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My jarhead nephew had just returned from Sandboxistan after his second tour.

He went to the Houston VA (Obie was still prez) because he had contracted some weird ailment.

The VA had a special clinic for returning vets. The nurse had an armed guard accompany my nephew to the BATHROOM. WTF? Did they classify every returning Marine as a threat?

A doctor tried to convince him that he had PTSD which he did NOT.

I hope that the VA has seen some changes since Obie left.

BTW, I think my nephew got liver fluke parasites from eating the local food over there. He has been quite ill, but is now recovering.

Our country is blessed to have such outstanding young warriors.

I have read Machiavelli several times over the years.

I found his tactics very useful when my employer, an aerospace giant, was in serious competition with our equally ruthless adversary.

A few times I succeeded such as the time that I got the incumbent contractor disqualified from bidding on his own contract. We won.

You would not believe the things that companies do to win multi billion dollar contracts.

The tactics that worked in Europe hundreds of years ago will not work against a free people with good information and arms.

Above all, we need INTEL about our opponents and the will to destroy them when we go to battle with them.

Ref another classical author, Sun Tzu, said, “When you invade the enemy’s country, pillage and lay waste to it so that you become stronger while he becomes weaker”.

My advice to DJT would be to “asset strip” those in the coup and his lethal enemies. E.g., if the IRS investigated the Clinton Foundation, they could seize the assets for the use of the American people. Or, we could actually rebuild the economy of Haiti which the Clintons did not even attempt.

I had a colleague, a senior engineer, who became mentally unstable. I remained his friend.

He got to the point where he had uncontrollable anger, and he recognized his own problem. He would have outbursts and I would calm him down.

I talked him into selling all of his collection. I bought all of his reloading gear.

He seemed relieved, a rational man who knew his own limitations.

The real value of Luna is enormous. Primary constituents are iron, aluminum, titanium, and silica.

Those materials can be used to create habitats, factories, mining/smelting equipment, etc.

Using a mag lev train track, you can launch payloads into Lunar escape orbits, perhaps to L5. Basically, an electric railroad that reaches 3 km/sec.

Using those materials you can build rotating space habitats a la O’Neill that could house billions of workers.

The near Earth asteroids have all the other elements needed for a space based civilization such as water and carbon compounds.

The only barrier to colonizing/industrializing space is financial. To get a space based civilization to the point of independence will cost trillions...but we can do it.

The financial benefits are orders of magnitude larger than the investment. There is an entire Solar System of raw materials out there waiting for us.

Ad astra

Oops, did not read your reply before posting the same info.

Brazil is an ideal location for a space launch center to get to equatorial orbits.

KSC and Cape Canaveral are at 28 degrees North which means more propellant or less payload to Earth orbit.

I think Trump and American space entrepreneurs should team with Brazil to make this happen.

For the non-aerospace types, the Earth has a speed of rotation of approx. 1000 mph at the equator, ergo, your rocket starts out at 1000 mph relative to the required velocity to reach orbit.

Boomer, I had not read your post when I posted after you.

Great minds think alike.

BTW, I suggested this a while back:

Draft all military age males (maybe females too) into a Liberation Army.

Put them in tents with a chow hall. Teach discipline and small arms.

Set up an intel unit where the “refugees” can pool info on the corrupt and criminal elements in their own countries.

Teach them to launch raids, how to snipe, and how to target individuals for assassination.

Announce a plan to return them to their home countries in division strength with US arty and air cover.

Purpose is to completely eliminate the criminals, cartels, crooked pols, et al.

Every country down South would STOP immigrants from entering the USA immediately.

I have family that immigrated (legally) from Central America.

They say the problems with the economies down there are primarily crime and corruption.

If you start a business or factory, the gangs and crooked pols show up demanding money. If you don’t pay, they kill you.

The other problem they say is that many people are too lazy. In most of those countries, the climate is mild and food is cheap. Alcohol and drug abuse are rampant.

At least in El Salvador, La Sombra Negra (The Black Shadow) is quietly assassinating criminals. That has NOT been in the news. La Sombra Negra is neither right nor left, but just people fed up with crime.

Unlimited solar energy at several times the power/square meter available on Earth’s surface, unlimited resources, no environment to pollute, no natives, gravity level of our choosing via rotating habitats, non-corrosive environments, low delta V to get anywhere in the inner Solar System....lots of benefits.

Oxygen? Lunar regolith and near Earth asteroids loaded with it. Carbon? Lots of carbonaceous chondrites with abundant hydrocarbons. Smelting? Just focus sunlight using mirrors to get any desired temp.

Yes, it is challenging, but so was the ocean for early humans. Look what we do now with deep ocean drill ships.

It’s an engineering and finance problem, not a technology problem.

In addition to being an aerospace engineer, I got a masters in Econ. I learned to look at the long run.

In the long run, humans WILL colonize space. The current question is if you have to learn Mandarin to get a job there.

Why did the Vikings come to North America? Seeking land and resources? But, they only found wood and grapes for wine. Not worth the risk of crossing the North Atlantic in open boats. Ships and nav were too primitive for the trade.

The Spanish after Columbus fared better. They found gold, silver, and jewels that made Spain the richest country in Europe for over 100 years.

Why will people go to outer space, the High Frontier? Same reasons: power, wealth, and freedom.

Any nation that controls the High Frontier has air, naval, and land superiority over all other nations on Earth. A rock hitting the ground at 7 Km/sec has enormous energy. Chicom leaders, mostly engineers, KNOW this.

In terms of wealth, the mineral resources of merely the near Earth asteroids dwarfs the gold of the Aztecs in relative value. Sure, you can mine on Earth, but someone, often hostile governments, controls those minerals.

In space, no one owns the asteroids. However, it is established international law that if you mine it, you own it. Otherwise, how can the USA own the rocks we returned from Luna?

In terms of freedom, imagine industry and commerce with no earthly laws, regs, or taxes. If you don’t like the neighbors, move your habitat to a new location.

When I think of space colonization, I think of O’Neill type rotating habitats. Using AI and robotics, we can use the enormous amounts of iron, aluminum, titanium, etc. available to build whatever we want.

AI, robotics, genetic engineering, etc. can fuel a lot of economic growth. But, physical resources, i.e., minerals, will always be needed.

Humans require air, water, food, artificial gravity a la rotating habitats, and protection from radiation. Meet those minimum requirements and we can go anywhere and exploit whatever resources we find.

I understand that such an option is not for everyone. But, humans have colonized every possible environmental niche from the tropics to the arctic...using stone tools.

No new technology is required to colonize the High Frontier. Chemical rockets and spaceplanes work just fine to get to low Earth orbit. After that, nuke thermal rockets, which we developed over 40 years ago, are adequate to get to Jupiter and beyond. For nuke thermal reaction mass, you can use the abundant water found in near Earth carbonaceous chondrite asteroids.

Ad astra!

As pointed out by numerous Freepers, plants are the answer. Mars has adequate sunlight to grow plants; you just need to install windows and possibly mirrors to bring sunlight into your shielded habitat. There is no need to try and grow plants directly on the surface.

Where this research project will really pay off is in deep space missions or long interplanetary transits. The logistics of supplying oxygen, water, food, etc. for astronauts on long missions are considerable.

While plants have been grown in zero G using hydroponics, it would be very useful to have a bioreactor or chemical conversion process to provide such consumables on long missions. The effect on total launch mass is considerable.

20 years ago when I was an aerospace engineer, I worked with a brilliant biochemist who came up with such a process. His unit was about the size of an office desk and used inputs of CO2, water, electricity from either solar or nuclear, and astronaut waste products.

He started with purely chemical conversion processes and ended up with O2, glucose, starch, and ethanol. He then used the treated astronaut waste and engineered microbes to create fats, proteins, and complex carbs. The output from the processor was bread, artificial meat, and ethanol for the astronaut’s grog ration.

Add in some hydroponic veggies and perhaps a pig or some chickens for a complete diet.

That last part may be the most difficult. Imagine trying to raise pigs in zero G!

I am a retired aerospace engineer.

In my last year, 1999, with the giant aerospace company (now the biggest one, I think), I put into the Long Range Plan a proposal that we build capsules that could take anyone, an entrepreneur, country, corporation, or whoever, to near Earth asteroids for prospecting and claiming them.

The top management did not throw me out of the room.

Later, one of my colleagues told me that half of the execs thought I was in left field; half thought I was visionary. I was thrilled. HALF liked it.

FR Brethren, the Solar System is the New World without the pesky natives. We KNOW that there are untold mineral riches out there.

