malada

Look, I'm a child of the 60's when the Space Race was HOT. I grew up watching the Gemini missions fold into the Apollo missions, moon landings and Skylab. I can't help but keep on eye on the three rocket men; Branson, Bezos and Musk. The recent flights of the first two billionaires has left me... disappointed.

Branson's space plane is innovative and looks as handsome as he is... but does his system _scale_? I mean, it would be great to hop aboard a larger version of Virgin Galactic and fly to the space station a la "2001 a Space Oddessy" but I can't see his system scaling much beyond his little hopper plane.

As for Bezos - his cute little rocket seems to work well but again... does it _scale_? He preaches about sending all our heavily polluting industries up into space but this isn't a new idea - it's been around since the 1970s. So where are the workers going to stay? I'm sure working in one of his orbiting factories will be as enjoyable as working at an Amazon warehouse. And I'm sure the delivery from space will be quite exciting especially if you like your items flaming.

As for putting giant solar collectors into orbit... won't it be easier and cheaper just to deploy them closer to the places where power is needed? You know... ON THE GROUND?

And finally we come to Elon. I have to hand it to him... Musk puts on a good show. Moving fast and breaking things in rocketry leads to big explosions which are entertaining as long as no one gets hurt. And I have to admit that (unlike most of his other business adventures) he has delivered. His rockets has sent both satellites and people _in orbit_. Not sub-orbital - but fully into space. If you want to go to space you have to send _tonnage_ and lots of it. But putting 10s of thousands of satellites up in low earth orbit to deliver Internet? And have the satellites burn up and need replacing every 5 years? I don't think you need to do much math to realize that fiber optic lines that need installed once will be a better and cheaper system in the long run.

As for living in space or on Mars... we still don't have enough data on our long term survival in either. Building an L5 station would be a safer option to work out *how* to survive in deep space. Mars is a long ways away. Our tinker toy probes are doing okay there but they are expendable. They don't need food and water and oxygen to survive - people do. These items are a little sparse on the red planet.

You want to save planet Earth? Great! Stop running away from it! Maybe we can leave this planet at some future date and there's nothing wrong with planning and doing the research that will make that possible and safe... but seriously, most of the solutions to our problems are ground based - not space based.

-m

With the country awash in guns... it's not surprising there's so many gun deaths.

Along with mass shootings.

And with every call to restrict the ownership and use of weapons of mass killing (you can't go hunting with an AR-15 and a hundred round drum) we get the *whining* of the 'legal gun owners' (aka entitled white men) about the 'Constitutional Rights' to wag their penis extenders around.

Well, I'm sick of it.

First of all... when guns are restricted, deaths from guns drop.

Second of all... the Second Amendment is *not* about a single person owning guns but the establishment of a *well regulated militia*. The founders had a definite fear of a national, standing army especially in peacetime. Their hack was to restrict the national army and rely on local militias that could be called up quickly.

Third of all... if you look at the blue print of the Constitution: The Federalist Papers - the use of local militias and the dangers of a standing army is spoken of in great length. The right of an individual to own firearms? I might have missed it but I didn't see *any* mention of that.

As for the NRA - I'm old enough to remember when the NRA was about gun training, gun history, gun safety and hunting safely. Me and my brother learned all about gun safety at the local police firing range. We got those cheap little medals from the NRA when we did well in target practice. That NRA is DEAD. It's all about selling, selling, selling guns and ammo - to white people.

Gods help you if you're black and armed.

-m

On the radio this morning I heard a (D) politician rumbling how it's 'divisive' to impeach Trump when we need to 'unite' and 'work with the Republicans'.

At every sentence I was going, "F**k you, f**k you, f**k you."

THE MAN INCITED A RIOT. TRUMP ENCOURAGED SEDITION. HE EGGED ON A CROWD TO GO ASSAULT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.

And the crowd came armed and ready to do the deed - because at least some of them had planned to do so. The planned to hunt down Congressmen and women, assault them, kidnap them, have mock trials (probably on Twitter and Parler) and then murder them.

I don't want unity with neo Nazis, fascists and white nationalists - I want those violent thugs thrown into jail and the Big Orange One can join them. I want Law and Order. Jail them. Throw away the key.

And f**k those who whine about 'unity'. Leaving evil deeds unpunished leads to more evil deeds. The next act of insurrection may be successful. Then you can whine all about unity while they rioters hang you.

