Disney’s investment in Marvel Entertainment has earned it tens of billions of dollars, but the latest Marvel box office performances are starting to prove worrying.

On November 10, The Marvels released to movie theaters as the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After one weekend, it had earned just $46 million domestically, making it the lowest-ever debut for an MCU movie.

Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte created the following chart to show the rise and fall of Marvel box office earnings using data tracked by The Numbers as of November 12.

Marvel Box Office Earnings (2008‒2023)

The MCU was officially kickstarted with the release of Iron Man in 2008, a well-reviewed hit that earned $585 million worldwide at the box office.

Over the next few years, Marvel has released multiple movies in the same universe, building up characters and stories in “phases” and capitalizing with crossover releases. Phase 1 ended with 2012’s The Avengers—The first Marvel movie to earn more than $1 billion.

Here are Marvel’s movie releases in order of recency, as well as their estimated production budgets, box office hauls, and percentage of positive reviews:

Throughout the years, Marvel’s movie releases garnered greater box office draws and critical praise, culminating in Avengers: Endgame earning $2.79 billion at the box office and becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time.

But subsequent releases have been hampered, first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by a mix of poor reviews, scaled-back marketing campaigns, and oversaturation. While the first three phases of the MCU were limited only to Marvel’s feature film releases, Phase Four (2021‒2022) included eight television shows released on Disney+.

The Marvels, the sequel to the billion-dollar-grossing Captain Marvel and the Disney+ show Ms. Marvel, is the third movie in Phase Five. The phase was planned to span five movies and seven television shows, but Marvel’s recent underperformance and production delays from labor strikes in Hollywood are already causing Disney to re-evaluate its release plans.

Will Marvel be able to climb back into pole position at the global box office?

Authored by Malcom E. Whittaker via RealClear Wire,

According to sources, Hamas’ tunnels under Gaza extend “a few dozen miles.” Other sources believe these tunnels extend hundreds of miles and rival the underground of a major European city. This has caused some commentators to refer to Hama’s tunnels as the “Gaza metro.” The ‘Gaza metro’: The mysterious subterranean tunnel network used by Hamas | CNN. Whatever their length, they shield fighters from surveillance and allow movement without fear of observation or attack. What if these tunnels could be precisely located? Rather than being safe locations, they would become death traps.

Commentators suggest the tunnels give Hamas an asymmetric advantage. The noted publication Foreign Affairs, states that only “[b]ulldozers can be used to expose tunnels during a ground operation. Drones, robots, or dogs can help clear tunnels. There might be a need to enter the tunnels to rescue hostages, as a measure of last resort. … This is how most states have eliminated subterranean threats in the past, and this is what Israel should do, as well.” (November 9, 2023, “Israel Must Destroy Hama’s Tunnels, Demolishing the Groups Infrastructure Is More Important Than Eliminating Its Leaders”). In short, according to Foreign Affairs, only personnel on the ground can locate and destroy Hama’s tunnels. Of course, Israeli personnel searching open ground to locate the entrances to the tunnels would be exposed to attack.

Currently used seismic equipment could locate tunnels using a system of geophones and pulse generators. However, personnel placing the geophone data acquisition equipment on the surface would be exposed to small arms fire and potential capture. The need to potentially expose personnel to attack while emplacing geophones would seem to defeat use of this well-understood technology that could readily and accurately locate Hama’s tunnels.

At its most basic, a seismic system can map layers in the earth’s surface. To do so, as seen in the figure below, a source generates a seismic wave. This wave travels through the earth and reflects off reflecting subsurface layers, such as the roof and floor of a tunnel, and these reflected waves are collected by a receiver. A source and be anything that generates a seismic wave. Currently, stamper trucks and explosives are frequently used to generate these waves. Seismic receivers are generically referred to as “geophones.” Geophones collect seismic data, i.e., seismic waves, and map the earth’s subsurface.

