…Starship’s two stages separated as planned on Flight 9, and the upper stage even reached space, which was an improvement over the giant vehicle’s most recent two flights. But SpaceX ended up losing both stages before they could accomplish their full flight goals.
“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media after the flight.
“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase….
In fact the capsule spun into the Indian Ocean in a fireball and was a total loss. This does not inspire confidence — for the idea of a crewed Barsoom mission.
I just genuinely wonder… what will it take, for people of good will — who might have voted for Tangerine in 2024… to realize that this is not what they meant, by making the nation “great”?
A guy who, on Memorial Day ’25, claimed credit for war wins he never had a hand in, and calls federal judges “monsters” — for ruling against his lawlessness. And is planning to throw a $45 million military parade birthday party, for himself? Here’s the latest, on his polling weaknesses (only 42% of Americans approve of the job he is doing, while 53% disapprove):
…A new Marquette University Law School Poll has revealed that 79 percent of Americans believe presidents must obey federal court rulings, with even stronger support — 84 percent — for compliance with Supreme Court decisions.
The national survey, conducted May 5-15, 2025, interviewed 1,004 adults with a margin of error of +/-3.6 percentage points. The poll gains heightened significance after President Donald Trump’s Memorial Day attack on federal judges, whom he called “monsters” who want the United States “to go to hell….”
The poll also found that 70 percent of respondents oppose impeaching judges for ruling against presidential actions, despite escalating rhetoric from the Trump administration following a series of unfavorable court decisions on immigration policies….
Now you know — onward. In the high mountains for six days now — blogging may be light to non-existent. But the (very late) Spring snows call, as well as an aging but graceful mother… of nine. Always… smiling.
The drumbeat is… disheartening — but we must pay it heed: people are dying in Africa, due to Trumpian fecklessness.
This time it is Malawi — and involves young people — truly avoidable, with proper resources. We have a working vaccine — but Trump has hamstrug USAID. Dammit. Here’s The UK Guardian on it all:
…Malawi’s ministry of health has announced three new cases of mpox in the capital, Lilongwe, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 11 since the country’s first was reported in April.
Malawi is one of 16 countries in Africa reporting mpox outbreaks as health officials battle with vaccine shortages as well as limited testing and hospital capacity.
The Public Health Institute of Malawi said the patients were aged between 17 and 41. “Investigations are under way to establish the possible source of infection and trace contacts,” the department said in a statement last week.
The first cases in Malawi come after US government aid cuts to healthcare, including HIV programmes, badly hit the country and raised fears of an escalation of infectious diseases. HIV medication programmes have been severely depleted by the cuts….
It is candidly a struggle here, to avoid getting discouraged, by the loss of moral vision, in the US — when looking at our fellow world citizens. But onward, just the same.
…“Dragonfly isn’t a mission to detect life — it’s a mission to investigate the chemistry that came before biology here on Earth,” said Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for Dragonfly and a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “On Titan, we can explore the chemical processes that may have led to life on Earth without life complicating the picture.”
On Earth, life has reshaped nearly everything, burying its chemical forebears beneath eons of evolution. Even today’s microbes rely on a slew of reactions to keep squirming.
“You need to have gone from simple to complex chemistry before jumping to biology, but we don’t know all the steps,” Turtle said. “Titan allows us to uncover some of them.”
Titan is an untouched chemical laboratory where all the ingredients for known life — organics, liquid water and an energy source — have interacted in the past. What Dragonfly uncovers will illuminate a past since erased on Earth and refine our understanding of habitability and whether the chemistry that sparked life here is a universal rule — or a wondrous cosmic fluke….
Onward. Now you know. Grin — and thanks, to all the service-people we meet everyday, and never acknowledge.
To argue (as he does) that because it was acceptable in World War II — it should be acceptable now… is to forget that all sorts of things were considered normal then that now would be shocking to civilized people.
Would Paul argue that because Jim Crow was accepted throughout the South by White Society (almost to a person) during the period from 1939 through 1945 (and for over two centuries prior)… we should return to it?
