Pleasing all of the People

 Well, this is the last day of my Staycation.  In my opinion, much has been accomplished.  Starting tomorrow, I will work for 3 weeks and have another... Staycation.  Plan you time well. 

The little tank for the goldies is set up, they seem to like it.  I opted for a 5 gallon rather then a 10.  They're small, and will only grow to fit the tank.

I got the Rouvy app set up on my sporting laptop.  They've changed how things work.  I've downloaded 3 of my favorite rides.  Right now I'm planning on alternating, one day with the Tacx app, the next with the Rouvy app.  We shall see how this goes.

Both houses of Congress voted to approve making Juneteenth an official holiday.  How surprising is that.  While in the Senate the vote was unanimous, in the house there were 14 Republican dissenters.  Of course, they had their reasons... you know, the racism they constantly deny.  I didn't check, but does anyone know if these are the same Republicans who voted not to give the Capital Police medals?  Wouldn't surprise me.  and they had a reason for that... The Big Lie.

And what about the controversy about the lack of Afro-Latinos playing leads in "In The Heights?"  This leads to a whole bunch of questions, like:  Are casting directors going to need to go by a checklist every time they cast a film?  You know, one of these, and one of these, and one of these, and one of these? Does the reporter who asked this question understand there are million shades of people out there, and while representation is great, you can't have a million people playing leads?  We are in an evolving situation and people need to patiently let it evolve.  There's an old saying, 'you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.'  Change is happening.  History has told us that creating controversy rarely, if ever, accelerates that process.  

Finally, something our press, possibly even the world's press doesn't seem to be covering is the Chinese Space Station.  That's right, the Chinese have a space station.  They also have a rover on Mars.  

And instead of having a government working to stay ahead of the Chinese, we are dealing with partisanship because a minority group wants to create a socially conservative dictatorship run by a failed American Oligarch.  This group doesn't give a shit about the future, they are too consumed with their craven need for power.  We need to vote these fools into Oblivion.

Nasa gets a Kickstart

Guess what, NASA is going back to work.  This doesn't mean they haven't been putting in some time over the past couple of years putzing around with the International Space Station.  They had, however, put their exploration programs pretty much on hold.  This came as a result of the Augustine Commission's report back in 2009 that the current program was terribly underfunded.  The United States would have to spend trillions of dollars to keep it moving forward.  Do you remember 2009?  Middle of the worst recession in American history?  Given the time it made sense, some what.  The monies which could have been spent on the development of a heavy lift vehicle could be better spent going to General Motors.  Of course there was also the housing market crash, we couldn't let those banking and financial institutions responsible for that shit hole mess to die, we needed to keep them afloat.

In the five years since then the country has pretty much recovered, though not as much as some Republicans would like, and we are in a better financial place.  Hence, in the budget approved and signed by the President, space exploration programs have once again been funded to a tune of over 1 trillions dollars.  Have we finally gotten it right?  Kind of, I think.

I don't think for a second Congress muttered to itself "hey, we got a little spare cash lying around, let's give it to the space program."  No, not at all.  I think what really happened were China and India.  You see about two months ago the Chinese landed a rover on the moon and... it's roving around up there.  Even though the American news media gave it some airplay and most people probably didn't even notice, you can be some pudding head down in Washington said "Holy Shit!"  The next thing you know they'll be sending men there, Chinese Men, and they'll be setting up a Moon Base.  And where are we?  Dicking around with the likes of small minded Ted Cruz.  India has launched a probe to Mars!  I tell people that and their response is almost universal disbelief.  "India?" they ask.  Yeah, they are more then just a Call Center for American Companies.  So, Congress and the government really had no choice, it was either kickstart the program with a big boot, or sit back and eat dust.