It's been a while since my last science update. For obvious reasons - as the very notion of a science-propelled Enlightenment civilization is under attack - I've focused on offering the good-guys badly need fresh ideas.
But okay, let's turn away from all that and focus on SPA-A-A-ACE!
== It's noteworthy when reality imitates scifi... especially mine! ==
Gosh, can you believe there are two ways that an older story of mine now seems predictive and may be coming true?
First, I have a lot of respect for Gwynn Shotwell's SpaceX team. So, perhaps they'll solve the problems preventing their 2nd stage 'starship' from achieving its ambitious goals of recovery and re-use (R&R) and then orbital refueling. Still, I've seen no talk of a backup plan, in case those milestones take a long time.
But look. We already know that the massive Ship can reach orbit and deliver payload. So, even without R&R, is there an intermediate plateau of utility from there?
Backtrack to 1984. I was one of the 'space cadet' post-docs working for UCSD's California Space Institute, where we studied proposed techs beyond NASA's then-current purview. (A habit I continued later as advisor to NIAC: NASA Innovative & Advanced Concepts program.) One of the things we explored at CalSpace was how to utilize in-orbit the Space Shuttle's External Tank.
Saving and using the shuttle tanks would have cost nothing - zero added propellant - to take it the final bit into LEO orbit! That's 1500 cubic meters of sealed aluminum tanks plus tons of leftover hydrogen, oxygen and water, all of which could have been of great use in future years! Just two ETs could have provided more useful volume than all of today's current ISS station. Or any of the somewhat feeble proposed replacements.
Might one of the new commercial station projects hanker for one? Heck, maybe the Chinese?
Sure, starship uses methane+oxygen, not hydrogen+oxygen. So add a step or two and you get oxygen + water plus... carbon fiber? Anyway, the volumes of useful tankage are very similar to the old ET. So... so our old CalSpace reports are sitting right here, next to me. And would seem worth at least a look.
Well zowee. At first when folks saw that this New Zealand startup was proposing to use no-fuel propulsion to\hat leverages against Earth’s magnetic field, and thus nudge valuable satellites in orbit, a couple of them wrote to me: “Is this your Tank Farm Dynamo story brought to life?”
Well, the concept does overlap! On closer inspection, it seems they use superconducting coils, rather than the super-long linear tethers that I envisioned in my story, based on early tether work by Robert Forward and Joseph Carroll. And I thought… okay, not that much overlap...
...till I thought again. And yeah. It’s the same idea… maybe done better. Like comparing Oersted's line-wire, whose current twitched a compass needle, to Faraday's later coil that led to electromagnets and... dynamos!
Jeepers why didn't I think of that? Is it possible maybe I helped them think of it?
== Something else I am engaged in ==
But then, is there a place in space for amateurs? Here’s another thing I’m involved in.
Drive a miniature lunar rover on the moon using your smartphone! Up to 24,000 people globally will be able to participate. It's our turn! (I’m an advisor to this startup.) See: www.LimitlessTelepresence.com Get in on the ground floor! (So to speak.)
One of the biggest space-related news items is the endeavor announced by Wendy and Eric Schmidt, to privately fund four new, very ambitious telescope systems, reviving the old-time funding source for instrumental astronomy. One of them would be a deep-orbiting space telescope much bigger than Hubble. Plus array-style optical and radio telescopes in the southwest USA. Amazing and terrific stuff and vastly more important than the silly “Artemis” rush to plant symbolic footprints on a useless plain of poison dust.
But sure, while I have long frowned at the utter-waste of the USA's frippery "Artemis" mission, I do hope that everything goes safely and well and that they will find the 'rich resources' that carnival barkers are now selling. For which there's no evidence at all, except a little ice. (Helium Three? Titanium? Jeepers have I got a bridge to sell you.)
Still...
The region where NASA is planning to land the first astronauts on the Moon in over half a century, supposedly a mere two years from now is the Moon’s largest crater, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, formed roughly 4.3 billion years ago. It could hold clues about the Moon’s evolution and its interior structure.
“Missions will be landing on the down-range rim of the basin — the best place to study the largest and oldest impact basin on the Moon, where most of the ejecta, material from deep within the Moon’s interior, should be piled up,”
It is also where satellites have detected possible signs of water ice. Though to be clear, a couple of asteroids could offer more water – and vastly more of every other resource – than can be accessed from the Moon in any near time frame, with known technology.
Over the years, astronomers have spotted holes and large pits dotting Venus’ surface, suggesting the existence of lava tubes. Venusian lava tubes, may be especially large and arrayed along volcano rims.
And yes, we should robotically explore some and establish some fair-use precedents for the lava tubes on the Moon, since they may be some of the most extensive subsurface cavities in the solar system.
...though nowhere near as valuable as asteroids.
== Space Misc! ===
Our closest exoplanet system gets more interesting with the possible discovery of a gas giant within Alpha Centauri A's habitable zone. Also, it's a fairly stable system, not at all like the scary fictional Trisolaran system.
See NIAC's 2025 Phase I and Phase II selections.
And fight for an enlightenment civilization that respects rights and honesty and decency... and facts and science.
75 comments:
Off topic, but it looks like others are recognizing the similarities today to pre-Civil War conditions.
"ICE mirrors slave patrols, not Nazis."
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/15/shes-right-you-know/
Following up on the last post, the parallels between your cultism and that of, e.g., Communists and Islamists, aren’t hard to see:
* claims the whole world; has a universal ideology
* favors the ending of nations and identities that conflict with their universalism
* divides the world in time: pre- and post-Revolution/Prophetic Revelation/Enlightenment
* believes they have the best, most just and effective model for human society ever devised
* judges all political and cultural phenomena according to whether or not they advance their revolution
* lionizes a small subset of humanity (usually including themselves) who act as the vanguard of the Revolution/ Religion/Enlightenment. The rest are NPCs who need to be proselytized and propagandized until they accept the Truth
* see themselves as the world’s saviors; mankind’s only hope for salvation against the forces of evil
* don’t recognize their own fanaticism; others are fanatics, they are upon the Truth
I could go on, but you tick every box.
While some - maybe half - of Treebeard's cited symptoms are valid in isolation, not one of them applies to me or the clades whom he hates. I can only repeat what I said at the end of the previous session: No Treebeard, that's how YOU think. You zero-sum, black-and-white vision microcephs think that way and hence you cannot conceive that others don't.
Above all, you suspect those deficiencies in yourself, that we see things you can't. And it is the source of your rage.
We are not you. We are human and some of those faults lay as minefields in our path, and the left certainly does sometimes fall for some of them. But YOUR perceptions are so demonstrably insane that you are in no position to diagnose.
"ICE mirrors slave patrols, not Nazis."
They can be two things.
