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Baby Steps v. Half Steps
Several politicians have complained that Jeff Bezos has spent some billions of his own dollars to fly into space and intends to continue to send rockets into space with the intent to eventually provide more goods and services to sell to the rest of us at a profit. This money was raised by providing a highly desired service to the public. While there are complaints he overworks and underpays his employees, he is in fact creating jobs. Bezos creates wealth and keeps part of it to reinvest in things like spaceflight.
These politicians want him to pay them taxes, or in other words seize his money, not creating any wealth along the way, rather than leave him in peace to spend it on building spaceships or otherwise creating wealth. Eventually they will spend tax money to build spaceships at a higher cost than he (or his rivals Branson and Musk) would have if the government had not seized his (their) money in taxes.
Finally, the private tourist flights into space are baby steps along the way to orbiting factories, orbiting habitats, settlement on Luna and Mars, asteroid mining, and possibly even reaching the stars. Politicians will only spend for a little bit of prestige or military advantage, then stop. If you think otherwise, keep in mind that right now the US has to hire the Russians to fly our astronauts to the International Space Station, or else pay Bezos and his competitors. Congress has not deigned to invest money in developing a manned space craft for NASA since the shuttle went off line.
A.X. Perez
[email protected]
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Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.
Obama’s party guests may be stuck with huge
Martha’s Vineyard hotel bills, report says
by Martha Ross
August 5, 2021
Many of the 475 political allies, celebrities and other guests
invited to Barack Obama’s 60th birthday bash may be stuck with huge hotel
bills, after being told at the 11th hour to not come to Martha’s Vineyard
because the former president drastically scaled back his festivities.
[Read More]
Obomber got caught throwing a monster bash in defiance of all the asinine Covid rules, so... Damage control to the bridge, Scotty!
I'm LMAO at his scramble to cover his sorry arse.
Manuel Miles aka Kaptain Kanada
[email protected]
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An Old Stink
Mexico is suing American gun makers claiming they promote violence in Mexico by making guns available for the Drug Cartels and other criminals. (see: Mexico is suing US gun makers, arguing that millions of American guns have illegally flowed across the border and fueled homicide rates (msn.com)).
Actually, I don't know even know where to start reacting to this. To begin with, Mexican gun laws are so unreasonably strict that only fifty gun permits a year, in a country of about 128 million people a year, and has only one gun shop. Given that Mexico is a Mecca for sport hunting, has a rich ranching tradition, and the ordinary need for weapons for self-defense, this invites gun smuggling by honest people trying to survive. How do you stop people from smuggling guns to commit crimes when even honest people have to obtain guns illegally to survive?
Secondly, before suing others over violence, perhaps the Mexican government needs to clean up the corruption in their own country that allows the cartels to make enough money to import 2.5 million guns over a decade (note: this is about 1 month of sales to civilians in the US.) Perhaps if a Vlad Tepes type turned up and was given free rein to deal with corrupt police and other government officials in the Wallachian Prince's style, along with the Narcotraficantes and quota (protection) collectors the violence against civilians might go down. Not denying honest people their right to arm themselves for self-defense might help deal with the quota collectors and others who share Calvera's philosophy ("If God did not want them sheared, He would not have made them sheep.").
As noted in the parenthetical comment above, the number of weapons Mexico is complaining about is a small fraction of the total number of guns sold to civilians in the US in the same time period. Also, the only organization other than the various mobs for the purpose of committing crimes was the US Government during Operation Fast and Furious (AKA, Operation Gun Walker), when the BATFE allowed 2,500 guns to be smuggled into Mexico to see at which crime scenes they'd turn up. I'm surprised Mexico hasn't filed a law suit against the US over this and also not filed a complaint at the Hague for the US making illegal war against them over this.
Of course, this suit will militate to restrict the availability of guns to honest civilians in the US, making me wonder who was whispering in President Lopez Obrador's ear.
Operation Fast and Furious was executed about ten years ago, the stench is in the air to this day.
A.X. Perez
[email protected]
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