Current seismic technology readily available from the oil field will allow identification (and then destruction) of these tunnels. Wireless Seismic METIS (Multiphysics Exploration Technology Integrated System) uses a seismic recording channel collected by autonomous drones. These drones also drop DART (Downfall Air Receiver Technology) receivers, i.e., geophones. The DARTs are dropped by the drone and impale themselves into the ground creating a system of geophones to model the subsurface data. This system was thoroughly evaluated in Papua New Guinea in 2018. Wireless Seismic News — METIS field test yields excellent results. A single drone dropped 60 DARTs in one hour and these drones recovered “real time seismic data” thereby imaging subsurface data of underground voids. Precision guided artillery shells could provide the seismic source needed for the geophones to collect subsurface data. The DART’s would be dropped inside Gaza to model any location, i.e., not just locations close to where Israeli troops are located. Thus, METIS could accurately map the entire Gaza strip.

Once the location of the tunnels is known, they can be destroyed using deep penetrating bombs fused to detonate deep in the ground and dropped from aircraft. This could potentially interdict the entire system of tunnels. Even an extensive metro-like system of tunnels could be defeated if important chokepoints could be detected and collapsed.

Finally, this technology could resolve the ongoing factual dispute over whether Hamas has placed tunnels underneath hospitals, United Nations positions, schools, and other places that are protected from attack. While not a panacea, the METIS system could answer these basic questions and, potentially, turn Hama’s tunnels into a death trap for fighters using the tunnels. At least, it would mitigate any asymmetric advantage Hama’s tunnels provide.

Malcolm E. Whittaker is a former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Malcolm is an engineer and patent attorney in Houston, Texas.

Update (0852ET):

SpaceX attempted a second launch of its mega-rocket known as “Starship” on Saturday morning from its Starbase facility in South Texas.

The nearly 400-foot-tall rocket blasted off from Boca Chica, Texas. 

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/qXnGXXZP5k

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

SpaceX reported, “Stage separation!” 

Stage separation! pic.twitter.com/PipaCW1PDT

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

According to The New York Times, “The powerful Starship vehicle reached an altitude of about 90 miles above earth on Saturday before losing contact, potentially because of an automated detonation.”

“We have lost the data from the second stage … what we do believe right now is that the Automated Flight Termination System on the second stage appears to have triggered very late in the burn,” John Insprucker, SpaceX principal integration engineer, said in a webcast.

Starship has traveled much further compared with the first launch in April. 

*    *    * 

The second flight test of the SpaceX mega-rocket known as “Starship” is set for Saturday morning. According to the SpaceX website, a 20-minute launch window opens up at 0800 ET. 

SpaceX initially planned the launch for Friday morning, but CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X, “We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so the launch is postponed to Saturday.” 

We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so launch is postponed to Saturday

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023

On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX for the second launch of the world’s most powerful rocket following a mishap in April. 

“The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency wrote on X. 

Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval https://t.co/WjENkdudo9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 6, 2023

At the moment, SpaceX has a satellite launching monopoly. Musk recently said, “SpaceX will deliver ~90% of all Earth payload to orbit,” adding, “Starship will take that to >99% in future years.” 

Based on the Falcon launch plan for next year, SpaceX will deliver ~90% of all Earth payload to orbit.

Starship will take that to >99% in future years.

These magnitudes are madness to consider, but necessary to make consciousness multiplanetary.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 3, 2023

Musk is leaving Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in the dust even as the Biden administration weaponized federal agencies against SpaceX. 

*   *   * 

Watch the rocket show here:

Early Saturday morning, Elon Musk said his social media platform X will be “filing a thermonuclear lawsuit” against left-leaning non-profit Media Matters and “all those who colluded” for “completely misrepresenting” the real user experience on X.

“This week, Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers,” Musk said. 

Media Matters shared a report Thursday that showed “white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theories” content next to “ads for major brands like Apple, Bravo (NBCUniversal), IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity (Comcast).” 

Musk outlined, “X has seen a number of attacks from activist groups like Media Matters and legacy media outlets who seek to undermine freedom of expression on our platform because they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative and those of their financial supporters.” 

He said these rogue groups are “trying to use their influence to attack our revenue streams by deceiving advertisers on X.” 

Musk detailed how the Media Matters’ report was nothing but garbage:

And this… 

The discovery and depositions will be glorious to behold

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2023

Earlier this week, Musk responded to an X post that criticized “Western Jewish populations” and said Jewish people were pushing “hatred against whites.” He added, “You have said the actual truth.” 

As a result of the report, Apple, Disney, and IBM pulled ad spending this week. 

On Thursday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to calm concerns about the platform: 

“When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop.”

