Space Force hypes unspecified Russian anti-satellite test
Yesterday Space Force officials released a scathing press release condemning a so-called Russian anti-satellite test, calling it “a threat” while providing zero details about what the Russians actually did.
I saw the press release and realized it was nothing more than an effort by the new Space Force to justify its existence and to possibly encourage more funding from Congress. Until they release some details about the test itself, the story simply doesn’t merit coverage.
Our compliant and brainless media today however immediately jumped on the Washington swamp bandwagon with numerous stories reinforcing and supporting the Space Force lobbying effort. Here are a few examples:
- Breaking Defense: Raymond Rips Russian ASAT Test, Arms Control Hypocrisy
- SpacePolicyOnline: U.S. Space Command Tracking Russian ASAT Test
- The Verge: Russia conducts another test of its missile system to take out satellites
- Space News: U.S. Space Command blasts Russia for anti-satellite missile test
All of these articles buy into the Space Force agenda, with practically no skepticism. All provide lots of quotes from a variety of Washington “experts” backing the Space Force position, insisting that the Russians are evil and have now demonstrated a new capability that requires a big U.S. response. None provide any further detail about the test itself, meaning that no further information on it was available, and that their stories were nothing more than a xerox of that empty Space Force press release.
Only this story from C4ISRNET described the press release properly, giving no play to these so-called “experts” because any quotes they would provide were merely a transparent lobbying effort for the Space Force. Instead, the article provided this much needed background:
Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation, said the test is likely of the Nudol, a ballistic-missile system capable of taking out satellites in low earth orbit. He warned not to overreact, as the system has been tested several times in recent years. According to the CSIS Aerospace Security Project’s Space Threat Assessment 2020, Russia conducted its seventh test of Nudol in December 2018.
As to why military leaders issued the statement, Weeden said it is “part of the DoD being more public about what’s going on in space, which is good. But it also seems the only thing they’re doing about it is using it to justify more U.S. spending on our own counterspace capabilities.” [emphasis mine]
In other words, this test is nothing unusual, and was being hyped by the Space Force in order to garner a bigger budget for the new agency.
Sadly, this is par for the course. Our entire society is presently shut down because medical “experts” in Washington and the mainstream leftist press did the same thing with COVID-19, hyping what was clearly nothing more than a new disease variation of the annual flu season so much that they convinced American public it was another Black Plague. The result: a new Great Depression, millions out of work, and the end of American freedom, all for the benefit of those Washington “experts” and that leftist press.
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
Yesterday Space Force officials released a scathing press release condemning a so-called Russian anti-satellite test, calling it “a threat” while providing zero details about what the Russians actually did.
I saw the press release and realized it was nothing more than an effort by the new Space Force to justify its existence and to possibly encourage more funding from Congress. Until they release some details about the test itself, the story simply doesn’t merit coverage.
Our compliant and brainless media today however immediately jumped on the Washington swamp bandwagon with numerous stories reinforcing and supporting the Space Force lobbying effort. Here are a few examples:
- Breaking Defense: Raymond Rips Russian ASAT Test, Arms Control Hypocrisy
- SpacePolicyOnline: U.S. Space Command Tracking Russian ASAT Test
- The Verge: Russia conducts another test of its missile system to take out satellites
- Space News: U.S. Space Command blasts Russia for anti-satellite missile test
All of these articles buy into the Space Force agenda, with practically no skepticism. All provide lots of quotes from a variety of Washington “experts” backing the Space Force position, insisting that the Russians are evil and have now demonstrated a new capability that requires a big U.S. response. None provide any further detail about the test itself, meaning that no further information on it was available, and that their stories were nothing more than a xerox of that empty Space Force press release.
Only this story from C4ISRNET described the press release properly, giving no play to these so-called “experts” because any quotes they would provide were merely a transparent lobbying effort for the Space Force. Instead, the article provided this much needed background:
Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation, said the test is likely of the Nudol, a ballistic-missile system capable of taking out satellites in low earth orbit. He warned not to overreact, as the system has been tested several times in recent years. According to the CSIS Aerospace Security Project’s Space Threat Assessment 2020, Russia conducted its seventh test of Nudol in December 2018.
As to why military leaders issued the statement, Weeden said it is “part of the DoD being more public about what’s going on in space, which is good. But it also seems the only thing they’re doing about it is using it to justify more U.S. spending on our own counterspace capabilities.” [emphasis mine]
In other words, this test is nothing unusual, and was being hyped by the Space Force in order to garner a bigger budget for the new agency.
Sadly, this is par for the course. Our entire society is presently shut down because medical “experts” in Washington and the mainstream leftist press did the same thing with COVID-19, hyping what was clearly nothing more than a new disease variation of the annual flu season so much that they convinced American public it was another Black Plague. The result: a new Great Depression, millions out of work, and the end of American freedom, all for the benefit of those Washington “experts” and that leftist press.
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
I think your analysis of the space force press release is good, but I think the pivot at the end to talking about COVID-19 is kind of a non-sequiter.
For the space force you were talking about a specific press release by a specific agency, and the key aspect was that the press release gave no details of the test they were so upset about.
But when you switched to talk about COVID-19, were you commenting on specific press releases, or accusing specific agencies of being uninformative and self-serving? No, you didn’t mention any specifics. It seems like you were accusing all COVID-19 coverage in general. When you consider “all COVID-19 coverage in general” you certainly can’t say there aren’t any details or checkable facts available. From a journalistic perspective, that last paragraph just doesn’t belong in this story. Develop it into its own post with supporting arguments and evidence. If you’ve already done that in another post, just link to it.
As far as COVID-19 being “nothing more than a new disease variation of the annual flu season” Here’s some numbers:
Average flu deaths in the USA per season 2010-2019 (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html):
37,500
“On average, flu season lasts about 13 weeks.” (https://www.verywellhealth.com/flu-season-from-start-to-peak-and-end-2633835)
13 weeks = 91 days
37,500 deaths / 91 days = 412 deaths/day for an average flu season.
For the past 13 days (Apr 7-Apr 19) the US has averaged 2283 deaths/day from COVID-19 (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/)
It seems like a stretch to call that a minor variation on the ordinary. It’s true we can’t say right not how the total deaths will compare when it is all done because we are in the middle of it, but that brings up the argument of should we approach this with the attitude “better safe than sorry”?
Another argument that you haven’t addressed at all: Would COVID-19 deaths be even higher if we weren’t successfully shutting things down?
I disagree with you on wheather COVID-19 precautions (what you call hype) are justified, but there’s another issue here. You should make reasoned arguments (like you did about the Space Force), and not just cast unsupported aspersions (like you did about COVID-19)