The Economist: One official says Musk contacted the White House only after imposing the restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink

The America-Ukraine link grows even spottier:  The Starlink cut-offs were a test, and worse may follow

After SpaceX restores high-speed service, Musk claims Ukraine violated Starlink agreement

 

Elon Musk offers bribe hoping to escape retribution from Democrats next year, meanwhile his promised $2 trillion spending cut from 2024 has just become the fiscal 2026 federal deficit

 Pure sociopathy.

 

Ten minutes to orbit is now cheaper than a 50-day sail to Japan

Donald Trump did that.

😏 

Call me when he solves the problems involving human requirements for full spectrum sunlight, gravity, and shielding from cosmic rays and asteroid particles

 Also let me know when the roads are safe again.

Tesla faces federal probe after Model 3 slams into Texas home, killing 76-year-old 

 

Everything sold off today

Stocks were down across the board, with the NASD 100 notably down 4.77%. The equal weight S&P 500 is down 0.52% month to date.

The Tech sector was down the most on the day, 5.78%.

The Consumer Staples sector was up the most on the day, 1.64%, which looks defensive against a possible coming recession. The Utilities sector was up half that.

The U.S. 10Y yield rose to 4.55%, and the 20Y and 30Y yields rose above 5.00. YTD return for VUSUX is now down 0.85%.

Oil retreated 3%.

Metals were down across the board, silver down over 8%.

Crypto was down across the board, too, with Bitcoin falling below $60k.

But DXY climbed! +0.658 to 100.071.

The theory is investors are upset that today's "strong" jobs numbers (the 70k hospitality hires is probably World Cup related, a one off, so forget that) indicate easy money from the Fed is now absolutely out of the question, and maybe even a rate increase is coming because the economy is running too hot, which is silly with 1Q GDP at 1.6% annualized. CNBC called that "solid" lol.

Jokers say everyone's just raising cash to buy overpriced SpaceX in its IPO next week.

Investors are taking profits ahead of SpaceX IPO, says Capital Wealth’s Kevin Simpson

SpaceX is worth less than half of its $1.75 trillion IPO target, Morningstar says

CNBC piles on Elon Musk with unfair story about latest test flight of Starship, which was hardly a setback

 

SpaceX’s Starship explodes for third time in a row, Musk promises more frequent launches

 

SpaceX saw its Starship system explode on Tuesday in a test flight, the third consecutive setback for Elon Musk’s rocket maker.

 

There's a far less biased presentation here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newly renamed Gulf of Second Place Hockey Teams renamed yet again after Starship Test Flight 8's upper stage fails to reach sub-orbital altitude on March 6th

 

Elon Musk is the biggest federal government teet sucker in history, the wealthiest man in the world on the backs of American taxpayers, and the biggest hypocrite about it

 

The hypocrite:

Elon Musk: Many Bureaucrats, Like Samantha Power, Are Getting Wealthy At Taxpayers Expense 

 

 

The grifter:

As Musk works to slash federal spending, his own firms have received billions in government contracts

Over the last decade, Musk's companies SpaceX and Tesla were awarded at least $18 billion in federal contracts, according to spending data -- with SpaceX winning more than $17 billion worth of contracts since 2015.

 

And don't forget the benefit of the government coin in the till for every Tesla purchased: 

LOL, SpaceX Crew-1 Commander Mike Hopkins, first out, didn't need no stinkin' ramp to exit Dragon, did a little dance too afterwards

Second out, pilot Victor Glover, on the other hand . . ..

Well, it was Glover's first spaceflight.

SpaceX cut away before Glover got all the way out and didn't show the egress of the two others.

Watching the whole thing, one sees the SpaceX team install the ramp for Hopkins, but when he exits suddenly it's not there. Then they reinstall the ramp for Glover.

Listening to the color commentary, the narrators had indicated we would not see egress by any of the crew members but then you do. 

Hopkins no ramp

Glover, ramp and stretcher

Glover, ramp and stretcher

Glover ramp, stretcher close by

Glover ramp, feed cuts away

Glover ramp

Hopkins no ramp, no stretcher

Hopkins no ramp, no stretcher

Hopkins, fist pumps, dances, walks away

Cool visuals of SpaceX Dragon nighttime splashdown 11:56pm off Panama City, Florida Saturday, May 1, 2021

Time from undock from ISS to splashdown was fewer than seven hours.

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While Bronze Age Pervert prepares to repeat Alcibiades' Sicilian debacle, SpaceX's methane, liquid oxygen and cryo-treated steel will make his terrestrial sun and sword but a quaint memory

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The author of Bronze Age Mindset and its review by Michael Anton both seem to miss its thesis actually unfolding in our time

Are the kids (alt)right?:

To paraphrase Woody Allen (whom, I hasten to add, BAP does not quote), life wants what it wants. What does it want? At the upper reaches, among the higher animals (BAP is relentlessly hierarchical), what it wants is mastery of “owned space.” “Owned space” is the most important concept introduced in Part One and the key to understanding the rest of the “exhortation,” if not necessarily the rest of the book. BAP argues that life, fundamentally, is a “struggle for space.” All life seeks to develop its powers and master the surrounding matter and space to the maximum extent possible. For the lower species, this simply means mass reproduction and enlarging habitat. For the higher animals, it means controlling terrain, dominating other species, dominating the weaker specimens within your own species, getting first dibs on prey and choice of mates, and so on. BAP sees no fundamental distinction between living in harmony with nature and mastering nature. All animals seek to master their environments to the extent that they can, and the nature of man, or of man at his best—the highest man—is to seek to master nature itself. Not in the Aristotelian sense of understanding the whole, nor in the Baconian sense of “the relief of man’s estate” via technology and plenty; more to assert and exert his own power. Indeed, BAP posits an inner kinship between the genuine scientist and the warrior; he calls the former “monsters of will.” ...

Early modernity actually offered the higher types vast opportunities to explore and conquer new space. Thus bugdom is not caused or defined by science and technology. To the contrary: science and tech at their best can form a kind of frontier that allows for man’s higher motives to find vent when and where space is constrained. For BAP, science in modern times is, or should be, a manifestation of the will to conquer space.

Sheesh, ever heard of SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic? The highest men are already there, diligently working to master heaven itself.

Stop the preening and get with the program.

Blue Origin launched and returned successfully today in its eighth test flight

The rocket's capsule reached nearly 66 miles up and safely parachuted to a soft landing in the west Texas desert.

The rocket also safely returned to a landing pad. The rocket is not a heavy launch vehicle like Elon Musk's, but it returns to earth in similar fashion to be reused. Space tourism is just around the corner.

Excellent video of the whole thing, here.

Laugh of the Day: Map of countries with cars in space (Elon Musk, eat your heart out)