Biden’s Justice Department sues SpaceX
The corrupt and very partisan Justice Department of the Biden administration today sued SpaceX for discriminating against refugees and illegal immigrants because it restricts hiring to “U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.”
The lawsuit states SpaceX “failed to fairly consider” and “refused to hire” the asylees and refugees who ended up applying anyway. It also alleges that SpaceX “wrongly claimed” that the US’s export control laws allowed it to only hire US citizens and lawful residents. Additionally, the DOJ claims SpaceX hired “only” US citizens and green card holders from September 2018 to September 2020.
“Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, says in a statement.
Justice is demanding compensation and back pay for anyone “deterred or denied employment”, as well as civil penalties.
This suit is utter garbage and puts SpaceX between a rock and a hard place. I guarantee if SpaceX had hired any illegal or refugee who was not yet a legal citizen, Biden’s State Department would have immediately sued it for violating other laws relating to ITAR (the export control laws mentioned) which try to prevent the theft of technology by foreign powers.
The Biden administration considers Elon Musk an opponent, and since it is now moving to indict and even imprison all political opposition, it is no surprise it is beginning to use lawfare against him. As I have written repeatedly, it has almost certainly pressured the FAA to slow walk any launch license approvals for SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. This lawsuit today simply provides further evidence that my prediction will be right that the next orbital test flight of that rocket will be delayed months.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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The corrupt and very partisan Justice Department of the Biden administration today sued SpaceX for discriminating against refugees and illegal immigrants because it restricts hiring to “U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.”
The lawsuit states SpaceX “failed to fairly consider” and “refused to hire” the asylees and refugees who ended up applying anyway. It also alleges that SpaceX “wrongly claimed” that the US’s export control laws allowed it to only hire US citizens and lawful residents. Additionally, the DOJ claims SpaceX hired “only” US citizens and green card holders from September 2018 to September 2020.
“Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, says in a statement.
Justice is demanding compensation and back pay for anyone “deterred or denied employment”, as well as civil penalties.
This suit is utter garbage and puts SpaceX between a rock and a hard place. I guarantee if SpaceX had hired any illegal or refugee who was not yet a legal citizen, Biden’s State Department would have immediately sued it for violating other laws relating to ITAR (the export control laws mentioned) which try to prevent the theft of technology by foreign powers.
The Biden administration considers Elon Musk an opponent, and since it is now moving to indict and even imprison all political opposition, it is no surprise it is beginning to use lawfare against him. As I have written repeatedly, it has almost certainly pressured the FAA to slow walk any launch license approvals for SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. This lawsuit today simply provides further evidence that my prediction will be right that the next orbital test flight of that rocket will be delayed months.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
This is a shakedown plain and simple.
This one will get tossed out of court due to ITAR. You work on this technology, you will be checked, and in some cases you have to be a U.S. born citizen. Let me rephrase it, you SHALL be checked. I deal with ITAR every day. Did you know that if you want to work at or do work with the nuclear industry, you have to be a U.S. born citizen to go to the site? Those are DoE rules.
Where is the DoD on this? I remember this same garbage with Lockheed’s Skunkworks. DoD stepped in and it never happened again.
Huh? What does this have to do with ITAR?
Every job I’ve ever had requires “proof of citizenship”. It’s some form where one must supply multiple proofs of identity. Something like “one from column A and one from column B” with driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, etc… on the lists.
There’s even some electronic version of it. “eVerify”, iirc.
Plus Chy-na is paying Biden big bucks to get their spies into SpaceX to steal technology. 10% for the Big Guy, you know.
https://t.ly/2OKHu
The requirement is for the personnel to be a US citizen or a Green Card to perform ITAR work. The requirement is for the employees who are actually performing the work. If SpaceX has a blanket requirement for everyone, independent of the work done they might be hanging a bit out there liability wise.
Nuclear is a special case where you have to be compliant to even set foot on the facility.
The big box aerospace companies are full of H1-Bs.
ITAR is the State Departments little gem, I believe.
This has nothing to do with ITAR per se, it a discrimination suite brought by our corrupt DOJ who is looking for any reason to persecute those who don’t toe the line. Musk obviously isn’t bribing enough Congressmen.
James Street,
You are right! I wonder which Chinese rocket company hired Hunter?
markedup2,
This is rocket technology which is of strategic importance. Hence ITAR. Industrial espionage by foreign workers happens.
“Musk obviously isn’t bribing enough Congressmen.”
That’s the problem, he has to bribe enough Congresswomen as well. DEI and all that, dontcha know?
NASA’s head of ITAR compliance where I worked was named. Lee Chang.