And Musk retweeted Ben Shapiro’s nuanced explanation of the tweet-thread…

pic.twitter.com/Xigttg4DKm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2023

Musk added the lawsuit will be filed “when the split second court opens on Monday,” adding in a separate tweet that “many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of your right to free speech.” 

Authored by Ron Brown via the Brownstone Institute,

A novel coronavirus that was 10 times deadlier than the flu had gripped the world in 2019. Without a compass to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, all lessons learned from previous viral pandemics were thrown out the window. The World Health Organization was adamant, “This is not the flu.” Tony Fauci terrified the US House of Representatives with forecasts of disaster. Global populations were defenseless without a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that no one had ever seen before. The only viable defense at the time was to shut down the world.

Via Remix News,

Turkey says Sweden must extradite PKK members considered terrorists by Ankara…

In this photo provided by the Turkish Presidency, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, left, and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán walk during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, March 16, 2023. (Turkish Presidency via AP, File)

After several hours of debate, the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee postponed a vote on Sweden’s membership of NATO on Thursday, 18 months after Stockholm submitted its formal application for membership of the North Atlantic military alliance.

Announcing the decision, committee chairman Fuat Oktay said that all committee members needed to be fully convinced of Sweden’s credentials and warned that this could take time. He assured that the issue could be put back on the agenda in the near future but did not specify a date for the vote, and revealed that Sweden’s ambassador in Ankara could be invited to the committee meeting to speed up ratification.

Ankara has previously said it expects Stockholm to take stronger action in the fight against terrorism in return for Swedish approval and has demanded the extradition of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, living in Sweden.

The bill could be passed by a simple majority in a parliamentary committee, but it would then be voted on by the full plenary and signed into law by the Turkish president.

Turkey is joined only by Hungary as the NATO members yet to approve Sweden’s membership bid, and while both the Hungarian government and Hungarian President Katalin Novák have made clear their support for Sweden’s involvement in the defense alliance, many MPs in the ruling Fidesz coalition have reservations.

Swedish government officials have grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of movement in Budapest, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said earlier this year that Stockholm hadn’t helped itself in winning over Hungarian lawmakers.

“They’re spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here; how, the argument goes, can anyone want to be our ally in a military system while they’re shamelessly spreading lies about Hungary?” he said during an interview on national radio in March.

“If they expect us to be fair to them, then they should also be fair to Hungary,” Orbán added.

…

Read more here…

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

On one side of the table, a Global South leader at the top of his game. On the other side, a mummy selling the illusion he’s the “leader of the free world.”

That was bound for a cliffhanger – before, during or after the crucial bilateral involving the world’s top two powers. Already during the introductory remarks, US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, sitting on the right side of the mummy, was as terrified as James Stewart afraid of heights in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” – sensing doom would dawn at any second.

Then it did – at the final presser. Joe Biden, the actor playing The Mummy, following a proverbial smirk, said Chinese President Xi Jinping is “a dictator”. Because he is the leader of a communist country.

All those previous elaborate plans unraveled, in a flash. A tentatively rosy scenario turned into a film noir. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s response was as sharp as a Dashiell Hammett one-liner – and contextualized: this was not only “extremely wrong” but “an irresponsible political manipulation”.

All of the above of course assumed The Mummy knew where he was and what he was talking about, “off the cuff”, and not dictated by his ubiquitous earpiece.

The White House gives away the plot

The Xi-Biden drama, lasting a little over two hours, was not exactly a remake of “Vertigo”. Washington and Beijing seemed quite cozy jointly promising the proverbial promotion and strengthening of “dialogue and cooperation in various fields”; an intergovernmental dialogue on AI; drug control cooperation; back to high-level military-to-military talking; a “maritime security consultation mechanism”; significantly increasing flights by early 2024; and “expanding exchanges” in education, international students, culture, sports, and business circles.

The Hegemon was far from having a priceless Maltese Falcon (“the stuff dreams are made of”) to offer Beijing. China is already solidified as the world’s top trading economy by PPP. China is advancing at breakneck speed on the tech race even under nasty US sanctions. China’s soft power across the Global South/Global Majority increases by the day. China is co-organizing with Russia the concerted drive towards multipolarity.

The White House readout , as bland as it might seem, actually gives away the key part of the plot.

Biden – actually his earpiece – underscored “support for a free and open Indo-Pacific”; the defense of “our Indo-Pacific allies”; the “commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight”; “adherence to international law”; “maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and East China Sea”; “support to “Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression”; and “support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism”.

Beijing understands in detail the context and the geopolitical overtones of each of these pledges.

What the readout does not say is that Biden’s handlers also tried to convince the Chinese to stop buying oil from their strategic partner Iran.

That’s not gonna happen. China imported an average of 1.05 million barrels of oil a day from Iran over the first 10 months of 2023 – and rising.

US Think Tankland, always excelling in misinformation and disinformation, believed in their own childish projection of Xi playing tough guy against the US in Asia, knowing that Washington can’t afford a third love affair, sorry, war front on top of Ukraine and Israel/Palestine.

The fact is Xi knows all there is to know about imperial, rotating Hybrid War fronts, plus others that can be powered on at the flick of a switch. The Hegemon continues to provoke disturbance not only in Taiwan but in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, India, and continues to flirt with possible color revolutions in Central Asia.

There has been no direct US-China confrontation yet thanks to millenary Chinese diplomatic expertise and long term vision. Beijing knows in detail how Washington is simultaneously in Full Hybrid War mode against BRI (the Belt and Road Initiative) and BRICS – soon to become BRICS 11.

Only two options for China and the US

A Sino-American reporter, after the introductory remarks, asked Xi, in Mandarin, if he trusted Biden. The Chinese President perfectly understood the question, looked at her, and did not answer.

That’s a key plot twist. After all, Xi knew from the beginning he was talking to the handlers controlling an earpiece. Moreover, he was fully aware of Biden, actually his handlers, qualifying Beijing as a threat to the “rules based international order,” not to mention relentless accusations of “Xinjiang genocide” plus the containment tsunami.

Not by accident, last March, in a speech to Communist Party notables, Xi explicitly stated that the US is engaged in “comprehensive containment, encirclement and suppression against us.”

Shanghai-based scholar Chen Dongxiao suggests that China and US should engage in “ambitious pragmatism”. That happened to be exactly the tone of Xi’s key takeaway  in San Francisco:

“There are two options for China and the US in the era of global transformations unseen in a century: One is to enhance solidarity and cooperation and join hands to meet global challenges and promote global security and prosperity; and the other is to cling to the zero-sum mentality, provoke rivalry and confrontation, and drive the world towards turmoil and division. The two choices point to two different directions that will decide the future of humanity and Planet Earth.”

That is as serious as it gets. Xi added context. China is not engaged in colonial plunder; is not interested in ideological confrontation; it does not export ideology; and it has no plans to surpass or replace the US. So the US should not attempt to suppress or contain China.

Biden’s handlers may have told Xi that Washington still follows the One China policy – even as it continues to weaponize Taiwan under the twisted logic that Beijing might “invade”. Xi, once again, provided the concise clincher: “China will eventually, inevitably be reunified” with Taiwan.

$40,000 for dinner with Xi

Amid all the barely concealed tension, relief in San Francisco came in the form of business. Everyone and his corporate neighbor – Microsoft, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Apple – was dying to meet with leaders from several APEC nations. And especially from China.

APEC after all accounts for nearly 40% of the global population and nearly 50% of global trade. This is all about Asia-Pacific – not “Indo-Pacific”, an empty “rules-based international order” gambit that no one knows anything about, much less uses anywhere across Asia. Asia-Pacific will account for at least two-thirds of global growth in 2023 – and counting.

Hence the sterling success of a business dinner at the Hyatt Regency, with tickets costing between $2,000 and $40,000, hosted by the National Committee on United States-China Relations (NCUSCR) and the US-China Business Council (USCBC). Xi, inevitably, was the star of the show.

Corporate honchos well knew in advance that the US opted out of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and that the new trade gambit, the so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is basically D.O.A. IPEF may deal with supply chain issues but it does not hit the heart of the matter: lower tariffs and wide market access.

So Xi was there to “sell” to investors not only China but a great deal of Asia-Pacific as well.

One day after San Francisco, the heart of the action moved to Shanghai and a high-level Russia-China conference; that’s the kind of meeting where the strategic partnership formulates paths ahead in the Long March to Multipolarity.

