January 28, 2021 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts. This is one of my more significant Batchelor appearances. The first segment spends a lot of time outlining the power play of the FAA and the Washington bureaucracy to shut down SpaceX’s most recent Starship test. The second segment outlines what is a developing significant science discovery that one science paper calls a paradigm shift related to Mars. The building evidence is now suggesting to scientists that glaciers and ice might have been the major factor for shaping the surface of Mars, not flowing water. If flowing water ever existed on Mars, it might only have been a minor factor in the Red Planet’s geological history.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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.
Embedded below the fold in two parts. This is one of my more significant Batchelor appearances. The first segment spends a lot of time outlining the power play of the FAA and the Washington bureaucracy to shut down SpaceX’s most recent Starship test. The second segment outlines what is a developing significant science discovery that one science paper calls a paradigm shift related to Mars. The building evidence is now suggesting to scientists that glaciers and ice might have been the major factor for shaping the surface of Mars, not flowing water. If flowing water ever existed on Mars, it might only have been a minor factor in the Red Planet’s geological history.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
Bob! Thank you for mentioning your website commentors on National Radio!
From memory – the US Code gives NASA the right to forbid an USA company to launch into space from anywhere in the Planet; even if SpaceX tried to lunch from their reconfigured oil platforms in the South Pacific.
Alton-
As I recall, (ref- launch licenses) you’re exactly correct. (IIRC I might have mentioned this, like’ 10+ years ago.)
Our Federal government can shut down SpaceX with the stroke of a pen, and if SpaceX tried to evade the Feds, they’ll just freeze & seize all their assets.
–This is the exact same government that put forth the proposition that not growing wheat, impacted interstate commerce
@Alton,
FAA is the regulatory agency, not NASA.
@Robert,
I listened to your podcast of SpaceX stopped by FAA. First one as I normally don’t make time for audio since I can skim/read a dozen or more article with comments in a similar amount of time. You are not doing yourself or your cause any favors when throwing out accusations without solid proof. Specifically blaming democrats for the FAA actions. It might be true, or it might not. I want more solid info before having an opinion. I speculate that SpaceX sails as close to the wind as they dare and occasionally luff sail. There are times when getting forgiveness rather than permission doesn’t work as well as one would like.
The problem being that accusations without proof or action to follow creates a whining atmosphere that tends towards discrediting yourself. It is much like the wife that constantly accuses the husband of screwing around when he is clearly going to deny it if innocent or guilty. When innocent, eventually he will react in a way that is normally detrimental to the accuser. “If I’m going to be accused regardless….” When guilty, he will eventually realize that the nagging is toothless and quit paying attention.
Another problem is that defining yourself in terms of your opponents is a losing strategy. Even if you win, you are left with no goals. And if you lose you have nothing. Anger and hatred cloud judgment. The election being an example where a sitting president in the same party with the majority of state legislatures didn’t prove election fraud to the satisfaction of any judge. And seems not to realize that ranting about the fraud in the manner that it has been done screams weakness and loser. People want to back winners, not losers, and especially not weak ones.
Positive goals and positive actions do not require having an enemy.. I don’t share your enthusiasm for Mars, but it is a positive goal that I can respect. Caving is not something I have any interest in whatsoever, but it is a positive for you which I can respect.
“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”
Thomas S. Kuhn (2nd edition 1970)
-direct hotlink-
http://www.turkpsikiyatri.org/arsiv/kuhn-ssr-2nded.pdf
“Kuhn maintained that the perception of the world depends on how the percipient conceives the world: two scientists who witness the same phenomenon and are steeped in two radically different theories will see two different things. According to this view, our interpretation of the world determines what we see.”
You are not doing yourself or your cause any favors when throwing out accusations without solid proof. Specifically blaming democrats for the FAA actions. It might be true, or it might not. I want more solid info before having an opinion.
Well then, go research it and come back when you have formed an opinion. Whiner, heal thyself.
“Well then, go research it and come back when you have formed an opinion. Whiner, heal thyself.”
I don’t have a strong opinion on the election being stolen, though by now I consider it unlikely. There are questionable things going on in most elections, especially including in Florida where I live. . There is no actionable proof at this time that there was organized fraud as opposed to multiple questionable actions.
