Why I ignored Obama’s State of the Union speech
Space.com has provided a detailed look, with reactions, of President Obama’s prominent mention of space exploration in his State of the Union speech this week.
I didn’t even watch the speech, nor read it, nor really care much at all about what he said. It is garbage, political propaganda that has nothing to do with getting us into space. The speech’s only real purpose is to puff up Barack Obama and his political allies.
The article above mentions Obama’s April 2010 space speech. What I wrote about that 2010 speech in 2010 focused on this promise by Obama:
[A]s stated in the speech’s fact sheet, that he “will commit to making a specific decision in 2015 on the development of a new heavy-lift rocket architecture.” Somehow this commitment was supposed to convince us that, despite his cancellation of the Constellation program (which already has had six years of development under its belt), his willingness to postpone making a decision for five years more would somehow accelerate the program.
How stupid does Obama really think people are? [emphasis in original]
Five years later, does anyone remember this promise? And is Obama making this decision now, as promised? No to both. The only reason he is building SLS is because Congress required him to. And the purpose of that rocket program isn’t to build a rocket, but to pour ungodly amounts of money into congressional districts.
To me, the real news this week was the big money private enterprise is beginning to pour into real development in space. That will get us to the planets, not the egotistical blathering of politicians.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Understanding the Obama perspective, explained and justified by the people that bracket his life. Want to properly understand a man? Then come to understand from where he comes and who he associates and surrounds himself with.
This is not an indictment or a disrespectful cherry picked post of “facts” but a reasonable analysis to better come to know what motivates a particular man. Lets stop being amazed and confused by any actions he takes. Most of us are what we have subjectively eaten for our whole lives, it is reasonable to assume the same here, this is just due dilligence.
Valarie Jarrett, born in Iran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett
Barack Obama sr : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama,_Sr. :
My father was a Muslim and although I did not know him well the religion of my father and his family was always something I had an interest in. This interest became more intense when my mother married an Indonesian Muslim man and as a small child I lived in Indonesia and attended school alongside Muslim pupils. I saw their parents dutifully observing the daily prayers, the mothers covered in the Muslim hijab, the atmosphere of the school change during Ramadan, and the festiveness of the Eid celebrations.
http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM41_080411_bhobama_article_1965.pdf Socialist? Communist?
Onyango Obama, grandfather, Christian converted to Islam: “Onyango was permanently scarred, suffering pain and requiring assistance in moving until his death. Although previously he had worked closely with British colonists, his torture left Onyango bitterly anti-British.[78]
” Onyango converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and took the name Hussein. He became a cook for missionaries and local herbalist in Nairobi.”
Did the third Castro brother deliver another stem-winder? Ho hum… Lets get back to the very important analysis of football inflation
You aren’t the only one who ignored Obama’s speech. I hear reports that it is the least watched speech in the history of televised State of the Union speeches. Considering how little of what Obama has proposed in his past speeches has come to pass, I don’t blame us for watching sit-com reruns instead (or watching someone talk about “deflation-gate,” which strangely doesn’t seem to be about the economy).
Except for JPL, NASA seems to have lost its way. No goals (clear or otherwise), and the first “A” has been under-appreciated for decades.
http://spacenews.com/letter-bold-meaningful-missions-only-way-to-re-engage-public/
“Who is cooler today, an astronaut or an Internet entrepreneur?”
No wonder no one cares about NASA, anymore, as it becomes increasingly irrelevant. The latest embarrassment is an obvious kow-tow to politics: declaring 2014 the hottest year on record, even though they are 62% sure that it isn’t.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2915061/Nasa-climate-scientists-said-2014-warmest-year-record-38-sure-right.html
So how do I defend the brilliant, talented, and dedicated scientists and engineers at NASA when the administration makes the once-great NASA a laughing stock? A few more years like this, and no one will bother teasing me about NASA anymore, nor will they bother denying that we went to the moon, as it will be obvious that NASA couldn’t possibly have gotten us there.
You are correct, Robert, that it is private enterprise, not the US government, that will get us to the planets. Thank goodness we have JPL to show us what resources we will have when we get there.
Plenty for me but not for thee.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-21/billionaire-greene-goes-long-on-u-s-while-bemoaning-jobs-crisis.html
While Obama creates confusion and racial conflict and attempts to redistribute the middle class wealth of America down ward into the permanent entitlement class that has been created to ensure eternal democrat domination. The billionaires who have shifted American technology and production capability into the economic vacuum of the rising sun plan your mediocre American, slave to the debt future.
The thing about the future is that it is not written in stone given the proper leadership and guidance. Who will let loose the dogs of American capitalist innovation and domination and re empower the middle class and deny these philosophical Marxist slave masters their dark and oppressive future?
Deflation
Obama has zero interest in space exploration.
1700 private jets, the overlords meet, decide how we should / will all live. I wonder how they will decide to deal with “climate chaos”? Will they decide to surrender their jets for the good of humanity and to heal the now roasting, flooded and barely habitable earth? NAH.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/20/1700-private-jets-fly-to-davos-to-discuss-global-warming/
PS: If I could afford a jet, I would absolutely have a jet. Don’t get the idea that I am anti jet.
Cotour asked, ” Will they decide to surrender their jets for the good of humanity and to heal the now roasting, flooded and barely habitable earth?”
More likely, they will decide that the rest of us must surrender our jet travel, and car travel, and other energy use, so that *they* can continue to use their jets to meet each other to make these types of important decision that will improve our lives.
If only we peons would live in caves near water sources, scavenge for our food, freeze in the dark, and stop breathing, then the *important* people could fly around the world on their own important boondoggles and vacations without fear that the climate will ever change again.
After all, their greatest fear is that it may stop snowing at their favorite ski resorts.