I'm getting these from your own words and points, stated repeatedly over many years. I'll let others judge whether they apply to you, since you probably aren't the most objective judge of yourself. The insulting language doesn't make any point that I can see, it's just an assertion of arrogance and supremacism. It's true that I'm not your "we", because I don't want to be part of any cult that sees the world like this. The only cult I'm in is the cult of normal, non-fanatical people who don't tick the above boxes.
YES! I certainly get that you are 'getting these from your own words and points, stated repeatedly over many years',,, and it truly is sad to witness such insanity, so obstinately pursued so frantically.
Long before the Remembrance of Earth's Past series, another sci-fi novel posited a scientifically plausible, inhabited Alpha Centauri System: the Barnes/Aldrin collaboration Encounter with Tiber. Unlike the chaotic Trisolarian system (come on, how could a planet with a chaotic orbit even evolve life, let alone sophonce?), Barnes and Aldrin designed a system that seems to match that described in recent publications: a single gas giant orbiting Rigil Kent, with.an orbit in an elliptical avoidance resonance orbit (as Pluto's remains stable by avoiding Neptune) that clears the habitable zone. The Tiberians evolved on a habitable moon of this planet, though an extinction-level event forced planet-wide evacuation. Attempts to colonize both Earth and Mars fail, but other colonies survive. (The yarn also posits a Mars-analog orbiting Toliman, but it has high eccentricity making it a poor colonization target.)
I mention this in particular because the Aldrin-penned sections also utilize the Tank Farm concept to build out space infrastructure -- ET tanks in this timeline renamed as the "Big Can" and manufactured long after the Shuttle is retired (after a less deadly second disaster) and space access provided by an "Apollo II" that looks and sounds very much like the Crew Dragon. So someone certainly noticed!
I didn't get a chance to post a reply to Der Oger on the last post, so with indulgence, I'd like to respond to his proposals. Understanding recent German history, I get where his ideas are coming from... but he doesn't get why most of them won't work.
1.1) Can we get an acknowledgement of past crimes against humanity through Congress? Sure. Most of the ones you've listed have already been passed, in non-binding resolutions. And presumably the post-regime Congress will be happy to condemn the excesses that got them elected. The trouble comes from...
1.2) An attempt to copy-paste German anti-Nazi laws to the US legal system would inevitably fail. The most left-wing Supreme Court imaginable would still strike that down as a First Amendment violation. At most, you could define sets of statements that, if demonstrated in a court of law, would count as evidence toward other charges (like, say, conspiracy to commit sedition, or commercial fraud associated with any organizations promoting denial). In the US legal system, the way to choke out denialists effectively would be to make denial of legally provable facts, especially after a court takes notice of such proof, as removing legal defenses against civil lawsuits. The government can't act against abuse of free speech without affirmative actions towards causing harm, but anyone else can!
1.3) We certainly need a mechanism to swiftly conduct the needed trials, because delays in prosecution are a direct cause of the current regime's existence. I'm not sure special courts are the right tool, though, especially because we need to expand the courts anyway. We need special prosecutors, though. Lots and lots of them. (Oh look! Lots of out-of-work people with exactly those specialties and expertise! I wonder if they might be interested!)
1.4) No, no, no, no, and NO. Why? Because that is exactly the mechanism the regime is attempting to use to impose their propaganda! Your idea would validate that abuse. Most definitely we need to push education in reality, but you can't positively dictate topics. Defund denial is possible, but the redemptionists have over a century of experience in how to evade such restrictions. Better to do:
1.5) Now HERE is one that can work! Yes! Do this! Instead of trying to punish lies, reward telling the truth. Extra grants available to local governances that memorialize their own local human rights violations. Assistance for developing local historical research and educational programs!
2) What we need is a law that spells out more things as "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" beyond Treason and Bribery, and makes an affirmative process for referring suspects to Congress for consideration of impeachment articles, instead of waiting around for the notion to get out of committee.
3) We might well hand over some of the war criminals for prosecution overseas, but that's not the same thing as signing up for everyone to be able to grab whichever officials they want to address actions during the now-over-and-done Pax Americana.
4) Are you unaware that PBS exists? It still does, in fact; they merely cut the federal grant portion of its budget, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting self-dissolved lest it be turned into a disinformation-spewing zombie. And that's not a coincidence; reactionaries have hated PBS for its entire existence precisely because it does what you suggest.
6) Likewise, we tried this. It was called COLA ("cost-of-living adjustment"). Before trying it again, we need a solid way to guarantee that it won't cause inflation; rightly or wrongly, that was the reason given to kill it in the 1970's.
The rest of your ideas are already policy proposals here, though priorities differ. The most important notion being that none of them can be enacted until the Supreme Court is reined in, as they have reverted to pre-1937 form and started striking down anything reactionaries and/or oligarchs dislike. Their perfidious treatment of precedent means there will be no "stitch in time that saves nine" this round.
Now, a warning?
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/sen-mcconnell-suggests-invading-greenland-would-be-disastrous-for-us/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
Sen. McConnell suggests invading Greenland would be ‘disastrous’ for US
You could have stopped this. Too late for absolution.
If a toddler with a match burns your house down, I wouldn't blame the toddler. I'd blame the guy who didn't take the matches away.
Catfish how we have missed you. Does this mean you have retired from your (unstated here) profession?
Ever since The Transparent Society a central thesis of mine has been to free up debate under formats that allow facts to incrementally defeat delusion. My recommended WAGER DEMAND tactic would have destroyed Fox and the Murdoch empire long ago, exposing their craven fear of objective reality, but for the insipid unwillingness of any major figure on our side to actually try it.
Another of my rants - re rampant blackmail - is not the only conceivable explanation (other than an alien hypnosis ray) for the Roberts majority's refusal to step in and curb the Trumpian behaviors that most clearly bode destruction to the Republican Party.
e.g they can easily cite the US-Denmark Treaty giving the US the Danish Virgin Islands and permanent US acceptance of Danish Greenland. Look at what the Constitution says about treaties. The court could get the GOP out of that and other embarrassments. Which suggests that the holder of the kompromat in their case may not be Putin but Trump, himself. (I do believe he only appointed to his cabinet those willing to pose with a donkey. Because that is what a paranoid casino mafioso would do who was betrayed by every non-blackmailed/grownup appointment in his 1st term.)
Coercion is the only explanation. Death threats maybe. Blackmail with near-absolute certainty
Asteroids - IMHO a better first start would be the moons of Mars!
Mars itself would be handy for an aerocapture into Mars orbit
Once in Mars orbit "throwing arms" could be "landed" on Phobos and Deimos
With escape velocities of 40km/HOUR a fairly simple arm could throw material to the "Starships" in orbit to be used as a radiation shield and then for raw materials
In orbit near the moons - or later near asteroids - very light cheap mirrors could focus sunlight either for heat or power
Even out near Saturn it is probably still more economic to simply make the mirrors larger
When you have refined enough useful materials for sale in earth orbit you can use the left over crap in a dirt rocket - Spinlaunch is unlikely to work on earth but two spinlaunchers (to balance torque) could throw the "dirt" at quite a repectable speed - probably as fast as a chemical rocket - and ship the useful stuff back to earth orbit
We don't know just what the moons are made of - THAT should be a first step
Blackmail with near-absolute certainty.
The Net is currently boiling with the the account and allegations of Sasha Riley.
Warning.It has not been authentified as of yet, and no major channel has reported on it, so far.
Also, the allegations are extremely disturbing. Painful, horrible stuff.
It is not (just) a donkey, it is raped, brutalized, tortured and murdered kids. DJT, Andy Biggs, Clarence Thomas, Jim Jordan and Lindsay Graham are named, and there may be lots and lots of more perpetrators.
It may be a hoax, but if not or only half of it is true, these people are genuine monsters and it would be an explanation why Trump fears the Epstein Files so much.
There is also mention of people committing far lesser crimes, such as using drugs, but enough to provide stuff for blackmail to ensure the silence of other guests of those parties.
Phobos could be the Panama Canal of the Solar System
https://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2015/06/phobos-panama-canal-of-inner-solar.html
My post Orbital Momentum as a Commodity describes how a tether with a healthy anchor mass can catch and throw payloads. I tried to think of ways a tether might restore orbital momentum lost during a catch or throw. Two way traffic is one way to pay back borrowed momentum.
Well, Mars' moon Phobos masses 1.066e16 kg. With this huge momentum bank, catching and throwing payloads would have less effect than a gnat hitching a ride on a Mack truck. A Phobos anchored tether could catch and throw for millennia with little effect on Phobos' orbit.
The tether illustrated above doesn't suffer the enormous stress of a full blown earth elevator or even a Mars elevator. It could be made from Kevlar with a taper ratio of about 11.
And we are going to need a space elevator anchored by Phobos because we have no idea how to land a man on Mars.
The Martian atmosphere is too thin for a parachute landing and its gravity is too heavy for rocket landing. To quote SF writer Charlie Stross:
"Landing safely on Mars is hard. The atmosphere is too thin for aerobraking of massive payloads, but thick enough to kick up horribly unpredictable turbulence if you try and use retro-rockets. So for small payloads recent probes have used the bouncy air-bag trick ... but that involves loads of up to 20 gees on impact (not good for humans!) and maxes out at around 1000 kg of payload (or the airbags are infeasibly bulky and heavy). The big sky crane approach is promising (allows retro-rockets while avoiding the turbulence/disruption of landing site effect) but nobody's tried doing it on a payload within an order of magnitude of the size necessary for even an unfueled ascent stage capable of sending an astronaut back into orbit: an ascent stage with fuel on board would be even more massive (on the order of 40-50 tons, minimum)."
20 gees will kill a man.
At only 38% of Earth's gravity perhaps we can construct a space elevator anchored at Mars' equator using automated equipment controlled by humans based on Phobos.
Or we can land automated PFC factories on Mars that will create enough super GHGs to heat up Mars and generate a sufficiently thick atmosphere (mostly CO2) that will allow for safe parachute landings.
Or we come up with insanely more powerful and efficient rocket engines to allow for landing and take off from Mars' relatively deep gravity well.
Or we make all Mars landings by humans one way trips.
Screw Planets
The near-term future of manned colonization of space is the asteroid belt. So instead of Mars, we should colonize the dwarf planet Ceres (the largest body in the asteroid belt) in order to establish a logistical base for asteroid prospecting and mining. Ceres has no significant gravity well to overcome and lots of water for life and fuel.
So instead of Star Fleet planting human colonies on the surfaces of planets, we'll have the Weyland-Yutani Corporation contracting out the asteroid equivalent of oil rig and crab fishing work - extremely dirty and dangerous work with a high death rate. Think "rough necks in space" performing work that makes investors back home extremely wealthy, mankind more prosperous and the workers themselves a small fortune with each service contract (if they live long enough to return to Earth to spend their money). Maybe we'll have the occasional scientific base established on Mars or floating in the atmosphere of Venus, but they'll be no bigger than a current Antarctic weather station.
So forget about the bright, shiny and clean Enterprise from Star Trek, our future in space is the dirty, gritty and dangerous Nostromo. In fact, our whole future in space will look more like the "Alien" universe instead of "Star Trek" (face huggers and chest busters optional).
The Expanse society at the start of the books also comes into my mind.
Two things I was surprised were not in the Expanse universe:
Terraforming Venus and/or floating cities in the Venusian atmosphere mining the air for carbon and making nanotubes for shipment to the rest of the solar system.
Mining our Mercury to makes thousands of solar power satellites to form a Dyson swarm around Mercury's orbit and beaming the power elsewhere.
And Luna should have been much more developed as it would be are staging area for metal mining, manufacturing, ship yards and fuel production for exploring the resto of the solar system (from a gravity well 1/6 that of Earth - a tremendous cost savings). Luna should be the test bed of space mining (its essentially a really large asteroid), space manufacturing, development of solar power satellites, massive data centers, and it is much easier to build our firs space elevators on the moon.
(And why are there no space elevators at least on the low gravity planets and asteroids in the Expanse universe?)
The design and engineering experience from all of these activities would be invaluable in developing the rest of the solar system. So we have to go to the Moon first and fully develop it as a cheap low gravity launching point for exploring, colonizing and industrializing the rest of the solar system. We should spend the next century just on Luna, the rest of the planets can wait - they aren't going anywhere.
Then after a millennia mining mercury to build a Dyson swarm, mining Venus for carbon nanotubes (and concurrently terraforming it), terraforming Mars and building the Phobos transfer infrastructure, mining Ceres for water and Psyche for metals, colonizing the moons of the gas giants and ice giants, exploring the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, and building artificial worlds from O'Neal Cylinders to Bishop Rings -
Then we leap for the stars.
But Nazis mirrored Confederates, so this is not as much of a distinction as it appears. And Jim Crow regimes mirrored the methods of the Communists they despised, as many pointed out even at the time.
Authoritarians do learn from each other, more's the pity.
Retired? Not as long as there's a mortgage! But a promotion, and a rearrangement of duties, and other matters that make resumption of discourse not only less of a risk but more of a duty. Sadly, pseudonym use is still necessary.
We are well into the world Transparent Society anticipated, where both the state and the citizenry have a multitude of cameras. What was not anticipated (or at least not voiced there) was the systematic gaslighting and alternate-reality imposition even in the face of obvious and universally available evidence! The exact Orwellian demand spoken of in 1984, but with only peer pressure, political influence, an incompletely captured media, and the threats of paramilitary and stochastic violence. A totalitarian demand without a totalitarian infrastructure to impose the penalties.
As for the Roberts Court - six justices, probably six answers to the question. One Associate Justice is publicly known to have been thoroughly corrupted; a second is entirely an authoritarian true-believer. The other three Associate Justices were appointed by the current leadership, and for each, the question of subornation is both open and vital -- but probably unique to each person.
The mystery, to my mind, is Roberts himself. He has every capability to resist, and no vital interests that could be interrupted. He should have the ability to order as much security for himself, his staff, and his fellow justices as needed to resist physical threats. His interest, as foreseen by the Constitution, is the reputation and long-term power of the Court itself. So why is he permitting the erosion of its reputation and authority?
The only charitable answer I can come up with is pure blindness: by ideological blinkers or social isolation or self-imposed ignorance, he is unable to recognize the consequences of his actions. Otherwise, blackmail and conspiracy are the most likely causes.
This appraisal of Trump's Iran policy misses elements but reveals the callous cynicism. A mafioso taking another gang's territory won't free locals from predators, but shifts the predators' loyalties to Casino-Don's expanding gang. Kiss the Godfather's ring.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2026/01/coercion-without-ownership-the-real-trump-playbook-on-iran/
Note the polling referenced in this opinion piece - taxing billionaires out of existence polls well over the 60% that David has set as his "ground floor" for political action.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/16/super-rich-inequality-politicians-extreme-wealth
Also, note that abortion protections also poll well over 60%, despite David's statements to the contrary.
There is hope.
Not only are the Dems sure to win the house, the Republicans look like they will also lose the Senate.
If that happens impeachment is a certainty.
But if we are smart, we'll do what we did when we impeached Nixon. We got rid of VP Agnew first and replaced him with the moderate Ford.
This time we get rid of Vance first. Impeachment is a political process not a criminal one.
And then deny Trump a replacement.
If McConnell can sit on an Obama supreme Court nominee we can sit on Trump's new VP.
Fuck being fair.
We need to be just as dirty and vicious as Republicans.
Then we get rid of Trump.
Next in line will be the new Democratic speaker.
It's about time we staged a coup of our own.
We can then purge the cabinet, pack and or impeach SCOTUS, and have an American version of the Nuremberg trials for every corrupt racist in Trump's circle.
We too can have retribution.
It's NOT the economy stupid it's white supremacy
https://youtu.be/M6gKab52vJw?si=rn4vnC06SYjZSvGl
I've been pondering this serious question. When petitioning your government and demanding redress are considered terrorism, punishable by violence and death by those not legally empowered to carry out such a reprisal but who nonetheless face no consequences for doing so, then what responses are available to the citizen?
The Insurrection Act is meant to allow the government to use force to put down a rebellion against the Constitution. When it is perverted to allow the government to use force to subvert the Constitution, what do we get to do in our defense?
I ask because I don't intend to march meekly to the death camps.
We water the tree of liberty in that case. Seriously.
Walter Isaacson's (2004) biography of Benjamin Franklin is the first thick book (audiobook in this case) that I've finished in a long time. Probably many here have already read it long ago. I read it hoping to gather insight into the American character. It's a deep biography of an astonishing life, but it really only tells one side of that character (rational pragmatism), and only tangentially describes the other side (numinous romanticism).
70% of Philadelphia's population attended his funeral in 1790, including clergy from all faiths and denominations. Tomorrow (Jan 17) is the 320th anniversary of his birth.
A few options to consider:
1) Going into Exile. While this can be seen as giving up, note that you can move outside the immediate reach of the "law enforcement" agencies; this one could organize support for the resistance. The Kurds and Iranian opposition would be an example.
2) Fighting the good fight. There is still space and room for non-violent opposition.They desperately rely on you to obey. Rule number one is; Do not obey in advance.
Trump is deep in trouble. The GOP faces a 20 point swing.in November.
This is why they double down on the terror.They WILL try to use ICE and other agencies to try to manipulate the November elections.
Trump is predictable in a certain way that he both needs the attention of each media cycle, and a diversion from his various failures.
One way would be to work voluntarily as an election helper.
Another: calling your elected Congresspeople might and day to Press issues (Epstein!!!)and call things as they are.
And attending the protests even if it could get ugly. The tree and Patriots and tyrants thing.
Finally, if you can afford it, support groups that do the Good Fight, financially.
Note this: While they Cosplay fascism, they are utterly incompetent at it - and have not even half the skill and political talent the Nazis had.
3) The Bad fight.
Honestly, I do not recommend it.
At least, Not for you, personally.
Over all those years, I perceived you to be the most sensible, descent and humane person here....and it will change you.
Believe me because I was once trained to do the stuff necessary to do those things, and that alone changed me.
Stay alive for the time after Trump.
Keep your decency and humanity.
Someone needs to rebuild everything after this dark time is over.
And I hope it is a person like you.
A skyhook elevator from the Moon's surface can be made of steel with plenty of margin. See where I cite this also as a way to save Earth across 100M years. Lift the Earth! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8x-ZqjXPc. - and the numbers behind the idea: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2014/11/lets-lift-earth.html
Mars you could do Carbon tubes and have a margin for error... see KS Robinson's Green Mars.
Earth will never get a skyhook. Margins are too tight.
Phobos should be assayed NOW, as I told E Musk personally. If there are lots of volatiles, then it can be the ISRU refueling station that makes all the Mars dreams (marginally) possible.
Catfish, wow. Eloquent. I may crib whole swathes of your comment without trackable attribution. I hope they promoted you a lot.
@Catfish: Thank you for your long answer. Yes, I see the difficulties in my proposals, but I have a quite simple perspective that has yet to be intellectually refuted:
1) Any totalitarian or authoritarian system has a total disregard for human dignity.
2) Therefore, a state should protect human dignity before everything else, including the right of free speech. In our system that even extends beyond life, so Holocaust denial is usually persecuted as Defamation of the Remembrance of the Dead. Maybe that would be a Route, granting legal Status to dead persons?
3) Any deviation from this principle is a slippery slope. I'd especially like to mention the death penalty and extrajudicial killings (nowadays committed by drone strikes).
Oh, and " enhanced interrogation" techniques, too.(For me, intelligence officers defending torture have, to this day, failed to prove that they aren't lazy, racists and/or uncreative).
But no 60% majority on abolishing the death penalty.Nor granting Basic human rights for convicts.
(I have the suspicion that a legal system in which law enforcement officials are elected in the base of who is toughest on crime contributes to the Problem of American fascism.).
@Der Oger,
If you meant to describe me, I sincerely thank you. It's also possible you were describing Alfred, in which case I would agree. So either way.
For most of my adult life, my tendency would be to keep my head down, try not to give the fascists any excuse to come after me, and hope to outlast them. For reasons that somewhat elude me, I'm not so inclined any more. If my country become a post-democracy, blood-and-soil thugocracy, I see no path forward for myself that doesn't end in captivity, torture, and death. So I see no point in doing what so many of my countrymen are doing, angling for a good spot in Trump's America. The only strategy that makes sense to me is to go all in on Enlightenment America and, if necessary, die on that hill.