Acting like a loser complaining about the opposition creates the impression that you actually are a loser. You may not be, but creating that impression works against any goals you might have. I tend to the Conservative side of Libertarian, definitely a fringe position . Doesn’t mean that any not with us are against us, just that we have different positions than most.
John Hare: Excellent points. Success in battle is dependent on setting up the conditions. The Democrats/Progressives are past masters here. Define the space. Make your opponent come to you.
john–
(I’m a small c conservative and a small l libertarian myself.)
briefly– let us assume the actual on-the-ground fraud rate + inherent error-rate for the past election was ‘no more than usual.’ If we dispense with that, what do we have left?
what say you to the structural-changes that were (clearly) put into effect in some States, not in accordance with the law?
After all– one doesn’t have to ‘steal’ the ‘entire’ election [ given we have 50 State elections], one doesn’t even have to ‘steal’ an individual State per se, one only needs to swing/’steal’ key congressional districts within States.
Pennsylvania + Georgia to name 2, are the poster-children for changing their election laws without specific consent of their legislature, and those changes were deliberately put into effect to enable increased on the ground fraud.
wayne,
You wrote: “This is the exact same government that put forth the proposition that not growing wheat, impacted interstate commerce”
The actual case was that the farmer intended to use grain that he grew for his own purposes, as feed for livestock. An analogy is that if you knit a sweater for yourself then you have affected interstate trade because you neither bought a sweater made in another state nor sold your sweater to someone in another state.
My point — and yours, I think — is that government can use the most bizarre and irrelevant excuses to control our own private decisions and lives, and that taking control over the decisions of a company that actually sells goods or services is even easier.
john hare wrote: “There are times when getting forgiveness rather than permission doesn’t work as well as one would like.”
Asking forgiveness from bureaucracies is one of these times. Bureaucracies are designed specifically to prevent this kind of thing. Bureaucrats are punished for letting someone go around the rules or laws, and bribes are the compensation for taking the risk of this punishment.
By the way, Admiral Grace Hopper specifically said “If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it. It’s much easier to apologize than it is to get permission. It can only be a good idea for the person granting forgiveness when he benefits from the good idea. Bureaucrats do not benefit from good ideas.
“I don’t have a strong opinion on the election being stolen, though by now I consider it unlikely.”
Why have watchers if you are not going to investigate their accusations of questionable activities? Why not investigate? Because you don’t want election fraud to be exposed. Otherwise you would be sure that the investigation would prove no fraud, and all doubt about the election would end. No investigation: continued doubt, and justified doubt.
My general comment on the election being stolen or not is that if a tiny fraction of the accusations were actionable, there would be people in jail by now and heading to prison. Either it didn’t happen, or there are no prosecutors anywhere willing to do their job. Both scenarios lead to no action. And the rhetoric without action weakens the cause as it creates the impression of desperation and dishonesty. Like my earlier example of being accused of infidelity, one cannot prove innocence, and quits trying eventually by ignoring the accusations. And the smart guilty are quite good at mimicking the innocent.
Certainly there were questionable actions regarding the election, as always. The problems need to be handled in a manner that does not discredit the ones trying to fix them.
When the Supreme Court Justified Japanese Internment Camps
Korematsu v. United States
https://youtu.be/rRiHumq_wdI
7:51
When FDR took Americans’ gold
Free Thoughts: Episode 247
2018
https://youtu.be/5s7Cw7Ru5IE
57:58
Road closure for tomorrow (Monday) just cancelled. Earliest date for a hop is now Tuesday.
It’s unclear why, though. It could be the FAA. It could be some engineering problem. It could even be wind related.
By the way, David Masten, of Masten Space Systems has some real horror stories about the FAA, so bad they nearly sunk his company. He had a tweet storm yesterday that kicked off with this:
“A lot of people with no clue about the regulations and FAA around SpaceX. Including every journalist I’ve seen so far. I’ve was grounded for 6+ months and nearly lost my business because the FAA decided a abort required review. I’m glad y’all worried about safety, but it’s BS.”