In San Francisco, Xi made a point to stress that China respects the “historical, cultural and geographical position” of the US, while hoping that the US would respect the “path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

And here’s where the film noir plot approaches the final shootout. What Xi hopes will never happen with Straussian neocon psychos running US foreign policy. And that was starkly confirmed by The Mummy, a.k.a. Joe “Dictator” Biden.

So much for realpolitik practitioner Joseph “soft power” Nye, one of the few realists that believe China and the US, like James Stewart and Kim Novak in “Vertigo”, need each other, and should not be separated.

Well, unfortunately, in “Vertigo” the heroine plunges into the void and dies.

With Wednesday being World Diabetes Day, it’s worth looking at which countries have the highest number of people with the disease.

According to Anna Fleck of Statista, citing data from the NHS, there are two main types of diabetes: Diabetes type 1 is described as a “lifelong condition where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin”, whiule type 2 occurs when “the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells do not react to insulin properly.” Unlike type 2 diabetes, there are no lifestyle changes that you can make to lower your risk of developing type 1.

According to data from the International Diabetes Foundation, more than 1.4 million people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the United States.

Considering the comparatively smaller population sizes, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada have particularly high numbers of cases.

Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it usually occurs in childhood or adolescence. According to the International Diabetes Foundation, around 61 percent of people currently living with type 1 diabetes in the U.S. are between 20 and 59 years old, 28 percent are over 60 and around 12 percent are 20 or younger.

Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Synthetic hormones used for birth control may slow brain maturation and disrupt the development of an area of the brain responsible for impulsivity, according to new research.  

Adolescents commonly use hormonal contraceptives despite the unknown effects on brain and behavioral maturation, prompting scientists at Ohio State University to explore how common synthetic hormones used for birth control affect the prefrontal cortex—an area of the brain essential to regulating emotional behaviors and executive function.

In the study, presented during a Nov. 12, 2023, poster session at an annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, researchers gave a combination of synthetic estrogen and progesterone in hormone-based contraceptives to female rats from early to late adolescence and compared their behavior and brain tissue to untreated rats. 

Because synthetic hormones found in contraceptives decrease the ovaries’ production of natural progesterone and estrogen to prevent ovulation, researchers looked at how the brain is affected by these hormonal differences when it is still developing.

The study concentrated on myelination and microglia—immune cells that ​​regulate brain development, maintenance of neuronal networks, and injury repair—because both play essential roles in prefrontal cortex development. Myelination plays a role in the development of the prefrontal cortex and involves the formation of a protective coating called the myelin sheath around nerves to improve conduction.

Myelination in the human central nervous system begins one to two months before birth and persists into the third decade of life—consistent with the time it takes for cognitive function in children and adolescents to develop. According to the study, myelination is mediated by the same hormones that hormonal contraceptives target. 

Since synaptic development and myelination during the adolescent window are sensitive to the onset of hormones during puberty, the authors theorized that disrupting hormonal activity during puberty could “potentially shift the trajectory of some of those developmental processes,” co-senior author Kathryn Lenz, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State, said in a news release. 

“When it comes to nervous system communication, keeping it steady is key—too much or too little can lead to dysfunction that affects the mood and behavior,” she said. 

The study found myelination increased and microglia decreased when the rats were given hormonal contraception, indicative of disrupted communication. In behavioral threat appraisal tests, rats given hormonal contraceptives were found to be more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors, such as remaining in elevated wide-open spaces and sampling treats in unfamiliar settings. 

Lab tests confirmed that the synthetic ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel given to the treated rats were present in brain tissue. However, researchers were unable to determine if the effects were due to how synthetic hormones shut down natural hormone production or if they were directly impacting the brain.

The study provides some of the first evidence showing that hormonal contraceptives given during the vulnerable developmental period of adolescence may influence the development of the prefrontal cortex, contributing to altered risk-assessment behavior.

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

As the lone U.S. Air Force flag officer on “doomsday” flights, Brig. Gen. Don Bacon knew the loneliness of having Armageddon at his fingertips.

Years later, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) again knows the sentinel’s loneliness, his repeated calls to restore the Air Force’s Cold War Era “Looking Glass” program unheeded.

But that may be changing.

During a Nov. 15 House Armed Services Committee review of a congressional commission’s report assessing the nation’s nuclear forces, fears surfaced that potential adversaries—namely Russia and China—are developing capacities from space, from cyber, from under the sea, from everywhere all at once, to elude U.S. early warning systems and launch a surprise strike.

Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) both cited such a scenario as not merely speculative, but as an urgent threat that must be addressed.

“In terms of resiliency and survivability, regardless how many nuclear weapons or what platforms we have, our command-and-control structures and the ability to make them less vulnerable” is vital, Mr. Smith said.

Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States Chair Madelyn Creedon, a former National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) deputy administrator and Assistant Defense Secretary, agreed.

“That is an important area. It’s also an area that doesn’t get talked about much because so much is classified,” she said.

The report recommends that “attention be placed on the modernization of the nuclear command-and-control system,” Ms. Creedon said. “This also includes how various systems must be more resilient. So, you know, maybe it’s multiple systems” with moving pieces “so that we don’t lose our eyes, if you will.”

Gosh, Mr. Bacon said, that sounds like “Looking Glass.”

“We need to go back to where we used to have 24/7 airborne backup capabilities for our command, control, and communications,” he said. “We need to restore an emergency 24/7 backup capability that can’t be taken out by surprise.”

“Looking Glass” was the operational name for the National Emergency Airborne Command Post program, the rotating but ever-present sky sentinels with beyond-horizon eyes and ears, airborne 24 hours a day, every day, for 37 years between 1961 and 1998.

The program was created to “mirror” the Department of Defense’s (DOD) ground-based command, control, and communications capacities so, in the event they were rendered inoperable in a nuclear strike, airborne teams could transmit launch commands to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), Air Force strategic bombers, and submarines at sea.

“Looking Glass” ensured there would be no surprises, that any nuclear strike against America would induce a response that made such an attack unthinkable.

It was the guarantee that mutually assured destruction was, indeed, assured.

Mr. Bacon has maintained for at least five years that the current airborne surveillance system is inadequate.

And he should know.

“I used to fly on the ‘Looking Glass,’” he said, accumulating more than 1,700 hours as command, control, and communications analyst flying out of Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1980s and again as a “one star,” a brigadier general, in 2011-12 on “NightWatch”—the one with his finger on the button.

During a July hearing, Mr. Bacon told Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs Deborah Rosenblum and Air Force Global Strike Commander Gen. Thomas Bussiere that the Navy doesn’t have enough E-6Bs and that emerging technologies—hypersonics, space lasers—won’t give U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) much time, if any, to thwart a nuclear strike.

“With hypersonics, you may have a 15-minute warning time. That’s not enough time to get a jet off reliably, in my view,” he said. “So you’re better off having a 24/7 capacity. Why? Because you want the Russians and the Chinese to know that no matter what they do, we can strike back. And so I think it’s important for deterrence.”

Mr. Bacon’s back-to-the-future suggestion to restore “Looking Glass” drew polite acknowledgment but little else.

During the Nov. 15 hearing, he asked Ms. Creedon and commission Vice Chair Jon Kyl, who represented Arizona as a Republican U.S. Senator from 1995-2013, what their year-long study said about the nation’s airborne surveillance capacities.

“With current technologies, [there is a] 15-minute warning time,” he said, adding DOD assures him that a 15-minute warning is enough time “and I’m not convinced,” especially “with 15-minute warning times going to zero in the future.”

Anticipating advances in technologies, there will be “no warning times. The White House, the Pentagon, STRATCOM could be hooked, and then you’re headless,” Mr. Bacon said. “We need to go back to the where we used to have 24/7 airborne backup capabilities for our command-and-control.”

“You’re exactly right,” Mr. Kyl said.

The former senator said among the commission’s 12 members is former STRATCOM commander, retired Air Force Gen. John Hyten.

Mr. Hyten was “a large part of our conversation that dealt with how we could make sure that our command-and-control kept up with the developments that are occurring, just as you point out. There are specific recommendations in the report that go directly to that.”

Restoring “Looking Glass” would not only be relatively inexpensive compared with other options, but could serve as the steady sentinel in any “deterrence gap” that could occur in transitions to new systems and technologies, the report suggests.

For Mr. Bacon, what once worked to make nuclear war unthinkable will work again because the most important aspect of deterrence is being there, being the watcher adversaries know is there but can’t be found, the one with Armageddon at its fingertips.

“How else do we ensure that, even with your warning time, we have command authorities not at the positions that are targeted? We got to find a way to do that,”  he said. “And I’m going to be pushing this until we get resolution within the DOD.”