THE NEW SPACE RACE: The advent of astropolitical alliances. “As the world grows increasingly multipolar, beset by geopolitical tensions and a resurgence of great power rivalry, the dynamics that have historically defined terrestrial politics are being projected into the final frontier, outer space. Recent developments in Asia illustrate this trend. Notably, Pakistan joined China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in October 2023, months after India signed the Artemis Accords with the United States in June. These declarations are not just diplomatic platitudes to indicate bilateral space cooperation between these states; they herald the dawn of astropolitical alliances that will have far-reaching ramifications for the bifurcation of the framework of global space governance.”
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
January 9, 2024
EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: Woof – a Year Probation and They’re Still Saying Ray Epps Wasn’t a Fed? “His sentence will also include a $500 restitution payment, and 100 hours of community service. Epps’ sentence seems to be comparatively light in relation to those received by other January 6 defendants, who have on average received several years in prison as punishment.” Ya think?
WHAT DOES BANGLADESH SAY ABOUT OURS? US says Bangladesh elections were not free and fair.
I dunno about Bangladesh, but there’s this:
Think what you want about former President Trump and the reasons he’s being indicted.
But just imagine if this happened in any other country, where a government arrested the main opposition candidate.
The United States ability to use “democracy” as foreign policy is gone. https://t.co/svdFxtaf4q
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 4, 2023
I do think our credibility is shot here. Maybe the people running things don’t mind.
UPDATE:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2024
SCIENCE MARCHES ON: The Yellow Puzzle Solved: Enzyme Responsible for Urine Color Discovered.
CONTROL SURFACES? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ CONTROL SURFACES: DARPA okays construction of X-65 plane with air jet flight controls.
EV PROGRESS: Tesla Quietly Cuts Range Estimates for Some Models.
I IMAGINE THE TERMINAL VELOCITY IS PRETTY HIGH: Ultimate Drop Test: iPhone survives 16,000-foot fall after door plug blows off Alaska Air flight 1282.
LONGEVITY: Lifespan of mice extended by stimulating specific brain cells.
UPDATE: Link/caption glitch. Sorry. Fixed now.
I’VE MOVED UP TO THE 4-GALLON CLUB AND HEADING TOWARD FIVE: The Red Cross — the biggest U.S. blood supplier — said in a release Sunday that the number of U.S. blood donors has hit a 20-year all-time low.
THEY ALWAYS PRETEND IT’S ABOUT NAZIS: Substack Versus the Slippery Slope: The real reason to keep even Nazis on the platform. The people pushing this line don’t care about Nazis, they just want to use the “threat” of Nazis to acquire the power to shut down their political rivals. It’s this way every time. They’re not well-meaning anti-Nazis, they’re vile censors with bad intent.
Related: “Go to Hell. Your self-righteous whingeing might have been tolerable four years ago. It no longer is. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to see it as the product of an innocent concern for respectful and civilized online communities. . . . What number is zero? The number of people who have died as a result of the offensive words of white nationalists on Substack.”
IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR: Brace for Impact: Are You Ready for WAR in ‘24?
DON SURBER: Harvardicide: Come for the destruction of DEI, stay for academia’s collapse. “I come to praise Claudine Gay, not condemn her. The now ex-president of Harvard did our nation a great service by being smug and arrogant at a congressional hearing. Her hubris revealed what a farce DEI is as Harvard overlooked qualified candidates and chose her simply because she is a black lady. . . . Her ability to become the top scholar in America — and presiding over Harvard is the cherry atop the Ivy League whipped cream that covers the higher education dessert — raises the question of whether this treat is worth having. Maybe America needs more meat and potatoes.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Elon Musk vs. the Administrative State: SpaceX fights an NLRB attack on the company’s employment practices.
SpaceX wants to colonize Mars, but first it’s taking on a more difficult mission: Rolling back the administrative state. CEO Elon Musk’s firm is challenging the structure and powers of the National Labor Relations Board.
A regional director at the NLRB last week charged SpaceX with retaliating against employees who wrote an open letter criticizing Mr. Musk. The complaint alleged that the company unfairly barred workers from discussing the letter and “created an impression of surveillance” by “showing employees screen shots of communications between employees.”
SpaceX responded with a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the board’s structure and administrative trials are unconstitutional. The suit leans in part on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’s SEC v. Jarkesy precedent. The Supreme Court heard the Securities and Exchange Commission’s appeal in the case in November, and a decision is expected by June.
Jarkesy held that the SEC administrative law judges’ dual layers of protection from presidential removal violate the Constitution’s command that the President must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’” The Fifth Circuit also held that the SEC’s administrative process for adjudicating fraud claims violates the Seventh Amendment’s right to a jury trial.
Like SEC administrative law judges, the NLRB’s judges can only be removed for good cause as found by a Merit Systems Protection Board whose members can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Similar to the SEC, the NLRB asserts the power to extract monetary damages from defendants. SpaceX argues that such claims belong in federal court where defendants enjoy a right to a jury trial.
The SpaceX lawsuit also seeks to break new legal ground by taking aim at the NLRB’s combination of adjudicative, legislative and executive power, which it argues violates the constitutional separation of powers and due process. NLRB members rule on charges brought in its administrative courts and decide whether to seek injunctive relief in federal court.
Members of other independent agencies do the same, but SpaceX argues that the NLRB’s procedural unfairness is magnified because the board “has chosen to promulgate virtually all the legal rules in its field through adjudication rather than rulemaking.” . . .
The “accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands” is “the very definition of tyranny,” SpaceX writes, citing James Madison’s Federalist No. 47. Congress has granted the NLRB and other independent agencies sweeping powers that would have made the founders blanch. But the agencies have also expanded their purview.
The Biden NLRB is a case in point. The board’s statutory mission is to protect workers’ right to organize, but it is rewriting labor law to limit employer rights to manage their workforces. Credit to SpaceX for firing a rocket at the administrative state.
SpaceX has a good chance of winning here. It’s also a brushback at other bureaucracies.
NIBBLING AWAY AT THE LEGAL MONOPOLY: North Carolina Nonprofit and Paralegals Sue State Over First Amendment Right to Give Legal Advice on Court-Created Forms.
Somewhat related: America’s unregulated shampooer menace.
WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACIST BIGOTRY? DEI staffer alleges U. Wisconsin discriminated against her for being white: lawsuit.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Stanford professor steps down from anti-Semitism committee following allegations of anti-Israel views. “Kelman, criticized for downplaying campus anti-Semitism in a 2017 paper, faced opposition from Stanford students and alum, prompting his resignation from the committee.”
ARNOLD KLING: The True Role of the Central Bank: Saving Big Banks. “In the 2008 financial crisis, what was the Fed’s main concern? I would say that the focus was on the health of the ‘primary dealers,’ the handful of large institutions that are most responsible for maintaining a market in U.S. government debt. The Fed may have failed to forestall a recession, but except for Lehman, all of the primary dealers survived.”
NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER: The Attack.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Bill Ackman’s war to make universities accountable has the left panicked.
STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: 1st photo from crippled private Peregrine moon lander holds clue to anomaly.
ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, ANYONE REVOLTING AGAINST THE GENTRY CLASS IS A “FAR RIGHT EXTREMIST.” German vice-chancellor warns of extremism as far-right groups join farmers’ protest – as it happened.
But they’re desperate: German farmers put Scholz’s government on the ropes with a week of protests.