Why will people go to the High Frontier? The same reasons they went to the New World, power, wealth, and freedom.

In space there are unlimited resources that no one owns, unlimited power (solar and nuke if you prefer), and unlimited space to expand.

Unlimited freedom!

Newt is a history professor. He understands what is happening.

The fedgov needs to encourage and protect the entrepreneurs that will make this happen.

After Bob Dornan’s loss to Sanchez in the 1996 election, I was part of a Spanish-speaking team that interviewed voters.

We obtained over 700 signed affidavits from voters who admitted that they were not citizens but HAD voted. Those were the ones we found easily over the course of a few days.

Most said they were pressured to register by Hermandad Nacional Mexicano who went door-to-door. Hermandad returned to “help” the illegal voters complete their absentee ballots. Note that Hermandad paid their employees using federal contract funds!

I went door-to-door myself to contact 200 registered voters before the election. 50% DID NOT EXIST! Phantoms created out of thin air.

The scope of vote fraud is incredible. I have seen it in Texas as well.

Please get involved as an Election Judge, Clerk, or Poll Watcher this year.

It’s no use crying after the election is stolen.

If I croak, I don’t want my wife saddled with ANY debt.

Bought a 2016 Jeep Compass as the 2018s were rolling out. After two years of sitting on the lot, they were DESPERATE to sell it.

Got a $7,000 discount, the lowest price I ever paid for a new car. Initially financed at 0% and then paid off the loan in two months.

It gets up to 40 MPG and wifey loves it.

I documented voter registration (fraud) in CA going back to 1996 in previous posts on FR.

In the 1996 election, I personally visited the homes of over 200 voters in Orange County across 7 precincts.

50% of those registered voters DID NOT EXIST! I call them phantom voters.

Later, I met with an Investigator from the CA Attorney General’s Office. The man had been investigating and prosecuting vote fraud for many years.

He told me how it was done, “First, you pay a man $500,000 cash. He has workers who record the addresses of houses with mailboxes accessible from the street. Then, he registers non-existent people to vote from those addresses. When the Voter Sample Ballots show up in the mail, he has workers who steal the ballots of the non-existent voters. Then, he votes them absentee.”

“So, for $500,000 cash, you will win the Primary and General Elections and go to Congress”.

The way to combat such fraud is to determine which registered voters do not exist. Any good private detective can tell you how to determine this using databases that can be purchased or accessed.

I always thought that every fake voter should get a subscription to the LA Times and watch them try to collect.

Or, you can follow the guys stealing Sample Ballots from mailboxes when the Postal Service delivers them and see where they go.

Go in teams with video cams to record the action.

Forget complaining to the authorities. They know perfectly well what is going on and will fight to keep the voter fraud scam going.

With a couple of decades of working in elections, I can assure you that the commission WILL find:

1. People registered who are not eligible including over one million illegal aliens, felons, et al.
2. At least a million registered in more than one state.
3. Tens of millions of non-existent phantoms. Trust me, this is the BIGGEST SCAM in vote fraud.
4. Dead people

If the rolls are cleaned up and fraud is suppressed, the dim party will be out of power for decades.

My memory is a bit fuzzy from the years of playing football and rugby (OK, I’m getting old), but....

I think I remember speaking to Col. Thorsness in about 1983. I was working on SDI (Pres. Reagan’s “Star Wars” program) and was often called upon as a speaker for the Air Force Association. That was probably the connection that had me speaking to him.

At the time, I was totally ignorant of Col. Thorsness’ fame and heroism. My focus was totally on engineering and the programs that I worked in.

I don’t even remember what we talked about except that they wanted me to debate at some university. What an ignorant young pup I was!

I also repped for High Frontier, LTG (Ret) Danny Graham’s non-profit. I ended up debating commie college profs at several universities.

At first, I could not believe there were Americans who WANTED the USSR to prevail in a nuclear war, but I soon learned that they existed.

We all agree the continuing resolution is a bad deal.

I think that Prez Trump should do what Obama would have done: find a way around it or ignore it.

How about putting troops on the border with concertina and sensors for an extended “training exercise”?

How about a temporary, multi-layered fence that says “Construction Zone, Do Not Enter, Environmental Survey in Progress” or some other BS?

I like bricks and mortar, but we could park a wall of shipping containers stacked three high (27’) for cheap.

Sometimes, you gotta be creative.