WHEN YOU CAN’T COMPETE, COMPLAIN: SpaceX rivals raise concerns about Starship-Super Heavy coming to Florida.

SpaceX’s plan to launch its monstrous Starship-Super Heavy two-stage tandem from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center caught the attention — and concern — of two rival space companies that warn federal officials the up-to-492-foot-tall rocket will be too untested, too dangerous and too potentially disruptive for the nation’s busiest spaceport and the surrounding environment.

United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin — which both have significant footprints on the Space Coast and view SpaceX as direct competition — have submitted written concerns to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA is preparing an environmental impact statement to evaluate potential impacts of Starships launching up to 44 times a year from pad 39A at KSC. SpaceX is also eyeing a potential second Starship launch pad on adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“As the largest rocket in existence, an accident would inflict serious or even catastrophic damage, while normal launch operations would have a cumulative impact on structures, launch vehicle hardware, and other critical launch support equipment,” ULA officials wrote in a 22-page letter to the FAA.

“The other guy’s rocket is too big and powerful” might not be as convincing as ULA and Blue Origin hope it is.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: White House Report Card: Biden’s excuses fuel push to exit 2024 race.

VICTORIA TAFT: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Antifa Goes Down Edition. “Let’s do a top-line assessment of what’s been going on this week. Antifa thugs finally get punished. Oakland is in still in freefall with fresh new crimes going un-responded to by the police. Gavin Newsom announces he’s “all in” with Joe Biden—and he’s starting a new business venture. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek discovers summer. And in Washington State, Seattle has a six-figure job for tree huggers.”

ICYMI: GOOD NEWS YOU LIKELY WON’T BE TOLD ABOUT:

Doesn't fit the narrative, but

2024 record coral cover for Great Barrier Reef

Based on official data for all 11 sectors of GBR,

Last three years, 2022-2024, have been unprecedented

Data: https://t.co/MQ0qkITsby pic.twitter.com/fJN15BjHMk

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) July 2, 2024

HE, AND THE “CABAL” WHO INSTALLED HIM IN 2020, HAVE MADE US AN INTERNATIONAL JOKE: Biden’s Dénouement Hurts U.S. Standing.

And there’s no pretending that didn’t happen, given that the “cabal” — Time magazine’s approving term — bragged about it after.

There needs to be accountability, and it needs to go way beyond an election.

POLITICALLY MOTIVATED JUDICIAL CENSORSHIP: Court Threatens First Amendment Rights of Tennessee Star After Release of Covenant School Shooting Documents.

HMM: One of the most accurate recession indicators is close to sounding the alarm as unemployment continues to rise.

While unemployment is still historically low, its rate of increase could be a sign of deteriorating economic conditions. That’s where the so-called Sahm Rule comes in.

It says that when the three-month moving average of the jobless rate rises by at least a half-percentage point from its low during the previous 12 months, then a recession has started. This rule would have signaled every recession since 1970.

Based on the latest unemployment figures from the Labor Department’s monthly report on Friday, the gap between the two has expanded to 0.43 in June from 0.37 in May.

And: A key part of America’s economy has shifted into reverse.

Consumer demand seems to have tapered off so far this summer, according to surveys of American businesses that sell any kind of service to make a profit, ranging from restaurants to dental clinics. That weakness is also evident in the latest spending figures — a far cry from last year’s lucrative summertime spending spree when Americans shelled out for films and high-profile concerts.

The Institute for Supply Management’s latest monthly survey that gauges economic activity in the services sector showed that so-called new orders and overall economic activity unexpectedly slipped into contraction territory last month. The headline index fell to a reading of 48.8 in June from 53.8 in May as the new orders sub-index saw an even steeper decline, down to 47.3 from 54.1. (A reading above 50 indicates expansion while anything below that threshold points to a contraction.)

Previously: Payrolls Rise 206K After Huge Downward Revisions As Unemployment Rate Jumps To Three Year High. “In keeping with the BLS’ other favorite gimmick of representing part-time jobs growth as the primary driver of the US labor market, in June, the number of part-time workers rose 50K to 28.1 million while full-time workers dropped by 28K. This means that since June 2023, the US has added 1.8 million part-time jobs and lost 1.6 million full-time jobs.”

