Juan Belt

President, International Finance and Economics LLC. Libertarian economist with interest in international affairs and national security.

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

Excellent article on the clean energy boondoggle.

[John J. Miller @heymiller]

"We aren’t making enough electricity."

@jamesbmeigs: The ‘Renewable’ Boondoggle https://t.co/cr8OvWDx7c via @WSJFreeEx

[John J. Miller @heymiller]

"We aren’t making enough electricity."

@jamesbmeigs: The ‘Renewable’ Boondoggle https://t.co/cr8OvWDx7c via @WSJFreeEx

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

@JonathanTurley Cynical and ambitious woman.

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

@elonmusk Great answer. I was born in Cuba and came to the US in 1961, legally. I am very proud to be a US citizen. I would like to see Marco Rubio as President of the US.

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

@C__Herridge Thanks, as always excellent reporting and analysis.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

True

[Dima Zeniuk @DimaZeniuk]

Elon Musk says a Hyperloop tunnel by The Boring Company could link SF and LA for under 5% of the $126B rail cost, while being faster and more advanced

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

lol

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

I am amazed how much the future depends on one person, Elon Musk. Stay safe, Elon.

[Intel @intel]

Intel is proud to join the Terafab project with @SpaceX, @xAI, and @Tesla to help refactor silicon fab technology.

Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s aim to produce 1 TW/year of compute to power future advances in AI and robotics.

It was fun hosting @elonmusk at Intel this past weekend!

[Hugo Is Right @HugoIsRight007]

@elonmusk Nice job @GovPressOffice

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

Excellent, sober analysis.

[Gummi @gummibear737]

Iran was trying to use the North Korean model to get a nuke: create sufficient conventional deterrence so you won’t be challenged in acquiring one (it’s called the Seoul Hostage Problem).

This has been explained over and over since day one.

Everyone claiming shifting goalposts or no imminent threat has been lying.

The reason North Korea was allowed to get nukes is because Seoul (and its 10 million inhabitants) is within artillery and rocket range of North Korea.

During the 1994 nuclear crisis, the Clinton administration seriously considered airstrikes on North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor but backed off precisely because of the artillery threat to Seoul.

Iran was trying to accomplish the same by stockpiling missiles and drones which would have had the same deterrent effect. The proof is what Iran has been doing in the past month: attacking all its neighbors in order to pressure the US to stop attacking it

Beyond this, they were building medium-range ballistic missiles that could reach Paris and London, meaning all of Europe could be held hostage as they built a nuclear bomb.

The reason Iran has not built a nuclear weapon until now is not because it couldn’t, but because it knew it would be attacked and denied this capability.

So by allowing them to continue developing this conventional deterrence, you would be allowing Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

And unlike North Korea, Iran is led by an eschatological death cult

Reagan saw nuclear mutually assured destruction (MAD) as both morally bankrupt (because of the innocent-body-count problem) and dangerously fragile because it assumed flawless rationality between adversaries…this means it only takes one irrational actor to destroy the world.

Working backwards from the conclusion that Iran’s Islamist regime must never have a nuclear weapon, it was necessary for the US to attack Iran to deny it the conventional capacity to hold the entire eastern hemisphere hostage.

Every European leader knows this and behind the scenes praises the US for this action. But they are cowards, held hostage by their own internal Muslim populations, and so adopt these ridiculous public positions.

This was never about Israel. And if your argument is that Iran should be allowed to get a nuclear weapon then you are a fool and a traitor to western civilization…you’re a useful idiot

[Department of State @StateDept]

SECRETARY RUBIO: The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent communist.

🎯

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

@elonmusk Congratulations

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

My analysis, 'The Hormuz Shock,' demonstrates that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created a structural 'energy penalty' that is currently dismantling European industrial competitiveness. 
https://t.co/YzJRgN0n3T

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

Very thorough article on a leaked DEA report that describes the Venezuela Iran links. This has not been reported at all in the US media. The existence of the report is not confirmed but INFOBAE is a serious publication, IMO.

[Roman Lejtman @romanlejtman16]

Un informe de la DEA reveló los vínculos terroristas, financieros y militares que Maduro consolidó con Irán cuando era dictador de Venezuela - Infobae https://t.co/DHpM7Prrmt

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

The truth from Ms. Haley.

[Nikki Haley @NikkiHaley]

Cuba is in crisis—and instead of blaming a failed communist system, the left wants to point a finger at the United States.

65 years of centralized control, repression, and economic oppression did this—nothing else.

The Cuban people deserve freedom and a future.

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

Chic leftist feeling virtuous going to Cuba while expending scarce energy. They should stay to live there.

[Carlo Martin @Liberfach0]

🇨🇺 | ¡REALMENTE INDIGNANTE!
Un grupo de izquierdistas revolucionarios de todo el mundo, que fueron a Cuba para apoyar al régimen, están dándose unas vacaciones con la del pueblo, movilizandose en La Habana como si fuera un safari. ¿Ven como engañan éstos?

[Juan Belt @jabbelt]

His biography of Trump, like many of his other books, is very interesting. In fact, given that Musk is such a fascinating person, this book may be the best.

[X Freeze @XFreeze]

Walter Isaacson explains exactly how Elon Musk uses first principles thinking to build rockets:

When young Elon wanted to send people to space, he first tried buying used rockets from Russia. They jacked him around - it didn’t work

So he went back to first principles.
He asked:

Exactly how much does each material in a rocket cost?
How much is the Inconel?
How much is the carbon fiber?
How much is the fuel?
What’s the total cost of the raw materials compared to the price of a finished rocket?

That’s first principles
He realized: if he could cut manufacturing costs by a factor of 10, he could actually build affordable rockets

Same mindset at Tesla: someone says “we need this patch of felt at the bottom of the car” and Elon replies, “Tell me the principles of physics that make that true”

Isaacson notes: America used to be a nation of risk-takers. Now we have more referees, guardrails, and lawyers saying “that’s probably not a good idea” than people willing to shoot off a rocket

Elon wants to calculate the risk and then actually take it

This is why SpaceX exists.
This is how impossible things get done

[LIBRE PENSAMIENTO 🧠 @lucilabotero1]

@WalhallaMann @MonicaCarreo3 Son unos desgraciados ,tiene a Cuba en la extrema pobreza 😭la gente se está muriendo Dios mío..OREN Y EL PUEBLO SALGA A LA CALLE Y GRITEN TRUMP. ESCRIBAN..EL LEE A LA GENTE Y TIENE SU EQUIPO @POTUS Que dolor me da,estoy con CUBA♥️desde 🇻🇪😔.