With the wildfires in the Los Angeles area still raging, a new exclusive report from the UK's Daily Mail's Perkin Amalaraj reveals that the Los Angeles Fire Department has, for some time, been literally begging the city council for funding to replace aging equipment and hire new maintenance staff. Those pleas went unanswered, and now we see the results. //

Here's the part I find baffling: My son-in-law, a paramedic and volunteer firefighter for a small Iowa county of about 12,000 people — the kid is basically Captain America — reports that his little, mostly rural county has just funded the purchase of replacements for one of their three modern fire trucks and all three of their ambulances. Between the county seat's town council and the county, he assures me that the emergency services departments are a high priority and get what they need.

Would that Los Angeles had their priorities so properly in order.

Thank you to my incredible wife Jennifer, who has changed my life and been with me throughout this entire process. I love you sweetheart, and I thank God for you. And as Jenny and I pray together each morning, all glory—regardless of the outcome—belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His grace and mercy abound each day. May His will be done.

Thank you to my father Brian and mother Penny, as well as my entire family—including our seven wonderful kids: Gunner, Jackson, Peter Boone, Kenzie, Luke, Rex & Gwendolyn. Their future safety and security is in all our hands.

And to all the troops and veterans watching, and in this room—Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Pilots, Sailors, Marines, Gold Stars and more. Too many friends to name. Officers and Enlisted. Black and White. Young and Old. Men and Women. All Americans. All warriors. This hearing is for you. Thank you for figuratively, and literally, having my back. I pledge to do the same for you. All of you. //

As I’ve said to many of you in our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was—to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s it. That is my job. //

My only special interest is—the warfighter. Deterring wars, and if called upon, winning wars—by ensuring our warriors never enter a fair fight. We let them win and then bring them home. Like many of my generation, I’ve been there. //

The desperation of the left was evident in the fact that no one addressed policy or strategic questions with all of them choosing to direct personal attacks on Hegseth's character. //

It is difficult to get away from the feeling that the Democrats knew they had nothing to stop him, so they resorted to smearing him as much as possible before he takes office.

Hegseth came across weakest on the complaint that he'd refused to engage in one-on-one meetings with any of the Democrats other than the ranking member. His reason for doing so was obvious. The substance of any conversation would be lied about or distorted, and the conversation would give the Democrats a chance to test how he would respond to questions. Hegseth unconvincingly passed this off as "scheduling conflicts" because you can't very well try to come across as bipartisan while revealing that you don't trust the Democrats. //

In terms of optics, Hegseth was polite, responsive, and telegenic. He was able to successfully filibuster during some particularly nasty personal attacks and not look flustered or angry. In terms of intelligence, he may very well have been one of the two or three smartest guys in the room.

On any given day, SpaceX is probably launching a Falcon 9 rocket, rolling one out to the launch pad or bringing one back into port. With three active Falcon 9 launch pads and an increasing cadence at the Starbase facility in Texas, SpaceX's teams are often doing all three.

The company achieved another milestone Friday with the 25th successful launch and landing of a single Falcon 9 booster. This rocket, designated B1067, launched a batch of 21 Starlink Internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. //

But SpaceX's accomplishment of 25 flights offers an opportunity to step back and take in some context. The newest and final iteration of the Falcon 9 design, known as Block 5, debuted in 2018. At the time, SpaceX officials said they planned to fly each booster 10 times before standing down for more thorough refurbishment.

SpaceX now plans to launch each Falcon 9 booster up to 40 times. Engineers temporarily removed two Falcon 9 boosters from SpaceX's launch rotation in 2023 for in-depth inspections after their 15th flight. That allowed SpaceX to extend each booster's certification to 20 flights, and last year, officials announced they were going for 40. //

SpaceX is also recovering and reusing payload fairings, the shell that encloses satellite payloads during their initial climb through the atmosphere. Last month, the company confirmed it flew a fairing shell for the 22nd time, another new record. SpaceX's factory in Hawthorne, California, must also churn out new upper stages for each Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flight. That's 135 of these multimillion-dollar stages for each Falcon mission in the last 365 days, or one flight (and one new upper stage) every 2.7 days. //

Imagine, for a moment, the sprawling footprint and bloated headcount of SpaceX's factory if it had to manufacture a new Falcon 9 booster, nine engines, and a payload fairing set every 2.7 days. How cost-effective could that be? Would it even be possible? It's mind-boggling enough to visualize the blistering production pace for Falcon 9's upper stages in Hawthorne or SpaceX's Starlink satellites in Redmond, Washington. //

Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, has suggested that his company must produce 100 or more Starships per year to fulfill his Mars settlement ambitions, even with full reusability. //

While SpaceX's competency with reusing Falcon 9 boosters gets a lot of attention—landing a rocket is still incredible, even after seeing it nearly 400 times—its manufacturing prowess with Falcon 9 upper stages suggests that building 100 Starships each year just might be doable someday.