least for now we won’t see anything the Operation Barbarossa with this 6,000 armored vehicles flooding across the open country. Not until tank tech takes a step forward as well (which we should also be looking into). If we sit tight with our Cold War-era military ideas, we’re going to get beaten.
But it isn’t enough to just change the material – the people must change, as well. I’ve often brought up Jacky Fisher as the exemplar of the Change Agent. Came into command of the Royal Navy and pretty much presented the United Kingdom with an entirely new Navy in about 5 years. And it was the Navy the Brits needed – fast battleships with big guns, no messing about with ships that, in Fisher’s words, “could neither run nor fight”. But even he had a little fail in this: he didn’t really change the people. Oh, he had people he favored and advanced – but they were favored because they agreed with his ideas on material changes. He neglected to look into whether or not they were changing their minds while changing their clothes.
Fisher presented his admirals with a fleet of battleships which were faster and better armed than the German ships they’d face. The whole concept was to move faster than the enemy, keeping just out of range of his smaller guns and then proceed to blow him to pieces. Unfortunately, his admirals just charged ahead into range of the Germans and got the bad end of the German concept of ships…slower, lesser-armed ships which could take immense punishment. At Jutland this resulted in the Brits losing 3 battle cruisers to the German’s 1…and the Brits, must less armored, were literally blown to pieces. So, a bit of attention to the detail: ask your people just what they plan to do with the fancy, new stuff you’re providing to them.
But change is the constant – and as Conservatives, it is our job to embrace change after we’ve done our “parable of the fence” review of the problem. That is, once we have actually identified the problem which will prevent our Conservation of something we love, have at it – even if it means revolutionary change. We hope that Trump and Team will continue to get the ball rolling. First in gutting the Deep State, then starting the process of reform. But our job is to not only sustain this, but to demand it go the right way. We can’t just latch on to anyone who puts “MAGA” in his bio…we need people who will actually do what needs to be done…and that is going to take us putting on pressure, getting involved in local politics and that sort of thing. And then, of course, defending the innovators. The whole Global Elite is going after Musk now – and I’ve always said that Musk is not my cup of tea. But I have to defend him…he’s on the side of the angels right now and if I let them get Musk’s scalp, it just moves me up the line.
Blogs For Victory 
Team DOGE strikes again.
Government Incompetence Enables MASSIVE Fraud
2018 – 2022 Data show federal government loses an estimated $233 to $521 billion annually to fraud, based on various risk environments.
Wait! Is he saying, that 10 different people can use the same social security number and the system doesn’t flag it or do anything?
Kind of make you wonder if social security was actually that close to insolvency or if that was just psy-op story to make people believe it so there could be another power shift.
https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2025/02/09/elon-says-ssns-duplicated-in-database-massive-fraud-n2408067
A tip of the hat to Spook, who first talked about the Hunga Tonga eruption. I did my own research on it, and since then have used the term “what goes up must come down” to shift the narrative from ‘heavy rain=climate change’ to ‘lots of water in the atmosphere’.
Now there is an actual scientific article about it.
When I have brought up the topic of Hunga Tonga and a brief discussion has resulted, the funniest thing is that every person I’ve talked to about this has commented, when I have noted that the Leftist narrative is still all about climate change and not the effect of tons of water being thrust into the atmosphere, “But you can’t tax a volcano”.
(And no, that photo is not of lesions on Nancy Pelosi’s brain—it is a photo of the eruption taken from either a weather satellite or the space station. I forget which, but either way it was visible from space.)
I remember when it happened, I saw the YouTube video of it when it erupted, and I immediately said to myself “that’s going make a lot of rain for someone, somewhere.”
I think it’s good, although flooding is not a good outcome, water is life, and all living organisms require it on a daily to thrive. Makes stuff pretty and green. California could have used some of that water over the past several years.
DOGE strikes again. It was reported that FEMA spent $59 million last week housing illegal immigrants in NYC hotels. No doubt there will be many more findings of unaccounted for or unapproved or totally illegal government (taxpayer) money distributions. I guess the next questions are; how many judges will place a hold on rectifying these spendings, how long with those holds stay in place, what will ultimately break the dam and what will the ramifications be?
