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Vice President Pence Vows US Astronauts Will Return To the Moon (engadget.com)
Before astronauts go to Mars, they will return to the Moon, Vice President Mike Pence said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday and in a speech at the National Air and Space Museum today. He touts "humans exploration and discovery" as the new focus of America's space program. This "means establishing a renewed American presence on the moon, a vital strategic goal. And from the foundation of the moon, America will be the first nation to bring mankind to Mars." Engadget reports: There have been two prevailing (and opposing) views when it comes to U.S. endeavors in human spaceflight. One camp maintains that returning to the moon is a mistake. NASA has already been there; it should work hard and set our sights on Mars and beyond. The other feels that Mars is too much of a reach, and that the moon will be easier to achieve in a short time frame. Mars may be a medium-to-long-term goal, but NASA should use the moon as a jumping-off point. It's not surprising that the Trump administration is valuing short-term gains over a longer, more ambitious project. The U.S. will get to Mars eventually, according to Pence, but the moon is where the current focus lies.
... anywhere Obama didn't want to (and vice versa).
If Obama was for it then Trump (or perhaps more precisely his supporters) are against it. It doesn't matter if it is right or wrong, they have PRE-judged the situation. Why? Because, and I'll be frank, they're racists or to use a softer word, bigots and PREjudice is what you'll get from them.
It's only now, in the somewhat clearer light of day after the election year (and now that Obama's blackness isn't quite so apparent), that it has become obvious how wrong most (all?) of Trump's positions were. Like his "I'll slap China with a 40% tariff on day one" or "I'll declare them a currency manipulator" or "I'll throw out NAFTA" or (of course) "Mexico will pay for the wall" or "Hillary's in bed with Goldman Sachs" (when three of Trump's top positions are from GS) or "I'll drain the swamp" and now allowing prior lobbyists to be hired by the White House or "The Iranian deal was a disaster" (he's recertified it twice) or "It won't happen" with a North Korean ICBM test to allowing ICBM and even H-bomb tests or "I'll support LGBT" people" then reversing protections and "no need to count them in the Census". Oh and of course let's not forget his insistence on demolishing Obamacare despite the fact that neither he nor congress nor the senate can come up with something better than what he has says is "a disaster called the big lie".
So I figure that Trump (and his supporters) just can't stand anything that Obama did so of course he'll decide to go to the moon because Obama wasn't going to. Then again, maybe it's just a lack of judgment as indicated by his campaign being assisted by a hostile foreign power (Russia) with several of his former staff now under multiple investigations (Flynn, Manafort) for TRAITOROUS crimes (not e-mails, think assisting a foreign power, $12M paid in one arrangement alone). Speaking of which, his wishing to continue to prosecute Clinton for using an a private e-mail account for official business is obviously hypocritical considering that SIX senior white house staff are using private e-mail accounts (with Kushner using three!) while serving in the White House. This lack of judgement of course extends to his evaluation of people like the many times he's flipped what he says about his top people from hiring them to "I have confidence in them" to firing them (Comey, Price, Bannon, Priebus). That of course doesn't count the number of times he's praised then flipped on people saying for example (Hillary Clinton) "is a great woman. And a good woman." and I "think she really works hard." and "I think she’d make a great president" to basically saying she should be imprisoned and implying much worse ("Shoot the b**tch" was a T-shirt he apparently didn't have problem with).
So, and I think you fellow slash dotters, have to SERIOUSLY ask yourself this question. Spend some time, don't jump to conclusions and weigh the evidence. Is he (and his followers) bigoted or just stupid?
I think a lot of both. :(
As far as going to the moon or not, that's for another post. However the Chinese :( or Elon Musk :) will probably get there first
Space nutter detected. The idea of a floating cloud city on Venus is preposterous. You space nutters always are fixated on the details (using ammonia vs water vs hydrogen), and ignore the big problems. How are you going to get people to Venus? What about radiation, food, water, etc. I'm sure you will have an answer for those too ("just shield the craft using asteroid dust"). Christ.