No joke!
MarkedUp – Worked programs for large defense contractor for many years. Here are the facts:
Pursuant to section 38(a)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), all defense articles controlled for export or import are part of the USML under the AECA. All references to the USML in this rule, however, are to the list of AECA defense articles that are controlled for purposes of export or temporary import pursuant to the ITAR,….under its regulations at 27 CFR part 447. References to the USMIL are to the list of AECA defense articles controlled by ATF for purposes of permanent import.
U.S. Munitions List (ITAR) (21 Cattegories) relevant:
Category IV-Launch Vehicles, Guided & Ballistic Missiles, Rockets, Torpedoes, Bombs and Mines
Category XV-Spacecraft Systems and Associated Equipment
SpaceX has to conform to ITAR and it is VERY controlled WHO is allowed to interface in these areas. Safest to use US citizens
We are in strange territory here, folks. On the one hand, people like NASA Administrator Bill Nelson seem to recognize that we are in a new space race with China, and he genuinely seems to want us to prevail in this contest*. But our return to the moon is predicated on the use of private sector technology, including SpaceX’s Starship / Lunar Lander, along with the SLS to get the job done.
*Even Howard Bloom, an inveterate lefty, alluded to this last night on Coast to Coast, acknowledging just how important it is to stay ahead of our competitors in this arena. Later in the program, David Livingston also emphasized the role of SpaceX and the private sector in terms of our return to space.
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2023-08-23-show/
The problem is — where have we seen this before? — the people running the rest of the Biden Administration either don’t know, or are too stupid to realize, that without SpaceX and Starship, this country (borrowing Bob Dylan’s phrase) “ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
As Robert observes:
“The Biden administration considers Elon Musk an opponent, and since it is now moving to indict and even imprison all political opposition, it is no surprise it is beginning to use lawfare against him. As I have written repeatedly, it has almost certainly pressured the FAA to slow walk any launch license approvals for SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. This lawsuit today simply provides further evidence that my prediction will be right that the next orbital test flight of that rocket will be delayed months.”
And the anticipated crewed return to the moon possibly delayed for a number of years.
So which is it? Does the Biden Administration actually *want* to have a successful space program — including a return of Americans to the moon — or is it perfectly willing to forego being a credible contender in the new space race with China in order to achieve “higher” goals? (Including, perhaps, continuing payments to the Biden Crime Family?) As usual, most people would tend to believe that retaining the competitive edge in space that our private sector affords us would be seen as a “good” thing by our government, but if you see this country as being fundamentally flawed and evil (with half of its population comprised of racists and domestic terrorists), then why would you want it to succeed in *any* sector — including in space? And, believing that, why wouldn’t you see the facilitation of Chinese preeminence in this area as a good thing as well?
Long story short, no one should assume that our current government *wants* us to prevail against our Chinese competitors in space, and there are many reasons to believe that they would be perfectly pleased to hand them the keys to the Solar System. Its the fair and equitable thing to do.
An American company can be sued by the department of justice for only hiring Americans and legal foreign workers? Forget the ITAR issue, why the heck do we even have ports of entry, green cards, and work visas? I’m a criminal if I don’t hire illegal aliens?
This is beyond outrageous. Clearly it’s the DOJ giving the double barreled middle finger to SpaceX.
Hierarchy- They do what they want, to whoever they want, with no consequences. What are you going to do about it?
Apparently DoD went after Lockheed for something similar many years ago, and the Department of Defense called a conference, smacked some heads, and Justice quietly dropped it and hasn’t bugged Lockheed since. So for them to be going after SpaceX now is clearly political. Unfortunately, as nonsensical as this is, and as clearly political, the law is not cut and dried, it’s a typical muddle. Some of the ITAR and related laws and regulations clearly specify US persons as a requirement. But there are other laws and regulations that count Refugees and Asylees as US Persons. And it very much puts SpaceX in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position. By the spirit of the ITAR regulations, and the text of those regulations specifically, they should be hiring only US Citizens and those with permanent resident status. But there are immigration laws and regulations that put Asylees and Refugees into that category. Either could be correct, or either could be incorrect, it depends on what DoJ wants. It will be interesting to see what kind of judge this ends up in front of, if we get one with a brain and a lack of leftist agenda, a judge could sort this out. But more likely SpaceX will settle.
John
You will be made to comply.
You will be made to care.
You will accept the lie.
Oceana has always been at war with Eastasia.
In this case, their legal status must be overlooked. They are accepting government money (in the form of contracts) then they expect you to dance to the government’s tune. In this case, tho the actual law is not the issue, but The Party’s goals.