I've come to truly appreciate the good moments in life--a satisfying meal, a swim in Lake Michigan in August when the temperature is finally tolerable, the love of a woman who I had no right to ever expect. And fiction has become my drug of choice to escape into. Like the musical version of Hamilton, I read like I'm running out of time. I enjoy all of those things and appreciate those moments more than I ever have.
But it's not enough. That is, fascism is not able to offer me, in exchange for obedience, one more meal or one more night of lovemaking or one more continued story. Because the threat is always present like the Sword of Damocles. Like Winston Smith realized early in that book. The end is as inevitable as Thanos.
So there's no upside to capitulation to fascism.
I'm not equipped to offer true opposition. All I do--all I have done--is be on the team that can. I donate what I can. I post here and elsewhere using my own name (as does Alfred). While I don't post my home address, neither do I hide which major city I live in (nor does Alfred). I attend protests with provocative signs and slogans in plain sight of cameras, both in downtown Chicago and in my home suburb. So far, I haven't personally stood out to the extend that I would expect ICE to target me personally, but I won't be surprised when it happens. And if I can't escape that fate, I hope to God that I can sell my life dearly.
Because if the good team doesn't resist and win, then there's no future anyway.
Terraforming Venus and/or floating cities in the Venusian atmosphere have gained public awareness long since the novels behind THE EXPANSE were written. But do get A WORLD ADRIFT by fine author Doug Van Belle.
The rest of Celt's speculations are way too far ahead for THE EXPANSE. Indeed, the morality tales in EXPANSE were excellent, as was Belter culture! But the situation was impossible. Asteroid wealth would swiftly overwhelm the ability of human females to make enough new humans to be poor.
matthew tendentiously lies... but this time only in exaggeration, not essentials. 'taxing billionaires out of existence' is not what the polls say. It is not the same as taxing them much harder, finding all their hidden pools of lucre, preventing cheating collusion among them, exposing their lives to extra honesty-scrutiny, tallying wealth and making each added billion more - not less - difficult than the one before it.
All of that is me being radical... in DEFENSE of competitive markets which made most of our wealth. All of that isn't 'leftism.' it is defending a Rooseveltean enlightenment-competitive MIDDLE-stage capitalism, as FDR and the greatest generation did, sparking the greatest burst in world wealth in all of history ...
...and enabling the US consumer to uplift 2/3 of the world... by buying 12 $trillions worth of crap we never needed.
For that to happen, it must remain an incentive allure to get rich. But never never-again rich enough to cheat and destroy competition and shift us into Marx's execrable LATE-stage capitalism...
...where we are alas tumbling as we speak. Because too many of the world's billionaires ARE ingrate fools surrounded by sycophant flatterers, unintentionally reminding us why feudalism has to end, once and for all.
Celt's post about a Phobos space elevator and using Phobos as a momentum bank got me thinking about a much earler stage
Phobos rotates in about 24 hours - escape velocity 40km/hr
So a cable only 150km long will reach Phobos-centric orbit
That is not very useful to use as a "thrower" for orbital change - only 960kph - 0.26 m/sec
However thinking about a momentum bank got me thinking about another way to use that cable
If you grab the cable and pull on it - you will accelerate towards Phobos - 100km at 1G will give you 1.4km/sec - a useful velocity - you will need to let go of the cable and have some sideways velocity to avoid hitting Phobos
The accelerating/pulling towards the momentum bank would mean that we could use much smaller asteroids - smaller ones spinning faster would give more options for the actual direction of the vector
Taxing Billionaires
The "Problem" is that the richer you are the EASIER it becomes to be even richer
With more wealth the RATE of return increases
A classic positive feedback process!
What we need to do is to have a high enough tax rate to make the second billion MORE difficult than the first billion
Rather than a lot easier
...And Dr. Brin is one of the worst sycophantic flatterers of the largest billionaire of them all. As he shows us. Again.
Even now, after the Nazi salutes, funding GOP campaigns, and the murder of 14 million children, Dr. Brin still cannot stop with flattery.
Fool or paid shill? It does not matter.
There is a reason to soft-pedal the abortion thing during the election year, even if 60% support a big push. We...want...demoralized (by Trump madness) GOP voters to stay home! If Dems win big enough, then the issue WILL be forced in Congress. Try actually believing it. And then not repeating Kamala's horrible mistake.
Catfish is right that most injustices of free speech can - or should - be pursued in civil court under a wide variety of bases that revolve around the defense of truth or fact. But that's the basis of my wager challenge.
Shabbat Shalom, Larry,
First of all, yeah Trump is breaking things that can't be unbroken, and despair seems so easy. "EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas privately told lawmakers the state of the world meant it might be a “good moment” to start drinking."
But as Der Oger points out, its the worst thing we can do. I hate to quote an atrociously bad star wars movie but "They win by making you think you're alone. Remember? There's more of us."
So take a long, deep, breath.
Go read some Kipling.
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_martha.htm
Now take another breath and realize you're not alone.
Now think what happens to all the sons of Mary currently prancing about Washington, when those sons of Mary F! up again, and try to cast their burden upon the Lord, and we sons of Martha look the Lord in the eye, and shrug, and say "no thanks ... not this time."
Have a great weekend.
Where do you get the rate of return growth stat?
Access to certain investment options does depend on how much you have for taking risks, so I’m asking about the rate of return.
The richest people I know tend to opt for less return in exchange for rate stability.
There's state-level (pardon-proof) criminal cases there for the taking as well.
From what we already know, Good was alive when a neighbor who was a doctor tried to administer first aid, and was prevented form attempting to save her life. That means that all of the ICE agents present at her death were at least accessories-after-the-fact, to murdering her. (i.e. even if we take the (very weak) "self defense" argument for shooting her, and set that aside ...
The ICE agents prevented the doctor from treating, and delayed the EMTs from treating Good. A very strong case could be made that this caused her death.
Put that in front a of a jury and let them decide if:
(a) the ICE agents were just stupid/negligent/vindictive, but didn't actually mean to cause her death, and therefore are guilty of Murder in the third degree "(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years."
Or whether it was intentional but not premeditated (Murder 2),
Or if intentional,
609.185 MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE.
...
(1) causes the death of a human being with premeditation and with intent to effect the death of the person or of another;
Or, for bonus points, let the jury decide whether the ICE agents were in Minesota to terrorize the people of Minesota for having the temerity to vote for Democrats, in which case, the should be charged under
(7) causes the death of a human being while committing, conspiring to commit, or attempting to commit a felony crime to further terrorism and the death occurs under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.
Celt:
So take a long, deep, breath.
I meant to imply resignation, not despair.
If the worst comes to pass, I will not berate myself with, "I should have submitted more."
But until then, I was saying that I will not acknowledge that the bastards win and that the best course of action is to make a place in their world.
Enlightenment or bust.
