就在一年前的这个星期，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯召集了分布在全球各地的军方高级指挥官（大约800名将军和海军上将）来到弗吉尼亚州，听他发表一场奇怪、自我陶醉且完全不必要的鼓舞士气的演讲。据所有人反映，听众对这场演讲印象极差。周三下午，这位曾担任福克斯新闻主持人的官员（后来被参议院共和党人任命为国防部长）再次尝试发表演讲；不过，有时他的言行甚至让人联想到科林·乔斯特在NBC的《周六夜现场》节目中模仿他的样子。
A year ago this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned the military’s top commanders — roughly 800 generals and admirals — who were spread around the world to come to Virginia to listen to him give a bizarre, self-indulgent and wildly unnecessary pep rally speech. By all accounts, the audience was unimpressed On Wednesday afternoon, the former Fox News host whom Senate Republicans confirmed to lead the Pentagon gave it another try though at times Hegseth appeared to be doing an imitation of Colin Jost imitating him on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
“那些意识形态上的‘小丑’已经被赶下台了，”赫格塞斯说道，他的语气听起来简直就像一个意识形态上的“小丑”一样。“现在，真正的‘爱国牛仔’们已经登场了——他们充满斗志，随时准备迎接挑战。”他接着谴责了自由媒体、美国的高等教育体系、超重人群以及跨性别者，并将“留胡子的人”、“怪人”、“懦弱的人”和“激进分子”都列为批评的对象。
“The ideological clowns are out,”the defense secretary said sounding very much like an ideological clown. “The patriotic cowboys are in — with testosterone testing on top.”He proceeded to condemn the free press, American higher education, overweight people and transgender people, as well as “beardos,” “weirdos,” “wimps” and “radicals.”
为了“奖励”那些参加演讲的听众，主办方还在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科海军陆战队基地为他们准备了一套装订好的赫格塞斯演讲集，将其作为“培训手册”分发给他们。
For good measure, the prescreened attendees at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia were also rewarded with a bound collection of Hegseth’s speeches, packaged as a “field manual.”
不过，赫格塞斯演讲中有一个出乎意料的环节让我印象深刻：根据MS NOW的现场报道，赫格塞斯宣布，科技巨头埃隆·马斯克（前美国政府效率部门负责人）、前共和党众议院议长纽特·金里奇以及Oculus头盔公司的创始人帕尔默·卢基将共同领导一个名为“Meridian项目”的研究计划，旨在“探索战争的未来”。赫格塞斯表示：“这三位伟大的美国人将会与一支由私营部门资深领导者及来自美国各个创新、学术和政策领域的专家组成的团队合作，共同推进这项研究。”
But there was one unexpected element of Hegseth’s presentation that stood out for me. From MS NOW’s live coverage Hegseth announced that tech billionaire and former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, alongside former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Oculus headsets founder Palmer Luckey, will co-lead an effort called Project Meridian to “study the future of warfare.”“Those three great Americans are going to be joined by a team of senior leaders, handpicked private sector leaders and subject matter experts from across our nation’s unmatched innovation, academic and policy ecosystems,” Hegseth said.
“Meridian项目”的具体目的尚不明确；五角大楼在宣布这一计划时使用了许多冗长、乏味的官方措辞——他们声称将通过“利用专家的力量”来“推动某种积极的愿景”；不过，这个项目似乎与美国武装部队需要“占领的领土”有关。赫格塞斯（Hegseth）为这个项目挑选了三位成员。
The specific purpose of Project Meridian is a little unclear, and the Pentagon’s announcement about the initiative was filled with tiresome corporate phrasing — these guys are apparently going to be “facilitating” a “proactive vision” by “leveraging” experts— but this apparently has something to do with identifying “the domains” that the U.S. armed forces “must conquer.”Hegseth picked a curious trio for the endeavor.
其中，卢基（Luckey）可能是这三人中知名度最低的：他是一名科技企业家，同时也是共和党的慷慨捐助者；金里奇（Gingrich）则曾担任美国众议院议长，但二十多年前就被自己的共和党同僚赶出了国会大厦。两人都完全没有军事经验；金里奇在越南战争期间多次逃避兵役。
Luckey, who arguably has the lowest profile of the bunch, is a tech entrepreneur, generous Republican donor and Donald Trump enthusiast Gingrich, meanwhile, is a former House speaker whose own GOP members drove him from Capitol Hill more than a quarter of a century ago. Collectively, they have zero days of military experience, and Gingrich famously received a great many deferments while avoiding military service during the war in Vietnam.
当然，还有马斯克（Musk）——这位亿万富翁同样从未服过兵役，其公然的种族主义和反犹太主义言论使他在政治上极具争议性。
And then, of course, there’s Musk, a billionaire who also never served in the military, whose overt racism antisemitism should make him politically radioactive The New York Times’Jamelle Bouie posited
《纽约时报》的贾梅尔·布伊（Jamelle Bouie）在7月份的文章中写道：“为什么马斯克可以逍遥法外？为什么政客、记者和评论家们总是将他的极右翼种族主义思想视为次要问题，而忽视了它才是他政治、意识形态和商业活动的核心？从他对唐纳德·特朗普的支持，到他在美国孟菲斯（一个黑人人口占多数的城市）建造大型数据中心（该数据中心会带来严重污染）的决定，这一切都体现了他的极端立场。”
in a July column: Why does Musk get a pass? Why do politicians, journalists and commentators treat his far-right racist radicalism as a sideshow rather than the core of his political, ideological and industrial project, seen in everything from his deep support for Donald Trump in the United States and Restore Britain in Britain to his decision to construct a massive pollution-generating data center in predominantly Black Memphis?
马斯克将大量空闲时间用于煽动暴力、传播仇恨言论；正是这些行为，而非他制造的汽车或发射的火箭，才真正决定了他在社会中的地位。
Musk spends a large part of his free time fomenting violence and spreading the same hateful ideology that motivated some of the deadliest shootings and attacks ever to happen on American soil. It is that fact, and not the cars he builds or the rockets he launches, that ought to define his place in public life.
在接下来的几个月里，马斯克开始试图为共和党人赢得中期选举；随后，赫格塞斯（Hegseth）邀请他参与领导“子午线计划”（Project Meridian）。对于这个计划的未来，实在很难抱有乐观的态度。
In the months that followed, Musk began trying to buy the midterms for Republicans and then Hegseth invited him to help lead “Project Meridian.”It is difficult to be optimistic about the initiative’s future. The post Hegseth taps Musk and Gingrich to help lead ‘Project Meridian’MS NOW