Outside the Beltway

Comments

1. Michael Reynolds says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 05:21

   In yesterday’s Open Forum I offered a long – but hardly complete – list of things going wrong. In today’s sermon I want to look at the future and how we survive it. I believe the current model of civilization is failing, and I don’t think it can be saved. We either descend into a sort of dark age (we’re gonna need more monks!) or we adapt and build something new.

   Politically we have two parties, both fighting to perpetuate the past. MAGA wants to bring back the 1950’s, or possibly 1930’s, or maybe the 1860’s. The Democratic Party looks to the 60’s and 90’s and the oughts.

   MAGA wants to revive the age of the Alpha male at a time when such nostalgia is simply pathetic. Our forefather Alphas fought the Iroquois Empire, the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Comanche Empire, not one but two German Empires, and the Japanese Empire. They didn’t so much fight as outlast and outplay the Soviet Empire. Our more current forefathers fought, sigh, Saddam and the Taliban.

   Who are the Alphas of the Trump era taking on? Well, armed with only a single aircraft carrier and its 80 or so strike aircraft, multiple destroyers and at least one nuclear sub, they are bravely subduing Venezuelan speed boats. The real warriors, the ones who matter, the killers, are armed with joysticks. And we are historical milliseconds away from turning even that job over to AI.

   There is no market for Alpha males. Indeed bioengineering is, again, just historical milliseconds away from obviating the need for males period. Insofar as we need more humans at all, we can get by with maybe 10,000 males in the entire world. That should be plenty of genetic diversity, and even that may be unnecessary.

   The market for muscles and cocks is about as viable as the market for whalebone corsets. The only way to salvage that market is to bring on a complete collapse of civilization, and I’m not sure nostalgia-poisoned old farts in Florida retirement communities, or the basement dwelling incel gooners, or the steroid-jacked gym rats are really up for that.

   That’s enough for today. Tomorrow, I’d like to talk about my team, the Democrats.

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2. Scott says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 07:39

   They’re coming. They have read Michael’s comment and decided this is the time.

   New NASA data reveals 3I/ATLAS is one of the most mysterious comets ever found

   New observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, an object that originated around another star, are revealing just how unusual it really is.
   …
   They found extremely high amounts of methanol and hydrogen cyanide, two molecules tied to the chemistry that helps form the building blocks of life.
   …
   About eight percent of all the vapor coming off 3I/ATLAS is methanol—roughly four times the amount typically found in comets from our solar system. The team described the production of both chemicals as “among the most enriched values measured in any comet.”
   …
   Some scientists have even suggested that objects like 3I/ATLAS could have carried life’s ingredients to Earth long ago.
   …
   Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has long argued—controversially—that 3I/ATLAS might be alien technology

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3. Scott says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 08:00

   This is pretty toothless and ineffective. And won’t prevent corrupt and/or incompetent legal scribblings.

   Pentagon would have to explain future JAG firings under NDAA provision

   Nearly a year after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth purged the top judge advocates general of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, lawmakers are poised to require an explanation if it happens again.

   A provision in the compromise version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act would require the defense secretary to provide Congress with notice and a reason for the removal soon after a top JAG’s dismissal.

   “If the Judge Advocate General is removed from office before the end of the term … the Secretary of Defense shall, not later than five days after the removal takes effect, submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives notice that the Judge Advocate General is being removed and a statement of the reason for the removal,” the provision reads.
   …
   One former JAG said the language was a notable development, but was skeptical about how transparent the Pentagon would be about such removals. Military branches have often offered no more than some variation of the phrase “loss of trust and confidence” in explaining the dismissal of officers from top leadership roles.

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4. Scott says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 08:27

   JohnSF can and should weigh in. Unspoken is the new unreliability of the US.

   Britain close to losing the Atlantic, First Sea Lord warns

   The First Sea Lord used the International Sea Power Conference in London to issue one of the starkest assessments of the UK’s maritime position since the end of the Cold War.

   His core argument was clear: the strategic advantage that Britain and its allies have long held in the North Atlantic is under threat, and without rapid transformation the Royal Navy will struggle to keep pace.
   …
   The threat picture has shifted, and the change is structural. “The world is becoming an unstable place”, he said, before highlighting Russia’s expanding maritime posture. Moscow has increased incursions in UK and NATO waters by 30 percent in two years and continues to invest heavily in its Northern Fleet. The spy ship Yantar is only the visible part of the problem. “It’s what’s going on under the waves that most concerns me”, he warned.
   …
   The Royal Navy has moved beyond incremental reform and is attempting large-scale structural change in the face of a resurgent threat and accelerating technology. His closing call left little room for ambiguity.

   “We are moving out because we have no choice. The alternative is not worth thinking about.”

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5. Kylopod says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 08:48

   Trump’s current approval ratings are roughly the same as what they were at this point in his first term:

   RCP 12/8/2017: 37.4/57.6, or -20.2
   RCP 12/8/2025: 38.1/58.2, or -19.1

   But his approval ratings on the economy, which remained even-to-positive throughout his entire first term (even at the height of Covid when the economy really was in freefall), have utterly collapsed:

   RCP 12/5/2017: 45.4/46.7, or -1.3
   RCP 12/4/2025: 40.8/56.2, or -15.4

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6. Charley in Cleveland says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 08:57

   @Scott: This another instance in which matters that hadn’t even been considered before Trump took office now have to be addressed. For over 200 years it was assumed that competent and ethical professionals would populate leadership positions in the federal government. Now, because of Trump, no such assumption can be made and guardrails have to be put in place. Whether they will hold is another matter, seeing the cows have already left the barn.

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7. Scott says:
   Tuesday, 9 December 2025 at 08:59

   Rep Jasmine Crockett jumped into the Democratic Primary for Texas Senator.

   Posted on X a video of Trump insulting her.

   Now I like Talarico’s style much better and I definitely won’t vote for Cornyn because while he once was a more moderate Republican, he basically will do what Trump wants and brags about it.

   However, this kind of in your face push back that Crockett exhibits is welcome.

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