THEY’RE DOING THEIR BEST TO CONCEAL IT UNTIL AFTER, THOUGH:

And we will see a big inflation spike before the Nov 2024 election as a result. https://t.co/5IRe26zLA8

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) July 7, 2024

IT MUST BE THE FAULT OF GUN MANUFACTURERS. AND THE NRA. AND, UH, RACISM, YEAH, THAT’S THE TICKET! Why Does One City Account for More Than a Third of America’s Holiday Weekend Homicides?

FEDSTROTURF?

I would imagine the feds have their plates protected.

— Capitalist Mike 🇺🇲 (@Capitalist_Mike) July 6, 2024

HE’S FINE: Joe Biden May Be Hiding Another Illness From the Public.

SOME OF THE PROMO POSTS I DO ON MY BLOG HAVE PARTICULARLY GOOD BOOKS. THIS WEEK IS ONE SUCH:  Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

(Last week too.  I hope people continue putting out great books, honestly.)

ICYMI: PHIL HAMBURGER: No Remedy for Censorship: The Perils of Murthy. “Last week, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court hammered home the distressing conclusion that, under the court’s doctrines, the First Amendment is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable against large-scale government censorship. The decision is a strong contender to be the worst speech decision in the court’s history.”

I WASN’T. Matt Yglesias: I Was Wrong About Biden. “Most people have been seeing the duck all along. But I was seeing the rabbit.”

I wasn’t.

ROME NEVER FELL:  Cyclist fined for kissing wife during Tour de France.

GONE? GONE?  Democrats Have Gone Full Soviet. [VIDEO]

The masks just came off, at last.

MANUFACTURED. THEY’RE TRYING TO PRETEND THEY DIDN’T KNOW, SO THEY ESCAPE THE RECKONING:  Biden’s Cognitive Collapse: Greatest Media Scandal We’ve Ever Seen.

SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED, BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE:  Radio Show Hosts: Team Biden Sent Us Questions To Ask Biden.

HE’S WRONG. NOT IN THE WAY HE WANTS US TO TELL HIM THAT SO HE CAN DEMOLISH IT:  The Feminist Movement and why that term means you pooped yourself.

He’s wrong, because he thinks the patriarchy won. Look, I grew up in a real patriarchy and much as it gave me issues (as any system does anyone who doesn’t fit in) it’s way — way — better than this. Patriarchy can’t win, because there is no idolizing or elevating of fatherhood.

No, what won was anarchy. Feminism as implemented was a Marxist movement designed to bring about the “utopia” dreamed of in the Communist Manifesto, which boiled down to Marx saying “There shouldn’t be families, and any woman I deign to look at should sleep with me,” like the whiny grifter he was. What won was the Marxist version of feminism and it has destroyed men, women, the family, Western Civilization and possibly the whole human race.

THIS IS THE SAME TOWN THAT BANNED CROSSES FROM THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE, AND FOUND EVERY ABLE BODIED CITIZEN — ATHEISTS INCLUDED — PARADING WITH A CROSS?  Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, now has one of the nation’s toughest hate crime laws. Watch this citizen deliver straight fire to the woke city council.

BEHOLD, HOW VERY SHOCKED MY FACE IS:  Satellite Images Reportedly Show Four Chinese Spy Stations Constructed in Cuba.

IT HAS BECOME OBVIOUS OVER THE LAST FIFTY YEARS THAT NO, IT’S NOT:  Is It An Evolutionary Advantage?

WHY NEVADA’S ELECTIONS HAVE SUCKED, SUCK AND WILL SUCK:  Fact Check: Nevada’s Election Laws are Failing Voters – Here’s How.

THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS IS THE ABOLISHING OF SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND THE DEVOLVING OF AUTHORITY OVER CHILDREN’S EDUCATION TO AS LOCAL AND AS INDIVIDUAL AN AUTHORITY AS POSSIBLE:  Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice.

Look, in English: if you can, homeschool. If you can’t join a cooperative of friends and homeschool. If you absolutely must find a private school that does not take government money. Sorry to tell you, but it’s not the best way, it’s the only way.

FOR THE SAME REASON — BY AND LARGE — TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING SUCKS:  Why Do Kids’ Books Suck?