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/musk-says-fema-spent-59-million-on-housing-illegal-immigrants-in-nyc-hotels-5807322?utm_source=RTNews&src_src=RTNews&utm_campaign=rtbreaking-2025-02-10-4&src_cmp=rtbreaking-2025-02-10-4&utm_medium=email&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZe8kewcNx8Da4%2BAuuWhYArg0yEwDPvCLSRzO6sIrQqEFTVeDyQ%3D%3D
I guess the next questions are; how many judges will place a hold on rectifying these spendings, how long with those holds stay in place, what will ultimately break the dam and what will the ramifications be?
I know what I would do if I were in charge: I’d tell that judge, “you don’t have standing in this matter,” and I’d ignore his order. That approach would also SAVE A LOT OF MONEY on litigation, and it wouldn’t be any more illegal that what the judges are doing in the first place. It also might cause a few Leftists to bust an aneurism – WIN, WIN, WIN. Man, all this WINNING is really…………GREAT!
The judge’s order is so absurd that I can’t see it other than being struck down quickly – and if not struck down, ignored with Trump saying he’ll pardon anyone sanctioned by the judge.
Catholic Charities has been around for quite some time and has performed many worthwhile tasks over the years. These days however, like many other charities, they seemed to have transitioned from using most of its resources for their stated core emphasis, to paying big salaries. When did it become necessary to have individuals withing these charities receiving such massive salaries and benefit packages, especially when a fair portion of their revenue comes from government grants? In many ways they’re mirroring big government.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/catholic-charities-executives-make-massive-salaries-while-abandoning-the-salvation-of-souls/?utm_source=daily-usa-2025-02-10&utm_medium=email
Biden judge rules Michigan can ban Catholic counselors from helping gender-confused minors
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration can silence Catholic Charities and other religious counselors who dissuade minors from embracing homosexuality and transgenderism, a Biden-appointed federal judge ruled recently.
I could be wrong but this sure seems to reek of violating the First Amendment on several levels:
The United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
The problem with going the typical route to overrule these activist judges takes significant time, money and resources and ultimately causes much damages to people that in many cases can’t be undone. It would be worth looking into ways to speed up the process or better yet, prevent these judges from making absurd ruling in the first place.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-judge-rules-michigan-can-ban-catholic-counselors-from-helping-gender-confused-minors/?utm_source=digest-catholic-2025-02-10&utm_medium=email
For most Catholics it’s difficult to near impossible to know if your church donations are being used in a manner consistent with traditional Catholic teaching. For example, Catholic Relief Services has been funding pro-abortion groups, a direct violation of what the Catholic Church espouses. I’m guessing most Catholics don’t even realize where their donations are going.
A Catholic organization that funds pro-abortion groups has laid off 50% of its staff after losing USAID funds.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was the top recipient of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Forbes reported Feb. 3.
According to Forbes, CRS, a nonprofit, received $4.6 billion from 2013 to 2022.
This is just one of the reasons why I left the church for a while. It has certainly gotten worse but I realized that abandoning the church while still holding strong to most of my faith only removed me from the sacraments and allowed the evil within the church to gain stronger footing.
https://www.lifenews.com/2025/02/10/catholic-organization-that-funds-pro-abortion-groups-lays-off-50-of-its-staff-after-losing-usaid-funds/?cmid=611a8607-84a1-45d2-bffa-cb8dc1b825c6
I also left the Church for a while. I figured out that the Church is the Church, and its servants, the clergy and those who support the Church, are not “the Church” but just human beings, frail and subject to the same temptations and weaknesses of all humans. It was a priest who told me that not even priests necessarily believe every word of the dogma, as it was formed by people, but that I should focus on the heart of the Church itself.
It’s hard when the most visible symbols of the Church, its pope and some of its clergy, openly permit and even advocate for things expressly forbidden, such as abortion. But I have come to think that the heart of the Church, like the heart of the United States, can survive periods of corruption and subversion.
Like all institutions, the Church has been infected by the Left. We see this in the Pope who is theologically rock-solid, but outside of the core beliefs he’s rather hand-in-hand with the Global Elite. So, we get him firmly standing against abortion…but then hitting Trump for trying to stop the horror of human trafficking in the new slave trade. It is positively schizophrenic.
