This is a great example of correlation is not causation, and confusion of cause and effect. Hint: Consider the possibility that people who have more sex are also more open to pot.
The Trump Takeover
In another thread, I learned that, apparently, I am not to criticize the God-King. Jonah is getting tired of it, too:
What I find so shocking is not so much the capitulation but the terms of the surrender. Or, rather, I should say the term — singular — of surrender, because there seems to be only one requirement expected of Republicans: Lavish praise on Donald Trump no matter what he does or says. Or at the very least, never, ever criticize him. Policy is an afterthought.
Yup. This is a cult (just as it was with Obama). Of course, I feel even more free to dispense such heresies, given that I’ve never even been a Republican. And then, this:
I’m more interested in the psychological factors animating commentators and the rank-and-file Trumpublicans of the GOP.
They also talk about wanting to get things done and the importance of fulfilling the Trump “agenda.” But they reserve their purest passion and most sustained vitriol not for people who don’t vote with Trump, but for people who do vote with Trump but who also refuse to remain silent. The same holds for Trump himself.
Why? Well, in the president’s case, the answer is obvious: his own Brobdingnagian yet astoundingly fragile ego. Because Trump cares so little about policy, he can forgive policy differences quite easily. What he can’t forgive is anyone even hinting that the emperor’s new clothes are, at best, invisible to the naked eye.
He’s a child. I’m glad she lost, I’m glad he’s stealthily rolling back regs, and I’m glad that he’s fixing the judiciary, but I weep at what someone in the same position, not so flawed, could be accomplishing.
SLS
You’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that first flight will likely slip into 2020.
The Art Of The Deal Writer
Trump is the same man-child he was at seven as he was at seventy:
“Along the way, he failed to develop the qualities of character that most of us do in the natural course of growing up to a greater or lesser extent – honesty, empathy, generosity, reflectiveness, the capacity to delay gratification and appreciate or subtlety and nuance, and above all a conscience, an inner sense of right and wrong,” the writer said.
This rings very true to me, based on my own external observations.
But Obama is a man-child in his own way, as well. Another similarity between the two.
Elon’s Plans
Doug Messier has a critique, with which I largely agree. He does seem to be laser focused on solving the transportation problem (which was the first one he encountered when he tried to implement his initial Mars plans). I emailed him years ago about the fact that we have no idea whether or not we can conceive/gestate in 0.4g. His response was basically, “that’s not my problem right now.”
But this blinkered mindset may not ultimately serve him well in terms of his long-term goal. It would be tragic for him if he solved the transportation problem, but not the biological one, and his dreams of Mars colonies ended up being still born, despite the cost reduction of transportation there.
The GAO And Climate
Media headline: “Climate Change Causing Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars In Disaster Relief.”
Accurate headline: “Cost Of Dealing With Weather Much Less Than Decarbonization.”
Superaccurate GPS
Coming to a smartphone near you. One-foot accuracy would be very useful in LEO (BTW, one concept I heard at the Space Settlment Summit last week was a concept for extending existing GPS to cislunar space with just a few additional birds). My question is: what velocities can it handle?
A New Space Policy
…for the Trump administration. I’ve just started to skim it.
War On Women
I wrote about the Left’s long-time misogyny over five years ago, but in light of the latest revelations about Hollywood scumbags, it’s just as relevant today.
[Update a few minutes later]
Glenn Reynolds has some related links.
Raptor
The USAF is partially (Or totally? Who knows?) funding SpaceX to develop it.
I have no problem with this; it’s a much better use of taxpayer funds than AR1.