Engineering Escape Velocity - A 5 year Plan for Europe

This three-part Reckoning series began with a question about what China’s history, including its 19th-century failures and its 20th century successes, can teach Europe about its 21st-century moment of crisis. China failed to adapt to geopolitical changes in the 19th century and that mistake gave rise to a century of humiliation. China learned from that failure and is now a superpower.

The Stackelberg Trap and how Europe must deal with the American criminal enterprise, China & Russia

Continuing the series:

The Reckoning: A European Strategy For an Unstable World

1. The Stackelberg Trap — Europe Nearly Always Follows
2. The Opium Wars, Ambiguity & Chinese Realignment
3. A Network of Criminal Enterprises
4. Securing The Lagrange Point
5. The Age-Old Russia Question
6. Footnotes

" It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

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**" Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite **
….**this is killing me “**1

In Part 2 we looked at the many risks arising from Elon Musk’s ownership of the social media platform X, his development of Grok and Grokipedia and his promotion of disinformation and hate.

Geopolitics, Technology, and Democratic Governance

The third article in the European Reckoning series. Following on from:

Europe United ? - The union is born

The Rape of Europa (c. 1560-62), Titian

Introduction

Europe is in great danger, it faces a moment of profound vulnerability (Titian ’s ‘Rape of Europa’ seemed apt).

Progress Update

1. AI Notebook
2. Introduction: A Democracy Staring at the Abyss
3. The Blueprint for Autocracy: Deconstructing Project 2025
   1. Central Ideology and Policy Goals
   2. Implementation and Funding
4. The Hungarian Model: An Authoritarian Blueprint
5. Progress Tracker Since Inauguration
6. Implementation By Executive Order
7. Implementation: Personnel and Structural Consolidation
   1. The Personnel Purge and Loyalty Appointments
   2. The Parallel Mechanism: Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
8. Key Policy Areas of Implementation
   1. Energy, Climate, and Environmental Deregulation
   2. Dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
   3. Fiscal Control and Spending Cuts
   4. Education and Public Services
   5. Project Esther
   6. Immigration
9. Immigration and Border Security
   1. Targeting and Sensitive Locations:
   2. The Scale of Current and Planned Enforcement
   3. Arrest and Detention Capacity
   4. Policy Changes Driving Scale
   5. The Use of Foreign Prisons and Conditions for Deportees
   6. Intended Scope of Mass Deportations Envisioned by Project 2025
10. Divergences and Extensions Beyond the Blueprint
11. A New International Order: The Global Implications
12. A Call for Democratic Defence: The Path Forward
13. Conclusion: The Work of Millions
14. No Kings - October 18 2025
15. Footnotes

AI Notebook

I have created an AI notebook with many sources of information on Project 2025 and tracking how it is being implemented (which you can use to query aspects of the Trump & MAGA regime change). This overview of where we are has also been created using it (with minor tweaks).

“I feel that the four big AI CEOs in the U.S. are modern-day prophets with four different versions of the Gospel ..telling the same basic story that this is so dangerous and so scary that I have to do it and nobody else.”1

(Max Tegmark)

We enter a new age of AI , with some American snake-oil salesmen promising AI (and themselves) as a saviour to solve all of our ills (a new era of ‘psychohistory’ - but more Wizard of Oz style). Thank goodness for Demis Hassabis.

This collection of thematic AI news sources is provided in the hope that people will better understand the plight of Palestinians and the ethical degradation of Israel and its Western allies. There must be a better vision for the future of Israelis and Palestinians.

It might be hard for readers to believe, based on the below, but I actually consider myself pro-Israel (in the Gideon Levy vein) and pro-Palestinian (and one day a free Palestine) - but not the terrorists leaders of Israel or in Gaza. If you read my ‘Canto for David’, you can see my attempt to wrestle with god, godlessness and the recycling of suffering in the Israel-Palestine story and history.

1. Introduction – Geopolitical Competition
2. What is AI?
3. AI and Warfare
4. Current Applications of Warfare AI
5. China’s Rapid Ascent in AI
6. The US-Israel Alliance
7. Europe’s Emphasis on Ethical AI
8. Russia’s Pursuit of AI Amidst Sanctions
9. Spotlight on Russia-Ukraine: The Drone Wars
10. The Ethics of AI Warfare
11. Evolutionary AI - the law of unintended consequences
12. Conclusion
13. Footnotes

AI image

Dedicated toHossam Shabbat and all the Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza.

“...empires rise and fall at a wave of the pointer, the blood is blotted out - And only one small boy, who was not paying the least attention, will ask between two victorious wars: and did it hurt in those days too?”

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The first article in the European Reckoning series.

“**I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe. ”**1

US Secretary of Defence, February 12, 2025.

AI Podcast Version

I have also created an AI podcast version (if you are interested in trying it out):