Alfred
I got the rate of return from Piketty's book - Capital in the 21st Century
I was amazed when I read that - I knew that investing $100,000 gave a better rate of return than investing $10,000 but I had assumed that it was an "S curve" and that the rate would reach a maximum and stay there
But Piketty had the actual data showing that even at the hundreds of millions level the rate was still increasing
"...Jill Stein will pop up again like a cicada at some point."
I'm gonna steal that one.
I should have guessed. That one is sitting on my shelf right next to me. 8/
A large pool of money can usually bargain for lower fees from fund managers, but that's just bargaining power.
Large investors are less likely to pull cash out on a whim allowing fund mangers to keep smaller cash reserves while keeping transaction costs down. That shows up in the bargain.
There are constraints, though, imposed by the reality of the business.
1) Fund managers have to make a living.
2) The largest pools have less to buy than their charter might require. Supply isn't infinite.
Piketty has some fundamental flaws in his argument about how screwed the little people are, but one thing he gets right is that the almost-risk-free rate of return is usually above the growth rate of the economy. Slightly above in some cases, but enough that we should be viewing it as an arbitrage game.
Remember that the richest among us have most of their money in the bond market. Equity markets simply aren't large enough. That means they lend money to governments mostly, so it is one of the few points of agreements between conservatives and progressives when they agree to finance something.
Larry,
I'm pretty sure Der Oger was replying to you. I'm a barbarian inclined to reject anything now except the fight. I won't leave evidence here for what I'm doing, but I AM past the point of giving a f*ck about avoiding violence. I'd just prefer it be directed in a useful manner. Since I live in a very blue part of California, that means directing my ire away from my neighbors.
Some have wondered where all the GPUs might be used after an AI bubble pop. 'Piketty Programmers' might use a few. I remember digging thru some R code way back when I started messing with Computational Psychohistory. But CUDA was 'too long a walk'.
And not threatening Greenland would be disastrous for Trump as it would allow the news cycle to once again address the Epstein Files.
Alfred Differ:
I won't leave evidence here for what I'm doing,
Smart. I read 1984 in high school back in 1977--long before the internet--and I still resolved back then never to let anyone, not even my own loved ones, know anything that could be used against me in Room 101.
but I AM past the point of giving a f*ck about avoiding violence. I'd just prefer it be directed in a useful manner.
I trust you to know how to accomplish that much better than I could.
But I still feel like I'm not correctly communicating what I'm talking about. It's not like I have a public chip on my shoulder, walking around looking to give them the violence they want to incite. It's more like I can imagine being in situations where escalation becomes inevitable, or at least inevitable without submission to evil.
For instance, I am not a doctor, but if I were the doctor who tried to render aid to Renee Good and was prevented by her murderers from doing so, I'd like to think I would have kept moving no matter orders to stop until they were forced to publicly prevent me. I'd likely be detained and maybe charged with a felony for being disrespectful to a snowflake, the prospect of which would have cowed me in the past, but no more. That sort of thing.
There's a scene in Soylent Greeen in which Thorne baits Chuck Connors's character by slapping him around, but Tab just takes it, "You're not going to make me hit a cop." Until Thorne switches to punching Tab's girlfriend in the stomach, at which point biology and the serpent brain takes over. The way I see it, that's exactly what the Trump administration is doing through ICE. They have the authority to escalate the cruelty until response is inevitable, and then use that response to justify tyranny, That's the inevitable course I say I'm resigned to. And there's no way to combat it by simply following the rules. Everything the Gestapo did was lawful in Germany at the time.
DH Lawrence's creed: "my soul is a dark forest"
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2844-this-is-what-i-believe-that-i-am-i-that
He mentions this in his stern admonition of Benjamin Franklin. If you squint, you can just make out a possible Fermi solution: romanticism wins.
And is it just me, or does Greenland's flag look like something straight out of FOUNDATION?
https://bsky.app/profile/astrokatie.com/post/3mcmo7anx7s2q
Hi Larry,
There's a scene in Soylent Greeen in which Thorne baits Chuck Connors's character by slapping him around, but Tab just takes it, "You're not going to make me hit a cop." Until Thorne switches to punching Tab's girlfriend in the stomach, at which point biology and the serpent brain takes over. The way I see it, that's exactly what the Trump administration is doing through ICE. They have the authority to escalate the cruelty until response is inevitable, and then use that response to justify tyranny, That's the inevitable course I say I'm resigned to. And there's no way to combat it by simply following the rules. Everything the Gestapo did was lawful in Germany at the time.
Thing is, its not actually legal, I'd love to see Walsh order the state police to just treat ICE following all the rules, but not providing any professional courtesy. E.g. a cop can speed in an emergency, but if they're speeding without their lights and sirens on, they're technically breaking a traffic law and can be ticketed.
Walsh should shake loose as many cops as he can* and have a black and white just follow behind as many of the ICE raid-mobiles as they can. If the ICE vehicles run a light, even on a yellow, or make a left turn, but the right wheel is in the center lane instead of the turn lane, or they make a left into the right lane, or they drive in the left lane without passing, or they go 36 in a 35 zone, put on the lights, pull 'em over, give 'em a ticket.
if they yell at someone charge them with disturbing the peace.
If they pull their firearm without anyone else having a visible weapon, charge 'em with reckless endangerment.
If they grab someone without a warrant, charge em with kidnapping.
* ask all the small towns in Minnesota to each deputize a couple citizens if they can, and pull in cops from throughout Minnesota for regular policing in the twin cities.
Use just state troopers / city cops that know enough about policing to make sure every stop (of ICE) is legal, and that proper procedure is used throughout.
@Larry, for clarification, yes, I meant you.
"This administration is not known for its transparency, but ICE has been expanded from roughly 10,000 agents to 22,000 agents in the last year. It currently has a budget of about $30 billion per year.
To put that in context, the U.S. Marine Corps' budget is about $55 billion per year, to support 173,000 active-duty personnel. Or, to give a somewhat more parallel example, the FBI has 38,000 personnel, and is budgeted at $11 billion per year. " (https://www.electoral-vote.com/#item-5)
There must be some pretty significant graft going on at ICE ...
the USMC has to pay for combat aircraft (up to and including F-35s), self propelled artillery, LAVs, engineering/bridging equipment, foreign bases, etc. etc. and spends $300K per marine.
ICE pays for none of that, but has 22,000 troopers and a budget of $30B ... even assuming they're doubling ICE staff this year, so 44,000 troopers - that's over $600K per employee.
It sounds impossible that this is being spent legitimately.
Der Oger:
"yes, I meant you."
Well, thank you. I hope I can live up to that.
c plus:
"Walsh should shake loose as many cops as he can..."
You list some excellent things that state and local officials could do if they wanted to openly oppose ICE. The problem is that I haven't yet seen any sign that they want to rock the boat that much. The current political zeitgeist seems to be that DJT's actions themselves are not a Constitutional crisis, but that resisting federal authority would be one.