I worked at Lockheed-Martin on the F-35 program. We had embedded foreign nationals. Every conversation with them regarding the program was technically an export of data under ITAR. As U.S. employees we had to be keenly aware of ITAR. And to top it off, I was a Technology Transfer Coordinator for ITAR and Department of Commerce Export Administration Regulations (EAR). EAR covers dual usage products and data. Those are my “bona fides” in this conversation.
At a minimum, to handle ITAR and EAR material and products, you must be a U.S. Person; that is, either a U.S. Citizen or a legal U.S. Resident (Green Card holder of whatever stripe). A company can get special waivers for individuals if that person and their knowledge is needed. This “mass” of people that the DOJ is suing over would be a major problem for any company to vet if they are not a U.S. Person. Even hiring them for non-technical jobs presents a problem because they can have access to controlled materials under these various regulations; clerks, janitors, building maintenance people and such can have access to controlled materials.
This is a totally fraudulent and garbage lawsuit meant to harass Elon Musk through SpaceX because he has disrupted the Leftist/Marxist that have sway over our Federal Government and their revolution through his actions at X/Twitter. While not a lawyer, presenting the laws that force the need for U.S. Persons should override the other laws and have this thrown out. But, it will probably be tried before a court in Washington D.C. where a fair trial cannot be had for “an enemy of the State”.
Plus, these same people do not want unregulated expansion into outer space because it could interfere with their Great Reset.
I have been cautiously hoping that the FAA would play only their technical role, but I have to finally join RZ with the belief that SpaceX may be delayed months or permanently enjoined from Starship/Superheavy launches from Boca Chica. And I will extend that to Kennedy Space Flight Center.
Milt asked, “Does the Biden Administration actually *want* to have a successful space program — including a return of Americans to the moon — or is it perfectly willing to forego being a credible contender in the new space race with China in order to achieve “higher” goals? ”
Wrong question, Milt. In order to understand the modern Democratic Party, one needs to recognize that the only thing that matters to its members is power itself. They don’t care one iota if the country goes to hell, if people starve in the streets, if their policies cause hundreds to die in a wildfire in Hawaii, if little children are mutilated and castrated, if our space industry is destroyed. If those consequences are what is required for them to maintain their power, then so be it.
ESG Hound says with a straight face that the water deluge system used to protect the environment from the super heavy rocket blast is itself a clear violation of the clean water act
https://blog.esghound.com/p/spacex-violated-the-clean-water-act?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
David – Take a look at what BillB said in his comments about ITAR, they match well with my experience in other ITAR categories.
Regarding the statement:
“Apparently DoD went after Lockheed for something similar many years ago, and the Department of Defense called a conference, smacked some heads, and Justice quietly dropped it and hasn’t bugged Lockheed since. ”
Not quite true. They have been beat about head and shoulders on multiple issues over 30 years. Same true for most big contractors.
Lockheed spends enormous amounts of time and energy conducting ITAR and other export training. All of it is reviewable by DoD and DoS. This is true at all large defense oriented companies. Lockheed and other major defense contractors spend enormous effort auditing programs and employees performance on ITAR issues.
These internal audits and reviews result in copious self disclosures to DoD and DoS of items which may (or may not) have violated ITAR. It is very important. The attitude is better for us to hew very strictly to ITAR and tell USG, rather than having USG TELL us that we have a violation.
I cannot believe that SpaceX does not behave in similar ways.
By the way, as an employee for a contractor, you are PERSONALLY liable for violations. I have seen individuals fined in these areas when investigations showed that the individual received required training, procedures are in place and the individual failed to comply.
This suit by DoD is hypocritical, 2 faced horse puckey.
This is some special Baloney Show.
I worked as a subcontractor for ALL of those companies and more.
We had more ITAR and EAR paperwork than you would believe. EVERYONE who came into the facility had to pass their background checks. We were checked for compliance by every single one of our customers and we had government inspectors come through at least twice a year.
The only people who didn’t have to pass background checks and inspections was the private contractors who did outside work. And they never came into the building.
Even our private security guards were not allowed into the facility. Even our local fire department and police went through our background checks. And they were only allowed in if they were escorted.
Forcing a company to hire illegals is just wrong on so many levels.
I bet Space X will end up hiring illegals to do the outside grounds work. They will be told the minimum number they have to hire to “stay in compliance” and that is all they will do. Plus the big guy percentage.
I am also sure this will only apply to their Texas operations.
