Palmer Luckey warns that the Pentagon’s reliance on Chinese-owned Lenovo laptops would have been unimaginable during the Cold War: “It wouldn’t have even been believable as fiction.” 🇺🇸🇨🇳 “It would’ve been unthinkable. It wouldn’t have been believable as fiction. And yet that’s what happens today. Our largest laptop manufacturer for the Pentagon is Lenovo, which is owned by China. Their headquarters has a flagpole with the Chinese Communist Party flag, and then the Lenovo logo underneath it. It’s nuts. I’d say one more thing about why we’re not beating China.” Who would’ve thought in 2026 we’d still be pressing an issue of overreliance on strategic adversaries for critical technology used in our most defensible sector.

🚨The Western Hemisphere is quietly building the world's most important oil supply cushion. New projections from Wood Mackenzie, reported by the Financial Times and flagged by Jack Prandelli, show six Western Hemisphere producers adding roughly 2.6 million barrels per day of new oil production by 2030. Here's the breakdown: • United States: the biggest contributor, adding about 900,000 b/d. The shale patch keeps delivering, year after year, no matter how many times it's written off. • Guyana: the fastest grower, with output up about 74%. A decade ago, Guyana produced no oil at all. Today, it is one of the great success stories in the global industry. • Suriname: going from near zero to about 200,000 b/d, riding the same geology that made Guyana a star. • Argentina: Vaca Muerta is finally living up to its promise as one of the world's great shale plays. • Canada: Alberta's oil sands remain a steady, long-life source of supply. • Brazil: its deepwater offshore keeps adding barrels. Why does this matter right now? Because the war with Iran and the constant threat to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have reminded everyone how much risk is baked into Middle East supply. Every barrel produced in this hemisphere is a barrel that never has to pass through that chokepoint. That makes these non-Hormuz barrels more valuable by the day, both to refiners and to the nations that depend on reliable energy. The lesson here is simple: energy security comes from producing more oil and gas, not less. The countries that open their resources to development - and the companies willing to invest in them - are the ones keeping the world supplied while the Middle East burns. More on this in today's Energy Additions - Link in the next post.