Manufacturing Consent For Golden Dome

Posted: 9th December 2025

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Screenshot from Youtube

I was in a bad mood yesterday anyway so I thought I might as well watch the recording of a panel discussion at the Reagan National “Defense” Forum 2025 on war in space. (Apparently the venue has not gotten the memo that “war” is replacing “defense” in U.S. public posturing.) After viewing this discussion, I’m guessing you’ll agree that imagining adversaries and threats as a pretext to massive investments in weapons systems is not really defense. This kind of b.s. sets my teeth on edge and I usually avoid it. Maybe I watched it so you won’t have to? But if you, too, are a glutton for punishment here it is:

The forum was in California, unofficial HQ of the military-industrial-tech sector. What a great chance for luminaries of the MICIMATT to rub elbows! 

Defending the Homeland: Establishing Superiority in Space and Missile Defense had as panelists General Michael Guetlein as Director of Golden Dome, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, Kathy Warden as Chair/CEO/President of Pentagon contractor Northrop Grumman, and Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska. 

It was moderated by Kristin Fisher of Endless Void Media with the kind of gushy fawning typical of media workers who prefer access over truth.

here if you haven’t seen it.) Yes, hard as it may be to believe, a discussion involving two of the people primarily responsible for building the biggest industrial weapon system ever conceived centered it on the plot of a made-up story.

Specifically, as General Guetlein pointed out, the plot depended on there being no space component to the Pentagon’s capabilities. The government’s offensive defensive quandry: how to take out a missile radar shows as incoming but with an uncertain origin. This wouldn’t happen now that space is crammed with satellites performing surveillance and tracking functions for the military 24/7. So, fiction.

There was a lot of fiction being shared by panelists. Here is the sound of a declining empire whistling in the dark to shore up our morale.

Image source: “Why China Laughs at the Idea of Americans Taking Their Manufacturing Jobs,” CEO Warden claimed the U.S has three competitive advantages over adversaries (more like competitors, really): our people, our allies, and our industrial base. Earth to Warden: our people are undereducated and severely depressed/anxious from the stresses of living under late-stage capitalism. Our allies are either royally pissed off at our disrespect (Canada, Mexico, much of Europe) or being extorted so violently that their own populations are rising up against the deals made by their self-serving politicians (South Korea, Japan, Australia). And as for our industrial base, don’t make me laugh. Furious scrambling to invest now still cannot make up for decades of deindustrialization prioritizing profits over research and development, or over robust training and compensation for workers. 

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