More than 20 years ago I was working for a division of a large prime contractor and ran into a similar ITAR problem where job offers had to be made first, before citizenship and reference checks could he made. We actually hired a guy who had to be terminated a few weeks later, with a severence package. It seems to be part of some percentages game to encourage nepotism and back channel recruiting.
Steve, IMO, it doesn’t meet the definition of stormwater.
The simplest thing would be for them to collect and re-use the same water, no discharge, no nexus for requiring a permit.
Steve Richter, great link. That ESG dude describes the deluge system as a “Rocket Bidet” which has got to be one of the funniest anthropomorphisms of all time, and actual potty humor.
The bidet looks to have a bald spot in the center
Elon just needs to Photoshop the photo where he smokes weed with one of Hunter S. Biden and say “see Justice Dept? You can look the other way now.”
Me? I’d put a Falcon rocket down their throats.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Zimmerman explained why SpaceX can’t leave the U.S. Then, if SpaceX is stuck here . . . maybe they can go on strike. SpaceX has plenty of customers who depend on its launch products. SpaceX can very easily tell those customers
” . . . Look. We can’t sell launches to anyone right now because the feds totally messed up our business and business model with all their political poison. When they back off, we can sell you launches – even faster and cheaper than before. The feds don’t listen to us, but they WILL listen to you. It’s really simple: tell the feds to back off . . .”
It’s an obvious risk to SpaceX, but they now have nothing to lose. The feds clearly want to destroy them, and Congress – certainly the House – made it clear through their silence that Congress won’t help.
ESG Hound didn’t come up with the “Bidet” slang, though. That’s been floating around the SpaceX watcher community for months now.
But if he had his way, SpaceX would cease to exist, and not just in Boca Chica.
Right now, I wish Jan 6 had been a geunine insurrection.
There’s no way to rule innocent men…
From Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged:
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against – then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
Shoulda paid the vig.
Robert — Yes, you are correct. The current gang of thugs and grifters in Washington seems to have no other agenda than to destroy every viable institution (including the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and The Rule of Law) in our society so that the apparatus of a one party totalitarian state* can be erected in its place. As the saying goes, you can’t make a revolution without breaking things, etc., and if Elon Musk and SpaceX are in the way, well, comrade, that’s just too bad.
*Whether it will be along the lines of the World Economic Forum’s radically diminished vision of the human future remains to be seen, but it will be nothing at all like the American Republic that our Founders tried to bequeath to us. And no, it probably won’t have a functional space program.
What is so confounding is that these people seem to genuinely despise both the country that they are trying to rule and most of the people who populate it. The CCP, at least, appears to be thoroughly nationalist in its outlook, and the idea of destroying their own society and culture to bring it into conformity with some woke Never Never Land is abhorrent to them. So, too, Russia’s desire to preserve their own country / culture / society in the face of the postmodern West’s idiotic desire to turn everything in life into a kind of a nationless gray goo where you will own nothing — including a national culture — eat bugs, and be happy.
Chris — What an amazingly prescient observation about the government’s deployment of “Lawfare” against its enemies by Ms. Rand. It has been many years since I have read any of her writings, but — my oh my — is she on target with this one! In a more general sense,
yes, it does appear that everything that she described in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead is now coming to pass, and Elon Musk must think that he is indeed living in one of her novels. Along these lines, this post about Ms. Rand’s status as a (sometimes imperfect) profit is all the more worth reading.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/what-ayn-rand-got-right
I especially like the assistant AG’s statement that melanin makes blacks the master race. These people psychopaths.
“After DOJ Sued Elon Musk for Hiring Too Many Americans, Musk Accuses Biden’s DOJ of Racism
Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, who is suing Elon Musk and SpaceX for ‘discriminating against asylum seekers,’ made some awkward comments while at Harvard University including: ‘Melanin endows blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities.’
Elon Musk responded to the person suing him for hiring too many Americans with: ‘She is super racist and proud of it.’
The fact that the Biden administration is literally suing Musk’s company for hiring too many Americans should terrify everyone.”
https://slaynews.com/news/after-doj-sued-elon-musk-for-hiring-too-many-americans-musk-accuses-bidens-doj-of-racism/
And
“Some men aren’t looking for anything logical like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
– Alfred in “The Dark Knight”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVKjFAcReoE
(1 minute)
Related:
“Former President Donald Trump returned to Twitter for the first time in two years following his surrender to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday.”
“The lines and the sides have been determined and the leadership and the generals that will prosecute the war have been chosen. Why? Because they all three fundamentally understand that if they do not do what must be done it is all over. It is all or nothing”.
…….Read the rest.
TRUMP, TUCKER AND MUSK SAVE AMERICA? (sigma3ioc.com)
Why does the Democratic Party remind me of the Soviet and Chinese communist parties during their political take overs of their nations?
Those two communist groups only “elected” chosen candidates to keep a face of democracy?
When was the last real Democratic primary?
One in which you didn’t think that all the candidates were approved by the party first?
When will one of them just declare themselves the leader for life? I can see it inside the next 5 presidential elections.
Early on, some Communists looked at themselves as liberators against aristocracy…they were the first to go after the Czars.
To call the worst in the DNC commies is a slap in the face of Gagarin and MiG drivers who loved their country at least :)
Some love their country and hate their government.
Others love government but hate their country.
Me? I love my country…but also know that libertarians don’t get it that–he who hates government hates civilization.
Offshoring hurt this country as much as those trans-nuts who want to destroy families.
We need a third party of moral men.
Several people here are correct. Foreign nationals are allowed to work on certain space projects. I have worked with a few.
Notice that this is not the lawsuit. The lawsuit is for not hiring asylees and refugees. I do not know the status of refugee employment in the sensitive space business, but I suspect that asylees and refugees are limited in what they may do for employment. How does the government assure against technology transfer if it requires that just anyone must work in such sensitive positions?
_________________
David Eastman has it right: “Unfortunately, as nonsensical as this is, and as clearly political, the law is not cut and dried, it’s a typical muddle. Some of the ITAR and related laws and regulations clearly specify US persons as a requirement. But there are other laws and regulations that count Refugees and Asylees as US Persons. And it very much puts SpaceX in a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ position.”
For tyrants, the sole purpose of having laws is not to ensure peace and tranquility but to ensure that anyone may be persecuted at any time for one felony or another.
The tale goes that several decades ago in South Lake Tahoe, property owners were required by local fire code to clear the fallen dead pine needles from their yards for fire safety under penalty of a fine. Simultaneously, the city had an ordinance for environmental protection that prohibited the removal of naturally occurring dead pine needles from one’s yard, under penalty of a fine. Once again, a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position. So decide: get fined and have a fire hazard or get fined and have less of a hazard. Either way, you are a bad citizen. SpaceX is also being called a bad citizen. How many truly bad-citizen companies are getting away with hiring illegal aliens because law enforcement resources are being used to punish political enemies of the state? (What country did that in the last century? I forget.)
This is, of course, Chris‘s point.
_______________
To add to Milt‘s comment, “it probably won’t have a functional space program,” governments do not think of space programs the way normal people do, as we believe that space and the resources and manufacturing we can do in it is a benefit. For governments and politicians, it is the whole body that counts, not the individual parts. A single heart muscle cell does not matter, the whole body does. Politicians believe that their job is to control these individuals so that the whole runs better than if these mere parts did their jobs on their own. A space program is not part of that control, and in fact is more difficult to control. That is what the Outer Space Treaty was supposed to solve.
The United States was founded under principles that violated and refuted all leadership principles for the past several thousand years. Here, the individual was the important part, and government was the servant of the people, not the other way around. What infuriates leaders most is how successful this distributed control has been while centralized control has been such as bloody (literally) failure. How can a leader lead if his people are more important than he is? “I am the state” is a telling statement from King Louis XIV.
How do the leaders and the ruling class think?
‘Who do these people think they are? “We the People” forming a more perfect union, indeed. What rubbish. Only a ruling class can make things work. There is no “invisible hand” of economics, only the iron fist of government that makes things work. The United States is a failure, because there was no ruling class to make it work. And look how easily it was taken down! All it took was a century of Fabian Socialism and one Obama to turn the U.S. into the tyranny that nations should be.’
For politicians, what happens on Earth is what matters. There is no one in space that will make a difference, but there are plenty of countries and their leaders, companies and their leaders, and universities and the future leaders that they make, and those are the places and people that make a difference. Or are supposed to, anyway.
Right now, Musk and his Twitter (or whatever it is called these days) are not under governmental control, like all the other social media are or all the other automobile makers are. In addition, SpaceX is not under control, either. If government is to win, not We the People, then Musk and his companies must be brought under control.
________________
Jeff Wright,
Is hating a specific government the same as hating governments in general? If we hate being ruled by communists, socialists, or other tyrants, is that the same as hating civilization?
Mark Levin brought this up on his Friday show (8/25/23).
[Some choice words for Kristen Clarke]
https://www.marklevinshow.com/audio-rewind/
Jeff Wright
We need to take over the Democratic party and turn it conservative. Leave the weak third parties to the groups we do not like.