Link: https://twitter.com/dmasten/status/1355321045121605634
His saga with the FAA lasted 11 years, in fact. He only got traction after Marion Blakey, George W. Bush’s FAA administrator, got sworn in in 2002 and intervened on Masten’s behalf. Dave would be the first to say that working with the FAA is not the horror show it was in the 90’s or the 00’s, but it’s clear he thinks that they’re stuggling to get up to speed with new (mor commercial friendly) regulations and a rapidly evolving space launch industry.
By the way Admiral Hopper was the person who created the phrase a Bug in the machine when the first electronic digital computer crashed and they had a devil of a time finding the problem……she found it late at night — a moth fried in the circuitry, removed it and brought the machine back to life! It was in the 1940s, she tapped the bug to the log operations page with the notation of a bug found.
The actual ‘BUG’
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grace-hoppers-bug
Adm Hopper didn’t create the phrase “bug in the machine” – as she notes “First actual case of bug being found”.
The Smithsonian article states:
Though the moth anecdote is often falsely credited with the creation of the computing terms “bug” and “debug” (these were actually used as early as Edison), it accurately provides a glimpse of the wit and cleverness of Admiral Grace Hopper
“Russian Rhapsody” (1944) Bob Clampett
Gremlins from the Kremlin clip
https://youtu.be/lKsNenRxFsM
1:06
The Twilight Zone: Nightmare At 20,000 Feet
https://youtu.be/fXHKDb0CNjA
2:25
john hare,
You wrote: “My general comment on the election being stolen or not is that if a tiny fraction of the accusations were actionable, there would be people in jail by now and heading to prison.”
That is an interesting thought, but it is based upon 20th century thinking. In this century, American prosecutors act on the paradigm that prosecutorial discretion means that a prosecutor may choose to whether or not to prosecute a specific person or a specific crime. They no longer feel that they are required to prosecute favored people or crimes that they feel aren’t so bad. As part of the deep state, they are perfectly willing to protect the guilty, such as Hillary Clinton, and persecute the innocent, such as Gen. Mike Flynn, in order to further the Democratic Party and its agenda.
My point was that no one was even willing to do an investigation of the allegations, much less prosecute. Government has taken sides in politics, from the IRS to the FBI and DOJ, to the Post Office, and all the way down to the local level. As the election of 1960 showed, it does not take a national conspiracy to throw an election.
“Certainly there were questionable actions regarding the election, as always. The problems need to be handled in a manner that does not discredit the ones trying to fix them.”
Your argument is that just by making the accusation the accuser is discredited. So, how do you propose that such election fraud crimes be discussed in a way that action is eventually taken by those who are reluctant to investigate or prosecute?
john–
‘actionable,’ –proving election fraud per se [dead voters, people not legally permitted to vote, multiple voting, under/over-counting, etc.,etc.] isn’t as easy as it might sound.
I know you’ll disagree, but I think we all know there was a higher incidence of fraud in almost every ‘key’ congressional district that actually impacted Electoral votes.
That completely aside—and the far easier argument to make (well…. apparently not maybe…) — specific election laws & procedures were altered & changed, in specific States, by entities/people, who were not the respective State legislatures.
–The AG of one of those States, for one pesky example, signed a consent decree with Stacy Abrams, a year before the election, which altered who & how people could vote. The Legislature did not authorize these changes, and that power can not be delegated, therefore– those electoral votes should be null and void at the State level (long before it ever gets to a joint-session in dc). The State Supreme Court however, fumbles the ball intentionally. The last firewall was an objection at the fed-level, but Senators don’t really represent their States Legislatures, do they? Not since they became directly elected.
-The GOP was never going to help Trump at the ground level, and Trump failed to have adequate forces of absolutely loyal people in-place, at ground level. That aside again, election laws were altered by not-the-respective-Legislature(s).
Why doesn’t this argument work?– We live in obama’s amerika and huge numbers of ‘leaders’ on ‘our-side,’ don’t want it to work, therefore it doesn’t.
Edward-
Good stuff.
Very good if point in the first podcast. Has the state told us, the public, the taxpayers- what has changed from the first flight to now that indicates Starship became unsafe? If nothing is different, then why is the agency so contradictory with itself? I guess the questions are rhetorical in today’s era of dishonesty and corruption.