I interacted a bit yesterday with a priest who’s on X a bit – seems like a good priest, also theologically sound, but he was upset that Tucker Carlson had made an accusation that half of the arms we send to Ukraine wind up sold on the black market, often to criminal cartels. I did a ten second search and found a USA Today article from a week ago indicating that the Mexican Cartels have Javelin anti-tank missiles. Now, does this article confirm that half of arms sent to Ukraine have been sold to drug Cartels? No; but it shows that Carlson wasn’t just making it up as he went along, as he was accused of doing. He’s brought up something that needs to be looked into. I pointed this out and I was hit back with it still isn’t the problem Carlson made it out to be…which, strictly speaking, is true…but I realized at that moment I was dealing with a person who doesn’t comprehend the scope of modern corruption around the globe. And this is a priest who is trained to understand the Fallen nature of humanity. Though Carlson didn’t prove his accusation, it makes perfect sense – especially given what we’ve learned recently, it would be surprising as all get-out if some significant percentage of aid to Ukraine hasn’t wound up on the black market.
And that, I think, is why we find the Church so clearly involved in some of the corruption – we must have genuine bad actors in the Church and we must have a Church leadership pretty much blind to it all. I don’t know – maybe priests and nuns are just easy marks? Could very well be. But I believe that aside from being naive, the Church leadership – and a lot of religious – want something that separates them from the unwashed mass, as it were. They can’t, and remain Catholic, go into abortion and transing (much as some of them probably would like to do so), so they latch on to things like “migration” and completely misuse “welcome the stranger” to essentially justify something that is starting to make the Atlantic slave trade look tame in comparison. Not quite sure how we fix this – other than we know that God will fix it.
I don’t see how you can claim the Pope is “theologically rock-solid” when he openly supports people whose legislation and public agendas are in direct violation of and contradiction of basic Church dogma. You say he is “firmly standing against abortion” yet he welcomes “Catholic” Biden and Pelosi to the Vatican, gives them private audiences and poses for photo ops with them, conveying the perception that they, and by extension their efforts to enshrine abortion as the law in the United States, are acceptable and approved by the Church as he postures as the earthly representative of the Church. He chides priests who stand up for the teachings of the Church by denying the sacraments to those who support and promote and engage in abortion.
His impulses to abuse the power granted to him as leader of the Church to get out of his lane and try to use it to influence national and international governance is a sign of moral weakness and his efforts to take both sides of the most serious moral issues of our time portray him as an essentially superficial man with no real moral compass.
Also, going to your comments in your next thread on the Pope’s stance on immigration: We need to understand that AS THE POPE he has absolutely no authority regarding immigration. As an individual, he can have his own opinions, and as someone on the world stage with some respect he can certainly opine at will. But his opinions cannot carry the imprimatur of the Church because his Catholic authority is restricted to the theology and teachings of the Church. He has no standing in civil matters other than that of a human being, albeit one with a big stage and some built-in inclinations of some to give him more respect than given to others.
I notice the typical Leftist quibble of semantics. Instead of denying that weapons allegedly sent to Ukraine end up being sold on the black market to criminal cartels (as well, no doubt, to terrorists) the quibble seems to be the phrase “HALF OF the arms we send to Ukraine wind up sold on the black market” when in fact there is no hard proof of the actual percentage of arms sold this way. So if only 48% of the arms we send to Ukraine wind up sold on the black market that means Tucker is not only a liar, there is no reason to question the eventual destination of those arms. Or so goes Leftist “logic”.
The fastest way is civil disobedience.
Civil disobedience so massive that it “overwhelms the system.”
I am also thinking of the successes of people like Ghandi and Dr. King and all those who refused to stand on buses or leave lunch counters or be denied access to schools. The systems can be overwhelmed by what amounts to, in social terms, denial of access strategies, overwhelming a system with so many demands it collapses, as advocated by Cloward and Pivens. (BTW, her smarmy effort to sanitize her theory by claiming it was never intended to undermine the government is pathetic.)
But it also succeeds by forcing the establishment to engage in so many efforts to enforce its laws that it simply can’t keep up. By fighting a ruling, we put ourselves in the position of being responsible for defending it in court, demanding our energy and participation, but by ignoring it we force the other side to try to enforce it as well as defend its right to make the ruling in the first place.