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More from @RodDMartin

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 10

🧵The USS Nimitz — America’s oldest aircraft carrier, laid down in 1968 and scheduled for decommissioning this month — just showed up off Cuba’s coast instead.

Raul Castro better watch out. There's a cell beside Maduro's!

Trump isn’t letting old ships rust. He’s using them to project power. 🧵

https://x.com/Southcom/status/2057131106005090406?s=20

2/ The Navy extended the Nimitz’s service life by ~10 months.

Now the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is in the Caribbean, sending a clear message to Havana.

“Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz!” — U.S. Southern Command.

https://x.com/Southcom/status/2057131106005090406?s=20

3/ The timing is no coincidence.

It comes after the Justice Department indicted 94-year-old former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro.

Cuba is in free fall, cut off from Venezuelan oil money. Ordinary citizens are burning wood and charcoal to cook while the regime maintains fuel for its military and and lavish lifestyles for its "Communist" leaders.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 10

🧵 "Horse paste" wins again!

The New World screwworm — a flesh-eating parasite eradicated from the U.S. in 1966 — is back.

Confirmed cases now in Texas and New Mexico. It burrows into open wounds and consumes living tissue.

But the good news is, Ivermectin is proving highly effective against it in both animals and humans. 🧵

2/ The USDA confirmed the first U.S. case in decades on June 3, 2026, in a Texas calf. More cases followed in Texas counties and a dog in New Mexico.

This parasite has been marching north from Central America. Unlike regular flies, screwworm larvae are obligate parasites that destroy living flesh.

3/ Livestock: Ivermectin is a game-changer.

In February 2026, the FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization for Ivomec (ivermectin) injectable in cattle.

12 field studies in South America showed over 97% protection against screwworm infestations in wounds.

A single injection protects for 10–21 days.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 10

🧵Calling Israel a “European colonial project” may sometimes be ignorance. But it’s a lie.

Mizrahi Jews — who never lived anywhere but the Middle East for 2,500+ years — are the largest group in Israel (between half and ~61%).

They weren’t colonizers. They were ethnically cleansed from Arab lands in the 20th Century.

The colonial myth requires erasing them. 🧵

2/ These communities predated Islam by 1,500 years. They wrote the Talmud in Iraq. Maintained ancient traditions in Yemen. Formed a third of Baghdad’s population.

In 1948, nearly 900,000 Jews lived across the Arab world.

Today? Fewer than 10 remain in Iraq, Yemen, or Libya.

3/ The ethnic cleansing was systematic:

• Iraq’s Farhud pogrom (1941): 2,600 years of Jewish culture driven out.

• Egypt 1956: Jews given one suitcase, forced to “donate” everything, then expelled.

• Yemen, Libya, Syria, Morocco, Algeria: pogroms, property seizures, citizenship stripped.

Ancient communities liquidated in a few short years.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 9

🧵A single uranium pellet the size of a gummy bear equals the energy of 140 barrels of oil.

Nuclear is the cleanest, safest, densest energy source on Earth. And now, it can be produced with zero chance of meltdown or radiation leaks.

So why isn’t it powering everything? We buried a miracle under 50 years of regulation. That’s changing fast. 🧵

2/ From 1974 to 2025, the NRC approved zero new reactor designs.

Only two reactors came online in that entire period.

Trump’s executive orders are blowing this open: goal to quadruple America’s nuclear fleet by 2050, 18-month licensing timelines, and three new microreactors online by July 4, 2026.

Nuclear entrepreneurs say regulation is finally becoming a solved problem.

3/ The breakthrough making “zero meltdown or radiation leaks” possible is TRISO fuel.

These snooker-ball-sized ceramic pebbles trap radiation inside — even if you turn off all coolant systems. China tested it: the reactor simply cooled down naturally. Wow!

Microreactors using TRISO are small enough to fit in a living room.

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 8

🧵 China’s population collapse is now mathematically irreversible.

There simply aren’t enough women left of childbearing age.

Even if the fertility rate magically returned to replacement level (2.1 children per woman) tomorrow, the country would still lose more than 40% of its population by 2100.

It won't. The real number is 75%. There's nothing like it in history. 🧵

2/ Official estimates say China has only ~190 million women of childbearing age. That number is much higher than reality.

The One Child Policy (1980–2016) and its echoes slashed entire generations. Sex-selective abortions made it worse.

The cohorts now entering prime childbearing years are themselves the children of the one-child policy — already a drastically smaller group.

Each generation compounds the previous deficit.

3/ The numbers are brutal.

Population has fallen for four straight years. In 2025: just 7.92 million births vs. 11.31 million deaths — a record natural decline outside Mao’s famine.

Births dropped another 17% in 2025, hitting the lowest level since 1949. Total fertility rate is now ~0.92 (some estimates as low as 0.84).

Read 7 tweets

Rod D. Martin

@RodDMartin

Jun 6

🧵84 years ago this week, the Battle of Midway changed history.

But what if America had lost — as it very nearly did?

People have no idea how close we came to a Japanese victory that would have cost the Allies both the Pacific and Europe.

It was that close. 🧵

2/ Had Japan won at Midway, they would have destroyed three U.S. carriers while keeping their fleet intact.

Nothing could have stopped them from seizing key South Pacific islands, building airfields, and creating an impregnable defensive perimeter from Samoa to Midway to the Aleutians.

U.S. supply lines to Australia would have been severed. A Pacific offensive delayed until mid-1943 or later.

But that's just the beginning....

3/ An isolated, vulnerable Australia would have had to bring home its own critical troops from North Africa.

Their 7th Division was decisive at El Alamein. Without them, Britain likely would have lost the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and India.

Without options, Australia might have even been forced into a neutrality pact with Japan — trading raw materials for safety.

Read 7 tweets

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