…is “our democracy.”
The Intelligence Community
No, DoJ, it doesn’t get to overrule the Judiciary. There is no mention in the Constitution of the “intelligence community.”
Why is the DoJ so desperate to prevent a Special Master, even one with security clearance, to view those documents the department asserts are classified? (The parties each have offered two candidates for the position, one of Trump’s candidates, in fact, sat on the FISA court. Is he less certain to do this job properly than the National Archivist?) There are several possible explanations for the desperation I can think of — none of which do credit to the attorney general. The first and most common supposition is that the documents which they claim must be kept even from the eyes of the Special Master relate to the FBI and DoJ’s role in fashioning and perpetrating the phony Russian Collusion fairytale. That would be damning indeed, and frankly, I see it as the most likely explanation…
So do I.
Compare And Contrast
Blue Origin
Hearing that they had an in-flight abort on a research flight (no one on board). Capsule reportedly landed safely.
[Update a few minutes later]
[Update a few more minutes later]
Here is the story at SpaceExplored.
[Update a while later]
Bob Zimmerman has video.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the story from Eric Berger.
[Afternoon update]
The Covid Fascists
Despite the Democrats’ desires, never forget them, or what they did, especially to the children.
Particularly, remember when you vote in a few weeks.
Twenty-One Years On
The anniversary is old enough to drink, and as Glenn implies, it could use one.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The forgetting of 911.
I think that Pearl Harbor remained much more foremost in peoples’ thoughts in 1962 than 911 does today, even though it wasn’t a living memory for the huge generation of Baby Boomers.
The Fall Of Los Angeles
A grim assessment. I was particularly amused by the LAT’s complaint that Caruso doesn’t have a “climate plan.” Because, you know, climate is at the tippy top of southern California’s problems.
We’re not in LA, but California itself is headed downhill as well.
Thoughts On Artemis 1
…from Joe Pappalardo:
It may be unfair to compare SpaceX and NASA, but SpaceX is built to be fast-but-risky whereas NASA is built to be slow-but-reliable. We’re now seeing that the fast-but-risky approach is actually leading to not only faster but more reliable results. Artemis is this giant U.S. government program that leaks money—as the Apollo program was—and that seems antiquated, but lots of members of Congress could get behind its traditional approach, which made use of languishing NASA facilities and had a supply chain stretching into lots of different communities. There are real benefits to NASA doing work across these communities, of course, but this approach can get in the way of doing things quickly, being able to change direction when engineers learn something new, or being free to adopt new technology and machinery. There’s less flexibility. And the Space Launch System isn’t reusable, either, meaning it’s a costly rocket that can only be used once. It would be foolish to stop this program now, but it would be grossly irresponsible to replicate it in the future.
He doesn’t explain why it would be “foolish to stop this program now.” I can only think that it’s the sunk-cost fallacy, but I think that what is foolish is to continue to throw good money after bad.
Thoughts On Human Progress
Yes, Malthus was always wrong.
Bob doesn’t say it, but the principle applies throughout the solar system. Humans will continue to take raw materials and create new resources.
The End Game In Ukraine
Thoughts on the fecklessness of the administration: