THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space and the new struggle for civilisational supremacy.

In June 2021 Chinese and Russian space officials announced detailed plans for their joint International Lunar Research Station that will result in humans walking on the moon by the mid-2030s. Only a few days before the Sino-Russian announcement, Brazil became the twelfth country to sign the American-sponsored Artemis Accords, a set of principles for the future human exploration of the moon and beyond as well as the commercial exploitation of space resources. These accords are themselves inspired by the U.S. Artemis programme that was initiated by the Trump administration, and subsequently endorsed by President Biden, with the aim of returning Americans to the moon by the mid-2020s (the schedule has since slipped due to the impact of the COVID pandemic). Several other countries, to include Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, have also announced plans to send lunar rovers and other robotic explorers to the moon by the end of this decade in a bid not to be left behind by China and the United States.

What initially started as a nostalgic paean to ‘America First’ has since evolved into detailed multinational technical programmes, breath-taking budgets, and soaring ambitions for what will essentially amount to permanent human settlements on the moon along with its systematic commercial exploitation. This alone is a noteworthy, if uncontroversial, set of developments. But also significant are the underlying and implied civilisational tropes and mandates of the countries taking part. This is not our parents’ and grandparents’ space race of yore. This is China, Russia, the United States, and others seeking to leave a lasting civilisational imprint on the moon and in the solar system beyond.

To understand what is going on requires an acknowledgement that space exploration is not merely a matter of applying technology and universal scientific principles. . . .

Whether it’s a liberal (or even libertarian) civilisational order led by the United States and its SpaceX and Blue Origin commercial proxies, or a centralised statist civilisational order led by China (with Russia as a junior partner), the stakes in the contemporary space competition seem much larger than in its Cold War predecessor. That space race, while carried out by earlier versions of the civilisational state, aimed for ideological dominance on Earth rather than permanent dominion in space. In today’s competition, the civilisational state that comes out ahead with habitable lunar bases and space-based infrastructure to exploit economic opportunities will hold considerable sway in defining the terms and conditions for the future of spacefaring for everyone else.

Someone should write a book on this.

Related: China is using mythology and sci-fi to sell its space programme to the world.

RAZIB KHAN ON NEW DISCOVERIES IN GENETIC HISTORY: Here be humans: We keep discovering how much less of humanity is. . . us. “The ‘Out of Africa’ narrative of circa 2000 presented our own lineage as a superhuman race, the apotheosis of human evolution. The telos of two million years of encephalization, as human brains got bigger and bigger. The latest results do not fit easily into our old hero narrative. Neanderthals win the contest for largest human brains. And ‘Dragon Man’ turns out to have had a very large brain too, in line with modern cranial capacities. All human lineages were getting bigger-brained over the last few million years, not just the lineage that led up to us. . . . Today on our planet there is just one human species, but this is an exceptional moment. For most of the past few million years there were many human species. . . . Our planet was very different 100,000 years ago, and if we could survey that time, we would be astounded by the human diversity across its surface. To enumerate what little we know with certainty, there were at a minimum: modern humans, Neanderthals, at least three to four varieties of Denisovans, and two pygmy Homo populations in Southeast Asia. Likely there were still remnant Homo erectus in Southeast Asia as well, and other diverged lineages within Africa, and a new Homo in Nesher Ramla, Israel, in the Middle East with affinities to Neanderthals.”

OPEN THREAD: What are you doing to make things better?

SO LONG AS THE DISCOVERER ISN’T TIM HAMNER: Never-before-seen colossal comet on a trek toward the sun.

AT HELEN’S PAGE: Liberty-Loving Lafayette: How ‘America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman’ Helped Win Our Independence. (Bumped)

UPDATE: Now #1 in in Teen and Young Adult US Colonial & Revolutionary Periods History eBooks.

I’VE NEVER BEEN A FAN OF THIS APPROACH TO LIFE EXTENSION: Extreme Calorie Restriction Can Increase Dangerous Bacteria in The Gut, Study Shows. As a friend said once, the folks on the calorie-restriction email lists seem very grumpy and unhappy. 1200 calories a day will do that to you.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Americans Are Leaving Unemployment Rolls More Quickly in States Cutting Off Benefits.

[Jefferies LLC economists] also found somewhat larger decreases in the number of people receiving benefits through pandemic programs in states curtailing benefits, though the data lags behind by an additional week. In many cases, those recipients will be cut off entirely when their state ends participation in the federal programs.

“You’re starting to see a response to these programs ending,” said Aneta Markowska, Jefferies’ chief financial economist. In recent months “employers were having to compete with the government handing out money, and that makes it very hard to attract workers.”

As Chef Andrew Gruel told Reason: “In the very beginning, when the government offered it, I think it was $600 on top of what the state was offering for unemployment. Here in California, it was about $1,100 a week. Initially we did lay everybody off, because we didn’t know what was going to happen. As we started helping out with the community and building some business, our business came back, and we needed those employees back. So we started reaching out to everybody. A lot of people were like, ‘Look, I’m making $1,100 right now not working. I’ve got books I want to read. I’ve got classes I want to take online.’ If I was 19 years old and I could make $1,500 as a server working 50 hours a week, or I could make $1,100 sitting at home, reading books, learning an instrument, heck, I would do it too.”

WELL, GOOD: OTC antacids may control blood sugar for diabetics, research suggests. “The drugs, known as proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, which are used to treat heartburn symptoms, were shown to reduce fasting blood sugar levels and levels of HbA1c, a type of hemoglobin known to bind with blood sugar, in studies included in the analysis.”

GERMANY KNIFE ATTACK: Three killed were all women.

Naturally, it takes BBC 14 paragraphs and a map showing where the city of Würzburg is located in Germany to get to this minor detail: “A witness reported that the suspect shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ during the attack, said [Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim] Herrmann.”

MICHAEL YON: Darien Gap: Love Lost in the Jungle.

RIP: Mike Gravel, Former Alaska Senator And Anti-War Advocate, Dies At Age 91.

Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91.

Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. Gravel had been living in Seaside, California, and was in failing health, said Theodore W. Johnson, a former aide.

His surrealistic campaign videos to promote a quixotic run against Obama and Hillary in the 2008 presidential cycle defined “quirky:”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Meet the CRT burghers.

The burghers in places as far-flung as Loudoun County, Virginia, Fort Worth, Texas and Langley, Washington have turned out in recent days at local school board meetings to protest the CRT-inflected curricula that their districts have been inflicting on students. The protesters — mostly parents of enrolled students — regard the emphasis on critical race theory as state-sponsored propaganda aimed at indoctrinating children in racial grievance, allegiance to authoritarian leaders and hatred of their own country. As if to prove these accusations well-founded, supporters of CRT have been rounding up children to stage counter-protests. At the Washington State protest, for example, the parents, according to the Everett, Washington Herald, were ‘met by over 360 counter-protesters, nearly half of whom were South Whidbey School District students, who marched to the protest site from nearby South Whidbey Community Park in support of the school board’s progressive actions’. The youngins were well trained. They came bearing the obligatory signs, including ‘Don’t Censor Our Education’, ‘Respect Education’, Trans Rights,’ and, of course, ‘Black Lives Matter’.

Is the popular outrage against CRT truly a pro-censorship movement? Is it disrespectful of education?

The way to tell is to look at what vexes the anti-CRTers — and what they favor instead. Among the more widely watched videos is one of a citizen opposing his school board’s pro-CRT stance: the T-shirted, tattooed British expat Simon Campbell sticks it to the Pennsbury, Pennsylvania school board. The audience cheers as Mr Campbell charges the school board, ‘It seems to me that you think you can supersede the United States Constitution.’ As the cheers die down, he continues, ‘I’ve got news for you school board president Benito Mussolini, your power does not exceed that of the US Constitution and the First Amendment Rights of the citizens of this great nation.’ His five minute bravura performance needs to be savored in the original.

Since it’s not embedded in the above-linked article by Peter Wood of the Spectator World, here you go:

More from Wood:

When someone like Simon Campbell summons the US Constitution and the First Amendment to his side of the table, he has a point. CRT and its progeny are a doctrine aimed at delegitimizing America. These doctrines aim to unseat the US Constitution as a racist document. They see the First Amendment as protecting white supremacy by giving white people exclusive control over public speech. And they treat the whole dynamic of the county as a contest over ‘power’. In that contest, censorship by the proponents of CRT is fully warranted, since they are battling the unfair advantages of the white racist regime.

Exit quote: “This is a grassroots movement which has substantial political implications for the 2022 midterm elections. The Biden administration beginning on inauguration day has gone all-in in its support for CRT, the 1619 Project and related endeavors. The Anti-CRT Burghers have a lot to chew on.”

Read the whole thing.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

● Shot: A viral video has everyone talking about San Francisco’s ‘shoplifting surge.’ But is it real?

—The San Francisco Chronicle, today.

● Chaser: ‘Out of control:’ Organized crime drives S.F. shoplifting, closing 17 Walgreens in five years.

—The San Francisco Chronicle, May 15th.

Fortunately though, California lawmakers are taking the rise in crime and shoplifting seriously: California Lawmakers Want to Strip ‘He’ From State Laws.

WHY IS THE LEFT SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Antifa Rioters’ Response to the Latest Police Shooting Shows Just How Racist They Are.

BUCKLE UP, DEMOCRATS. The Biden Border Backlash Is Coming, and CRT Will Make It Worse.

HMM: Tesla Sued Over Supercharging Fees, Broken Promises.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARY AND ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Joyce Carol Oates slams Brandeis University over ban on ‘picnic,’ other words.

Earlier: The term “trigger warning” is now triggering because it “has connections to guns.”

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: What happens when your currency collapses? “This isn’t, yet, Weimar Lebanon, with people going shopping with wheelbarrows full of money or lighting fires with bundles of notes. But little knots of child beggars are starting to appear at traffic lights in Beirut. The Lebanese are living through a terrible economic experiment, a warning to everyone else: destroy your currency and you destroy your country.”

Related: Why Inflation Is at a 12-year High.

HELEN TRIES IT: So I bought some “Don’t Tread on Me” earrings from Helen’s Page newest advertiser, No-System. They sell T-shirts and accessories that have a libertarian or conservative twist. The earrings are super lightweight and made out of sustainable wood. I don’t like heavy earrings and these are perfect. They did take a week to get here but they inexpensive and are ordered as they are sold so it was worth the wait. They would make a great gift for anyone who likes something unique that expresses their feelings about freedom. Or for your second amendment friends, how about these?

BACK TO THE FUTURE: The Honda Civic Hatch Is Back and So Is the Manual.

CHEF ANDREW GRUEL SURVIVED COVID-19 AND GAVIN NEWSOM: “In the very beginning, when the government offered it, I think it was $600 on top of what the state was offering for unemployment. Here in California, it was about $1,100 a week. Initially we did lay everybody off, because we didn’t know what was going to happen. As we started helping out with the community and building some business, our business came back, and we needed those employees back. So we started reaching out to everybody. A lot of people were like, ‘Look, I’m making $1,100 right now not working. I’ve got books I want to read. I’ve got classes I want to take online.’ If I was 19 years old and I could make $1,500 as a server working 50 hours a week, or I could make $1,100 sitting at home, reading books, learning an instrument, heck, I would do it too.”

K-12 IMPLOSION:  Viral School Board Speech: It Is My Constitutional Right To Critique Your Fascism (Video).

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

● Shot: Rich Lowry: Remember when Joe Biden was a moderate?

—The Boston Herald, April 29th.

● Chaser: Joe Biden’s BLM Nominee Pushed Population Control, Defined American Children as ‘Environmental Hazard.’

—Breitbart.com, Thursday.

GOTTA KEEP BUSY SOMEHOW: Sales of erectile dysfunction drugs boomed during pandemic. “We saw a huge spike in sales of daily use erectile dysfunction drugs, which suggests that some people were having more spontaneous sex than ever — with their partners at home, they wanted to always be ready.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE, FROM AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Is Your Teenager Secretly A Libertarian? Nine Warning Signs To Look For.