Maybe that will change with time and circumstances.
@Der Oger,
I hope you don't mind if I ask a somewhat personal question. If you choose not to answer, I won't ask again.
I believe you peruse the www.electoral-vote.com site, and they do get some correspondence from Germany. Have they ever published a letter or question from you, and if so, would you share the initials and city you posted by?
If you'd rather not answer, that's cool. I, of course, have been represented there myself as L.H. from Chicago.
Venus, don't forget, has the same gravity-well depth problem as Earth, while having a severe hydrogen deficiency and no starting infrastructure. To export from Venus in any quantity requires leveraging what energy sources are available locally, and can only work on an exchange basis with a easily mined, shallow-well source of hydrogen (Ceres? Jovian moons?) to sustain and grow the settlements. Venus is also downwell from most everywhere and will have to do tricks like gravity-assist to affordably ship to most anywhere.
The flip side would be that carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and even phosphorous are readily and efficiently air-mined from different layers of the thick soup of Venus; sunshine is plentiful above the thicker haze layers, and atmospheric thermoclines for heat pumps below. All the critical elements for life support... except for hydrogen. Play the angles right and Venus could be the System's best source for many commodities... but you'd need a lot of firm, long-term contracting to succeed.
Luna is less useful for mining than one might think; it got the poor end of the deal in the Theia collision. Earth is abnormally dense, Luna abnormally light, and the relative abundances plus deeper gravity well offset the proximity bonus somewhat (at least until the skyhook to L1 goes up). Testbed it should be, and data backup site: that one-second lightspeed delay limits many real-time use cases, but is brilliant for putting information beyond reach of torches and pitchforks.
Don't count your chickens before the mother hens have even brooded. Presuming the elections are sufficiently free and fair (likely but requires much work), and we convene the next Congress in safety (ditto), removal requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, thus up to seventeen Republican senators. We could get there, and even before the midterms -- I suspect any serious attempt to attack Greenland would be enough to do it -- but it's another bar to clear. Even the Radical Reconstruction Congress wasn't quite able to remove Johnson, even under conditions of similar gravity to ours.
It's ten months to the midterms. That's a darned long time. I'm concentrating on long-term fixes because they'll be (by definition) easier to plan for than context-dependent actions.
If Musk were truly serious about Mars, he'd long ago have funded research on how mammals respond to partial gravity conditions. I have personal knowledge that he has had access to plans for those experiments for twenty years. That he continues to ignore them means, by folly or by design, he's not on a path to Mars access anytime soon.
Earth margins are too tight, but the value would be such that someone will try *something*. Orbiting pinwheel flingers might still be possible. Earth's gravity-well is still the key bottleneck to accomplishing anything substantial, and will be so for a long time.
You honor me once again, sir! Though I remind the room that imitation is merely the fourth most sincere form of flattery, and plagiarism the third. Attribution ranks second... but the most sincere form of all is, naturally, royalties. Haven't broken through to that one yet.
I'll add van Belle to my reading list! Also, Mrs. Catfish says hello. :)
The birth issue for Belters is especially relevant given the stated difficulties of adaptation for childbearing and development in microgravity. See above re: the vital need to know what long-term partial gravity does to creatures like us.
If this jibbering twit had any money I'd demand a wager $$$ over that masturbatory lie-insanity. As is, he's deservedly poo via offering nothing to the world. And BTW that was all lies.
A skyhook needs a counterweight and phobos could supply that IF is were in mars-surface synchony like our 40,000 km GEO. It isn't.
My riff for Powell, Newsom, Walz & Frey to shout: "Bring it!" demand that that Noem&Bondi&gang bring all accusations at once before a Grand Jury of average citizens (mostly white retirees), and try for indictment. "I now waive all legal steps that might delay it. Bring it! In fact, even after the GJ tosses your drool-charges, I'll VOLUNTEER for a criminal trial before another jury. We'll see what average folks say about you jack-booted, mask-cowering, schoolyard-bully crazies."
"Oh and AFTER those two unanimous acquittals, there will finally be a guilty verdict. Against you. In civil court.
"Better start hiding your money overseas, like all top Republicans do."
Catfish 'n Cod:
If Musk were truly serious about Mars,...
If Musk were truly serious about Mars, he'd have to realize that a blood-and-soil fascist dictatorship isn't going to produce the innovation necessary to not only shoot a rocket there, but create a sustainable life support system for a colony on a foreign planet.
Just watched s1e1 of STARFLEET ACADEMY
Touched by Rufus Wainwright's rendition of "San Francisco". Then my daughter-in-law's name appeared in the credits. Wow.
Franklin's birthday will be a special day for me from now on.
Bless and keep the USA and Vive le Canada.
You're not wrong on LEO elections, but this is in large measure due to a (possibly unforced) error in the Thirteenth Amendment, which permitted involuntary labor as punishment for conviction of crime. This verbiage was meant to ensure that prisoners contributed to their own upkeep, but was swiftly widened into the Black Codes before narrowing somewhat in Jim Crow. The old "slave patrols" meant to prevent revolt morphed into "policing" that served an equivalent function. From then on, "tough on crime" was an ambiguous pledge that could mean "maintaining authoritarian control of racial castes" as well as the more straightforward "maintaining civil order and security of persons and property." Most of America's police-community relations problem stems from forces trying to resolve or retain this ambiguity.
Having centuries of this ambiguity also explains why your defamation idea hasn't worked here either. For every atrocity, extrajudicial death, and bigoted injustice, there are advocates both for the dead victim(s) and their families -- who claim defamation through denial - and for the perpetrators, whether living or dead, who claim that the truth is defamatory. The unspoken, possibly subconscious, cultural reflex is to defend the honor or "face" of the ancestors / past community, through condemning calls for truth and reconciliation as destabilizing attacks on the structure of society. Participating in the collective self-deception is a shibboleth in such communities. Like the tale of Omelas, those who don't endorse the morality of maintaining the memory hole are ostracized and usually leave. Those who stay commit further cover-up actions, which lead to fresh injustices, which then must be denied as well - thus perpetuating the system through many generations.
If you were wondering how American officials could possibly make such bald-faced lies in the face of extensive evidence, this is how: generations' worth of practice.
Der Oger:
"I have the suspicion that a legal system in which law enforcement officials are elected in the base of who is toughest on crime contributes to the Problem of American fascism"
You're not wrong. Possibly because of tv and movies, Americans act as if potential violent crime is an ever-imminent threat, and that the only protection is being on the good side of the police.
It doesn't help that "tough on crime" isn't limited in the public mind to crime prevention, but requires rough treatment of those accused, the more inhumane the better. Even leniency toward defendants who are wrongly accused* is perceived as weakness by the voting public.
* See DJT's continued railing against the acquitted Central Park Five.
Catfish 'n Cod:
"and [ advocates ] for the perpetrators, whether living or dead, who claim that the truth is defamatory."