Nope. The use of the TRO… stops intentional violations of federal law — and in more than ten of his cases, now — the explicit provisions of the US Constitution. Cannot be “policies” at all.
Next Hinderaker “foresees” the end of the Democratic Party. Precious. Not remotely likely. How does John think “the working class” views tariffs? Tax cuts for billionaires?! $500 million pre bribes, from hostile nations — for softer treat ment… and sucking up, to Putin?!
Only bribe-accepting Tangerine lemmings would think these are virtues… so…
Watch 2026, son. You are going to be tidal waved, in blue. [Do tell your buddie Bill that even here in May 2025, over 300 US seniors a month (10 a day!) are still dying of COVID.] He’s an idiot. As are you…
Updated 05.26.2025: on Monday Trump said that Putin had “gone crazy”. That is NOT a statesman’s condemnation — that’s a “frat boy bad night in the bar” / joke. A statesman would say he deplored the killing of Ukraine civilians when a prisoner exchange was underway — and would impose NEW sanctions on Russian travel, with the NATO allies. Damnation. Out. End update.
Trump is absolutely getting more Ukrainians killed; that is a fact, now. This latest attack by Putin is… deeply depraved and during a prisoner exchange, to boot. And because Tangerine won’t act, perhaps as I’ve suggested before — it is time for the Bitcoiners to make themselves useful — all those of good will, who oppose what Putin is doing.
Based on the recently-continued rise in Bitcoin (now over $104,000), as a trading pair with USD and the Russian Ruble (and the continued decline of the Ruble), it would seem likely that at least some Russian oligarchs are piling their local currency hoards into. . . Bitcoin, as they know the dollar and euro are both closed to them. [Unlike paper dollars, the Bitcoin addresses may be effectively locked, by a polite note saying “Hey — please do not buy, sell or transact with this address.” Rather handy, in times such as these — assuming most coiners will act morally.]
Bitcoin moralists would be deeply appreciated here — if they’d collectively help identify these addresses, converted from a Russian fiat currency, and help the entire moral world further isolate these malign actors. Put them on the sidelines.
And between now and then, do sing along with Aretha & me; with a pull-quote from Febrary of 2022:
…Trading volumes between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to a nine-month high as the country’s fiat currency plunged to record lows due to the fallout from the invasion of the Ukraine.
Data tracked by Kaiko, a Paris-based cryptocurrency research provider, shows that ruble (RUB)-denominated bitcoin volume surged to nearly 1.5 billion RUB on Thursday….
Onward, resolutely. Trump is snuffing the beacon of light we once were (2008-2016) for the Western World. Awful.
Mr. Mirengoff correctly and cogently faults Donald Trump tonight, as an inveterate liar, charlatan and most troublesome of all… a non-serious person. He is no preznit — not even a fully formed adult.
Ukraine has proven it.
But I’ll let Paul tell you (I won’t pay for his “walled garden” opinion pieces / articles — so this is just the opening foray below).
…During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to end Russia’s war against Ukraine very quickly. In fact, he repeatedly said he’d end it within 24 hours of taking office.
I doubt many people believed him. Perhaps some took him seriously, but only fools could have taken him literally.
Trump does seem serious about ending the war, but he has failed to make serious headway. The problem, in my view, is that he’s going about it the wrong way. I also believe he’s going about it the wrong way because he has other, conflicting priorities that stand in the way of a peace deal. [Cough (confidential from Condor): He owes Putin a slew of very weighty favors — all of which mean Tangerine 2.0 cannot push a fair peace deal with Ukraine, at all.]
You need not be an artist of the deal to recognize the path to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. You need only understand the dynamics of this war….
And — whether Paul shows the courage in later paragraphs to admit he should never have voted for MAGA in the first place… doesn’t really matter.
Interestingly, he is and even Hinderaker is) admitting the obvious: Trump is a reprobate, and a… loser.
All while brave Ukrainians die, by the thousands. Month after atrocious month.
Just a quick blurb, here from the mountains:“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase….
Powerline Lies... 