January 20, 2025
"The Golden Age of America Starts Now"
Some random thoughts on Trump's inaugural.
The Democrats looked cowed and they even applauded - something I never expected to see from them over Trump. Yes, many looked sour (especially Barack obama, who scowled through the whole thing) but there were no outburst nor stony silence. They really did seem beaten. But that won't last.
The crowd gave a standing ovation to Martin Luther King, and applauded in like manner the closing the border, but sandwiched between the two was a statement by Trump honoring God and God only received tepid, polite response. America's ruling class has it's head firmly inserted in it's rectal area.
Trump seemed tired to me, and I don't doubt he is.
Trump did give a great speech, even though he went a bit long and had too much of a laundry list. He was positive and upbeat and said America specializes in doing the impossible. Inspirational.
Trump proposed going to Mars as the next step in America's return to greatness. I have opposed this before here at the Aviary and with good reason; we don't have the skills yet to do this and astronauts on the surface of Mars could well be killed by a surprise solar flare or meteor strike. The Martian atmosphere is too thin to stop radiation, and it's too thin to stop meteors, which are also much thicker that close to the asteroid belt than around Earth's neighborhood. I favor a permanent, manned colony on the Moon; we can work out how this is done on the Moon, where we can just go home if it fails. Mars is for keeps and we don't know how we'll fare. Oh, and just showing up for exploration purposes will cost a huge fortune and we won't really get anything we can't get now with probes and landers. The purpose of going to Mars is to build a colony, and only then can we do in-depth research. Mars is too far for any commercial benefit. The Moon is quite different and we can exploit it for resources as well as use it for research. There's money on the Moon.
I want to go to Mars someday but now is not the time. We just don't have the skills.
Trump verified he plans to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. I don't like it; the name predates the founding of the u.S. and I support tradition. He's changing Denali back to Mt. McKinley though and I DO support that. The Indians may have called it Denali but we've always known it as McKinley, and if the Indians want to keep calling it Denali it's their right but they can't expect us to bow to their wishes.
Trump's call for retaking the Panama Canal is a fine idea too. I wish our side would remember the actual history of Panama; it was part of Columbia until the U.S. came and built the canal, at which point Panama rebelled against rule by Columbia and became independent - with the assistance of the U.S. Navy which kept Columbian ships from moving troops there. So they owe their entire country to us, not just the canal. And we built it, and it should always have been ours. This was one of Jimmy Carter's many idiotic mistakes (like supporting the Ayatollah Khomeini) and never should have happened.
I am ambivalent about Trump's new agencies (like the External Revenue Service); we need FEWER agencies all around and something like the ERS could very easily be co-opted by the Democrats to abuse companies with international business. I would add almost everyone does international business these days; our 401K plans and other retirement instruments all invest in foreign counties. This thing may be solely to collect tariffs now, but how long before the Democrats subvert it and use it to go after honest Americans who just own a few stocks in foreign countries?
Trump's call for a restoration of justice to America was his finest moment in many ways and we must all hope he is able to actually do that. Not sure he can; the Deep state's tentacles are embedded in the system so deeply Trump may not be able to stop it.
A few other observations. The military choir was full of children it seemed. I know I'm getting older now but the girls singing looked like teenagers. I don't doubt they are; the age of the military has decreased over the years to where so many are fresh out of high school. Couple that with the fact we don't have fighting soldiers but paper pushers and paraders and, yes, choir girls, means they LOOK young because they haven't had to face any real stress. We are defended by Valley Girls and high school debate teams.
Carrie Underwood did a fine job of singing America the Beautiful. She only mucked it up once or twice with rilles and trills (which is what you do when you can't sing, but is now considered de rigoueur since so many stars CAN'T sing.) There was an opera singer who did the National Anthem and he blew her away, too. When a person can actually sing the Star Spangled Banner without relying on cheap tricks to hide the octave changes you have to be lost in admiration.
At any rate the inaugural was great, and it truly felt historic.
God bless Donald Trump and God Bless the U.S.A.!
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
12:35 PM
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So Barack had to attend stag. Iron Mike was elsewhere and no explanation given. We know she can't stand Trump. Anyone else she can't stand? There are rumors of an eventual divorce...
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at January 20, 2025 05:03 PM (6r44G)
Posted by: Bill H at January 21, 2025 12:56 AM (Q7br2)
I saw Barack O prancing down to the rotunda alone(I have it on good authority BHO at least used to swing both ways and he certainly was prancing yesterday). Rumors have been swirling that Sasquatch is planning to bail on Hussein. Perhaps. She didn't attend Carter's funeral either. Something is up.
BTW I think you are the first person to ever associate the word stag with Bathhouse Barry; more a steer.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at January 21, 2025 08:50 AM (8ixGE)
Survival on the Moon would be different insofar as they would burrow underground. Most of the time they would have to stay in the settlement, with, say six feet of lunar regolith above them. We could actually build these settlements using remote controlled vehicles. Once one is complete then a few astronauts can move in, then build more. But they won't be wandering about the surface for long periods - just won't happen.
The Moon has enormous caverns near the surface too. Called lava flow tubes, we sometimes see them when their roofs collapse and then they form deep canyons called rilles. Find a stable lava flow tube and build a settlement in that and you would be fine. In fact, they are known to have openings and we've found a few. Also, their temperature is minus 50, cold by Earth standards but warm compared to lunar night at minus 200, and cool by day standards at over 250 degrees. Unlike minus fifty on Earth, there is no loss of heat from convection by anything inside the tube. And if warmed they should be quite comfortable.
That's why I say we should go for the Moon first; Mars adds an enormous level of complexity and we won't have any experience dealing with these problems.
The Moon can be used as a source of raw materials to build stufff, like orbital stations or long range space exploration craft. Eventually we could build space colonies inside Earth's magnetic field. O'Neil Colonies or Stanford Taurus style colonies are within our engineering capabilities, if not economically viable now. We'll need the Moon for that. These would be huge committments. But how else will we get new land?
Mars offers no help with much of anything though. If we are going that far we'd be better served simply going to the asteroids and settling them. Farther, yes, but easier to work with.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at January 21, 2025 08:51 AM (8ixGE)
Posted by: Bill H at January 21, 2025 10:12 AM (Q7br2)
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