That's exactly what's happening with the persecution of Mark Kelly, of Jimmy Kimmel (on Charlie Kirk's death), of that reporter who KKKaroline Leavitt recently berated for his remarks about the Minneapolis murder. The speaking of factual truth that doesn't fit Von Schitznpantz's narrative is not only "fake news", but terrorism and treason.
Published first in the November 1983 Analog, I once thought that 'Tank Farm Dynamo' was a terrific story & perhaps the most well-written Space Station story of Ben Bova's career, which is understandable as it was written entirely in Bova's idiom, until I found it again in our host's anthologies.
Now, on the subject of 'Improving the US Government', I'm intrigued by Dr Brin's recent admission that he is neither a 'pro-US nationalist' nor a 'pro-US patriot', but (instead) a 'Soldier of the Enlightenment' fifth columnist who wishes to bend the US to his own ends.
As this somewhat unpatriotic, unamerican & undemocratic admission puts all of Dr Brin's suggestions about an improved US Government & Newer Deal into a somewhat different light, can our fine host now explain why any US patriot (or US nationalist) should ever support or even trust Dr Brin's ambitions ?
I therefore suggest that the 'Way Forward' for Western Democracies is to allow these 'democracies' to decide for themselves if they wish to remain a sovereign nation/people or become the slaves of unelected pro-Enlightenment globalists who hate sovereignty in all forms, as is already the case in the non-democracy that is the EU.
Thus always to tyrants.
Best
Well-parsed and reasonable -sounding... for a parallel reality in which anything he said is true. Alas, in this reality, it's all delusional.
The only pop we shall see shall involves some of the stupid ideas to which they want to apply these LLM's. They'll find other uses after the mania passes... like they did with all that dark fiber optic cable laid across the seas in the late 90's.
Only the first movers will get smacked... and even then only SOME of them.
I can think of some very useful things to do with them in the field of 'educating humans', but the business case doesn't close if I have to buy GPU time at current rates. I might be wrong about whether I can make a profit at it later, but I know I can't now.
What do you guys think of the following title for my AI book?
A(i)lien Minds
or
AiLIEN MINDS
??
Larry,
But I still feel like I'm not correctly communicating what I'm talking about. It's not like I have a public chip on my shoulder, walking around looking to give them the violence they want to incite. It's more like I can imagine being in situations where escalation becomes inevitable, or at least inevitable without submission to evil.
I DO get your concern. The thing is… the solution to it requires that you trust some of your neighbors to make your sacrifice worthwhile. That Soylent Green scene points to something that isn't true in this modern era (likely never was) with cameras and microphones everywhere. While I’m not encouraging you to head on over to an event and make a martyr of yourself, please DO take note that we have evidence of what happened to Renee Good from multiple angles and that IS what is required to peel away lukewarm supporters of authority.
-----
That scene in Soylent Green (and others like it in other movies) is intended to evoke a feeling of powerlessness. Protagonists in our stories are supposed to grow. Some kind of failure exists within them at the story’s start (likely mirroring their physical predicament) and then the plot takes you through the events that resolve the internal failure as the protagonist defeats the antagonist. I have a little book on my desk that addresses story structures from the perspective of what sells... and screenplays fit neatly.
The story telling formula essentially requires the protagonist to pass through an emotional low where they feel they can't win. That scene IS that piece of the structure. It is always followed, though, by the protagonist pressing on. How they decide to do it can vary, but they do. The story is unfinished and highly unsatisfying if they don't.
So... when you imagine yourself in that low, the lesson here is that you must also imagine how YOU will press on. Maybe you'll be the guy pushed far enough that you'll beat the snot out of someone and turn the tide. Movie hero, right? Maybe you'll just be the guy recording it when someone else does. Maybe you'll be the one capturing evidence that peels away a few thousand more supporters of the current lunacy. Maybe you'll just be the guy providing child care to those who are out there doing these things. Any of those involve pressing on. They all count... but movies aren't likely to be made about everyone involved.
-----
Whatever you do to press on, please make sure you don't try to do it alone. Hollywood is very wrong about the role lone heroes play in making the future what we want it to be. If you want to beat the snot out of someone, make sure you have a crew to film it... and have your affairs in order. If you want to film it, make sure your equipment immediately uploads to the cloud and then go find someone willing to throw a punch or rip off a mask. Consider body armor. It's not that expensive.
Whatever it is, though, pick something. Anything at all to advance your story.
Heh. With AI generated cover art?
Oh bless your heart, locum. Antifederalist represent! So would our Carolina ancestors speak of the horrors Hamilton and Adams would inflict upon the beleaguered champions of liberty… and if we should disagree, to heck with you, here’s to me!
And thus too spake the unsuccessful assassins who sought Lincoln’s blood before his inauguration… as well as the successful one afterward. The latter accomplishing only greater pain for those already defeated.
What is “The United States of America?” If it is the experiment in self-government begun in Philadelphia in 1776, the collective effort built by the Framers including the antifederalists, then the Enlightenment, channeled through the patterns incompletely built by British traditions and the common law, is the foundation upon which all else is built.
If by “the US nation” you mean merely a people and culture (or portions thereof) within the borders of the nation erected by that project, you can be a “US patriot” without reference to the Enlightenment. Perfectly reasonable.
But if that is your choice, at least have the decency and honesty of our ancestors. Declare plainly, as they did, your disavowal of the Declaration, and your contempt for the Constitution. And have, too, the decency to allow our sister democracies to make their choice freely, without duress from far-off Eagles or nearby Bears. As long as either the US right or the Russian state try to push Europeans towards a preselected choice, they will have no choice but to push back, and band together… just as some other people once did in similar straits…
None of this is to defend the present EU structure, which is indeed a godawful mess desperately in need of more local and direct oversight. But that will have to wait. War is upon us all.
Alfred Differ:
"Maybe you'll just be the guy..."
This may be incredibly naive, but what I imagine is that I'll end up being the guy who is just so goddamn reasonable that they can't justify shooting me for interposing myself between them and the woman they want to kill, or justify refusing to let me through to administer aid to the woman they just shot. The most violence I could see myself bringing is to "stumble" into the guy kneeling on George Floyd's neck and knocking him off his game.
"That scene in Soylent Green (and others like it in other movies) is intended to evoke a feeling of powerlessness. Protagonists in our stories are supposed to grow."
I think I've seen the film more times than you have. The protagonist, Thorne, is the cop who forced the other guy to react. The viewer identifies with the cop, who is actually the good guy in the story.
onward to one of my stranger speculations!
onward
onward
Heh. Yah. You've seen the movie a lot more than I have. I'm not a big fan of 70's science fiction movies. Some are okay, but they usually leave me missed off at authority.
As for your non-violence POV, you are a much nicer person than I am. Just remember that saints get 'promoted' long before others realize the lesson being taught.
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