Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
I am a long-time advocate of space exploration, settlement and commerce. Migrated from @WordsmithFL on Twitter.
Joined Nov 2022
How loyal will Republican politicians be to the #Trump #MAGA agenda versus protecting the pork in their districts and states?
Will Rick Scott (R-FL), a potential Senate Majority Leader, dismantle #KSC to pass a destructive Trump agenda?
The potential for needed reform is there, but MAGA sees "reform" as blowing up government without any thought to the consequences.
A President Vance/Elon Musk team will have more of a clue than Trump/Musk, but I'm not sure that's good. (6/6)
The #Trump administration tried to kill NASA's climate change programs, but Congress stopped him. It will be a different story this time; we know they intend to try to sell off NOAA and the National Weather Service. I'm sure Trump will try to end NASA's climate observation satellites; Elon will see a new profit center for Starlinks and probably support it.
So the question becomes ... (5/x)
That's where it gets interesting, because #Vance was a tech venture capialist. Vance and Elon are kindred spirits.
As VP, Vance will head the National Space Council, an advisory body. Some NSpCs have been more effective than others; the #Trump NSpC passed a number of policy changes and turned meetings into spectacles.
Representing Ohio as a senator, one can also expect Vance to try to direct NASA pork to the Glenn Center in Cleveland. (4/x)
If they try to reform NASA as the #ArsTechnica article suggests, the political fireworks on the Hill will be a true must-see 🍿 event.
Of course, Elon will be entirely self-serving. He will try to angle things so Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) and other competitors are left out in the cold.
My suspicion is that, by the time any reform gets to the Hill, #Trump will have quit and been succeeded by #Vance. (3/x)
Apollo created a space-industrial complex that motivated members of Congress to protect NASA legacy employees and infrastructure in their districts and states.
#Obama tried to change that but suffered terrible political blowback as a result.
Backed by Elon Musk, will #Trump try to return NASA to its NACA roots?
I doubt Trump knows, much less cares, what NACA was. But Elon sure knows. (2/x)
#Politics #NASA My two credits' worth ...
NASA's bureaucracy has been bloated, hidebound, and inbred for far too long.
NASA was originally intended to be a space version of the old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA was a think tank for developing technologies to transfer to the private sector. NASA was supposed to do the same for space, until JFK created Apollo as a global propaganda organ. (1/x)
#Politics #NASA #SpaceX #Trump
From #ArsTechnica:
"Musk is unquestionably in a position for self-dealing. Normally, such conflicts of interest would be frowned on within a government, but Trump has already shown a brazen disregard for norms, and there's no reason to believe that will change during his second go at the presidency."
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/space-policy-is-about-to-get-pretty-wild-yall/
#Politics #NASA From #NYTimes:
"Even before Donald J. Trump was re-elected, his best-known backer, Elon Musk, had come to him with a request for his presidential transition.
"He wanted Mr. Trump to hire some employees from Mr. Musk’s rocket company, #SpaceX, as top government officials — including at the Defense Department, according to two people briefed on the calls."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-benefits.html
#Politics A friend posted a short essay on Facebook that made a very good point about the presidential election.
In US history, it's pretty rare for a sitting Vice President to be elected President. The last time it happened was George H.W. Bush in 1988. Humphrey lost in 1968. Gore failed in 2000. Biden flamed out in the 2016 primaries.
Some former VPs have come back to win president in a later election, e.g. Nixon in 1968 and Biden in 2020.
I drove up to #KSCVC, my old work place, to remind myself that life goes on, for now.
From #CNN ... Joe #Biden is president until January 20, 2025. #Trump and Elon Musk negotiating with Zelenskyy seems to me illegal ... oh wait, #SCOTUS said Trump can do no wrong ...
My suspicion is that they delivered an ultimatum from #Putin -- capitulate on Putin's terms by January 20, or the US withdraws all support and Ukraine is on its own.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/europe/ukraine-trump-elon-musk-zelensky-intl-latam/index.html
Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
boosted
Blaming Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Democrats for screwing up an election that they coulda-shoulda-woulda won is the utmost in denial. Like it or not (and I absolutely hate it) we have enough selfish, misogynistic, racist folks among us from every state, ethnicity, and age group to hand America to a convicted felon fascist. Ignorance played a huge part in this. If you want to blame the media for their part, go ahead, but our neighbors, coworkers, and our family members did this. #Politics
Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
boosted
The blame for all of this lies 100% with the people who voted for him. No one else. Just stop.
I worked in local government budget and financing, so I know what the City of St. Pete is going through right now ... Much of the restoration will be covered by insurance. Any impact on the taxpayers should be minimal.
The people saying, "Spend the money on more important things" are missing several points. The Rays bring a lot of business into the area; without the games, those businesses will die. There's also a place for the commuunity to go to unite.
I'm starting to realize just how screwed we are ... #Trump comes back to office with a #SCOTUS get-out-of-jail-free card. The Republican SCOTUS majority ruled he can commit crimes so long as they're labelled an "official act."
So when he starts the roundups, when he starts the executions, when he loots the federal treasury to line his pockets, when he sells secrets to Putin -- he'll have a piece of paper declaring it an "official act" and that's that.
This is really really bad.
#California governor Gavin Newsom calls a special session of the state legislature to pass laws protecting the state from #Trump retaliation.
#Politics Not meant as a snark, but a serious question ... Would the Dems have done better if they'd stuck with Biden instead of tossing him overboard for Harris?
Kamala ran a great campaign, no doubt, but if the white male voters ran to #Trump because they didn't want to vote for a woman of mixed ancestry, would some of them voted for Biden? Or would we have lost other voters who thought he's too old?
A question for political scientists and historians to answer.
Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
boosted
Just as predicted, he will get away with everything he's done, the DOJ is making sure of that:
Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
I am a long-time advocate of space exploration, settlement and commerce. Migrated from @WordsmithFL on Twitter.
Joined Nov 2022