-m

Another press conference by the legal clown car that is Trump's lawyer team has melted down with references of CONSPIRACY! HUGO CHAVEZ (isn't he dead?) SECRET SERVERS IN GERMANY! GEORGE SOROS! - all without a shred of evidence.

Even with Guliani's hair dye streaming off his head I'm not laughing.

I laughed when Trump rode down the golden escalator when he began is run for presidency.

I laughed when the Republicans were in complete disarray with third rate candidates *who couldn't lay a glove* on the buffoon that was Trump.

I stopped laughing when nearly half of America voted that lying, racist, tax cheating sociopath into office.

No matter how crazy, how pathetic, now *utterly insane* the antics of the Trump administration have gotten I haven't been laughing.

Because they're serious. Deadly serious.

They don't care about facts, they don't care about science, they don't even care about their supporters - they only want to wield power: power over people, the world, even reality itself... as long as they don't have to pay the consequences. And historically, they haven't. Grifters rarely do.

It may be comical but it's not funny. They only care about fooling enough people to shake down as many people as they can and run.

-m

It's the Saturday after election day and they're still counting. I'm nervous and on edge still... but I'm okay with waiting a little while longer.

Count every vote.

If Biden has won, make damn sure of it by counting every, single, vote.

Even if he has won, there is still the toxic dump that is the racist, sexist, elitist, science-denying, fascist scum that needs to be scrubbed from the minds of the possibly brain-washed masses that voted for Trump.

The true believers... the Vanilla ISIL gangs... let the FBI deal with the domestic terrorists.

Personally, I think the best thing that could happen is Biden/Harris waits until all the votes are counted... either later today or tomorrow... then wait until the Monday news cycle to hit to make the Big Announcement. That will seriously troll Trump.

I've heard that Big Baby Donnie has declared that he'll only leave the White House being dragged, kicking and screaming. I'd watch the live stream of that. However, I'd make sure he doesn't try to steal the artwork, the china and the silverware before he exits. And yeah, I totally believe he'd try to do that.

And bring in the steam cleaners and the CIA to search out the bugs that might have been planted. Trump seems to be the type to punch holes in the walls* and steal the light bulbs before he goes.

-m

*except he's too weak to do that. Maybe he'll have Donnie Junior do that

You all have probably heard of the big regattas of Boaters for Trump recently. Yeah, nothing says privileged f*cks like people with big power boats.

I caught a video of one of the boats sinking. No masks that I could tell... and no one was wearing any life preservers.

I heard that most of the sinkings were caused by the larger boats causing large wakes, swamping the smaller vessels.

The jokes... they write themselves.

-m

I keep reading about the COVIDiots and the deniers and the 'FREEDUM MEANS NO FACE MASKS' crowd coming down with the virus and spending days- even weeks in the hospitals.

I keep reading about people at COVID parties where all everyone is going "It's my body" - "It's a hoax" - "It's no big deal" now gasping for oxygen in some clinic waiting to be tested.

I keep reading about officials who insisted on reopening the bars and the stadiums and the schools only to have their hospitals fill up with the sick and the dying.

All they had to do was wear a mask in public, practice social distancing and wash your hands *properly*. Don't go to crowded places where some super spreader can infect dozens at once. Such a burden!

I get that lots of people are out of work. They need to buy food, pay rent, watch their kids. This is way we have societies and government. Rent forgiveness, food aid - these aren't 'hammocks' where people relax and leech off others but *lifeboats* to get them to safety.

I have little sympathy for those who've taken axes to lifeboats then whine when the water reach their necks.

-m

It seems that Trump and the GOP want to role play Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" in Tulsa.

It seems the GOP is bent on committing suicide by COVID-19. There will be innocents in those sickened and killed and that's a shame but to the fools who will go to this super spreader event I extend all my thoughts and prayers.

-m

Any bets the hydroxychloroquine pills President Tweety is taking are actually sugar pills?

And he doesn't know it?

Either way... double his dose! What does he have to lose?

-m

The Senate is a Clown Court.

I can't think of a dumber way of holding a trial than by allowing the *accused* to have such a big role in setting the agenda.

Trump doesn't want witnesses. The Republicans agree.

Trump doesn't want evidence presented. The Republicans agree.

WTF? Real trials don't let the accused the chance to veto witnesses and *evidence*. Sheeesh.

-m