Suppose ULA charges 10x for launches and SpaceX bargain bin launches that get ever cheaper(with reusable rockets) have threatened ULA. I bet if you follow the money you will find the culprits.
ULA isn’t the only entity hurt by cheap launches.
Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
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Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#12This new flavor of conservatism is so strange in light of how bound to free market ideals most flavors of conservatism are. In general, I really quite dislike Conservative/Liberal labels as political stances are not two-dimensional, but rather multidimensional. Parties are loose alliances of disparate groups. And somehow there's this rising contingent of neocons, who also happen to dislike SpaceX. Does anyone underst…
The only consistency with Breitbart seems to be that they never let any of those annoying facts get in the way of the narrative. I can't see any ideological justification here, SpaceX getting money from the US government isn't fundamentally different than ULA getting money from the US government. The article does imply at the end that there is likely someone behind these articles that has a specific interest in this…
It actually is different. ULA gets $880 million to $1 billion per year just to keep the factory lights on[1] for the EELV Launch Capability Contract. This isn't money for a service such as launches or new rockets, it is just to keep the lights on. SpaceX doesn't get any of that. If anyone is subsidized by the USG, it is overwhelmingly ULA. SpaceX could have simply charged 1/2 of ULA's $422 million per launch and instead chose to go way below that. This is an example of private enterprise overwhelmingly helping the tax payers through healthy competition. ULA was allowed to essentially rip off the tax payers at $422 million per launch whereas SpaceX is charging [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Launch_Alliance#Controv...
[2] https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/air-force-budget-rev...
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#13This new flavor of conservatism is so strange in light of how bound to free market ideals most flavors of conservatism are. In general, I really quite dislike Conservative/Liberal labels as political stances are not two-dimensional, but rather multidimensional. Parties are loose alliances of disparate groups. And somehow there's this rising contingent of neocons, who also happen to dislike SpaceX. Does anyone underst…
The only consistency with Breitbart seems to be that they never let any of those annoying facts get in the way of the narrative. I can't see any ideological justification here, SpaceX getting money from the US government isn't fundamentally different than ULA getting money from the US government. The article does imply at the end that there is likely someone behind these articles that has a specific interest in this…
I wonder if it's just Bezos stirring the pot with the hopes of a favorable outcome for Blue Origin...
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Neocons" were the foreign-policy hawks of the 2000s. These guys largely call themselves the "alt-right". They're basically as bad as you've heard, but hiding it sometimes. Even I find this particular turn against SpaceX somewhat weird. My internal model of the alt-right has largely been that they have one wing who are basically Nazi fanfiction, another who idolize the "throne and altar conservatism" of pre-Revolutio…
I'm not saying I agree with them, but a common theme I hear from the alt-right is "no gods no masters" (Game of Thrones reference, ding on the pop-culture). Now, nevermind that these guys are setting up as many gatekeeping functions as they tear down; they simply justify it as "protecting real hard-working Americans" through xenophobia. It's all built on the false nationalism of a flagging superpower, and if any of t…
> "no gods no masters" (Game of Thrones reference, ding on the pop-culture)
that's not a game of thrones reference as far as I can tell. It's an old anarchist and socialist slogan. It'd be an odd fit for that part of the right. "No gods or kings, only man" is a Bioshock reference that pops up sometimes in those parts.
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#15EDIT: The article does break down the purpose of Section 1615, and shed light on its context - I did not see that the article continued beyond the massive picture below the blurb that I quoted.
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#16EDIT: The article does break down the purpose of Section 1615, and shed light on its context - I did not see that the article continued beyond the massive picture below the blurb that I quoted.
From the exact same article:
The central canard of these attacks is that John McCain did not, in fact, add "Section 1615" to the defense authorization act, which is now being finalized by a conference between the House and Senate. This clause does not exist at all in the Senate language. Rather, it was inserted into the House legislation by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama.
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#17As much as I despise all "news" organizations, I say good. Considering that most of the media has been fawning over musk and spacex and everything musk does, perhaps some criticism of musk is required in a free and democratic system. I just don't like how so much of media are pretty much colluding with each other to spread the same narrative. On almost all topics, it seems like most of the media is pushing a particul…
In the US are only two political parties.
Yet North Korea and Russia only have one, so its not that bad.
And diversity does exists.
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#18[deleted]
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#19This new flavor of conservatism is so strange in light of how bound to free market ideals most flavors of conservatism are. In general, I really quite dislike Conservative/Liberal labels as political stances are not two-dimensional, but rather multidimensional. Parties are loose alliances of disparate groups. And somehow there's this rising contingent of neocons, who also happen to dislike SpaceX. Does anyone underst…
> bound to free market ideals
Very few conservatives in power are bound to this as an abstract principle; most are bound to markets as they benefit specific incumbents. In this case SpaceX is threatening the incumbents Boeing and Lockheed, who are responding with a lobbying campaign, including the generation of favourable press coverage.
Re: Breitbart, other conservative outlets escalate anti-SpaceX campaign
#20EDIT: The article does break down the purpose of Section 1615, and shed light on its context - I did not see that the article continued beyond the massive picture below the blurb that I quoted.
I think anyone who continued reading after that sentence could shed some light on it. You, apparently, did not:
"The central canard of these attacks is that John McCain did not, in fact, add "Section 1615" to the defense authorization act, which is now being finalized by a conference between the House and Senate. This clause does not exist at all in the Senate language. Rather, it was inserted into the House legislation by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama."