WELL, YES: NASA should consider commercial alternatives to SLS, inspector general says.

“Our analysis shows a single SLS Block 1B will cost at least $2.5 billion to produce—not including Systems Engineering and Integration costs—and NASA’s aspirational goal to achieve a cost savings of 50 percent is highly unrealistic,” Martin wrote in an audit of the agency’s plans, which was published on Thursday.

The main problem with the SLS rocket is not its performance—the vehicle’s debut during the Artemis I mission in late 2022 was virtually flawless—but rather its extremely high cost. Independent reviews of the vehicle, which Congress mandated that NASA build more than a decade ago, have found that NASA is unlikely to have a sustainable deep space exploration program built around such an expensive heavy-lift rocket.

Digging into Martin’s report, it’s not difficult to see why. The SLS rocket is powered by four main engines derived from the Space Shuttle program. The cost of these four engines is $582.7 million, or $146 million per engine. This means that a single engine on NASA’s rocket costs roughly the same amount that the space agency paid for an entire mission on the Falcon Heavy rocket — $178 million for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.

The Psyche mission that launched on a Falcon Heavy last week cost an estimated $113 million. SLS has a lot more lift than Falcon Heavy does but not that much more, dollar for dollar.

Starship — when Washington finally lets testing proceed — is supposed to bring costs down dramatically from even that.

HMM: Ohio Democrat Senator Appears Vulnerable in 2024.

THAT’S THE STORY OF PUTIN’S ENTIRE WAR SO FAR: Russia’s Avdiivka Offensive: Lots Of Pain, Little Gain.

UGH: Over 70 Families Say They Lost Their Children to False Munchausen by Proxy Allegations Levied by One Doctor.

TO BE FAIR, KINZINGER IS THE JIM CRAMER CONTRA-INDICATOR OF POLITICS:

How it started vs how it’s going pic.twitter.com/tqJI2WetbY

— John Hasson (@SonofHas) October 15, 2023

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Eric Adams Finally Grows a Pair, Says Hamas Must Be ‘Destroyed Completely.’

JACK PHILLIPS: What the state can do to me — it can do to you.

My creativity is inseparable from my convictions, and both run deep in my soul.But this desire to create art that is consistent with who I am is what has brought me into conflict with state officials who have tried to force me to say something I don’t believe. The Colorado government, and then an activist attorney, have misused state law for over a decade now, trying to harass and punish me until I express messages against my beliefs — or go out of business. This relentless prosecution violates both my religious freedom and my free speech.

I had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with the help of my attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom in 2017, where a 7-2 majority determined that state officials had shown impermissible hostility toward me and my religious beliefs. That went a long way toward shoring up my religious freedom, and I’m grateful. But sadly, the court’s ruling didn’t address how state law was misused to violate my free speech — as it continues to be today.

The newest lawsuit seeks to force me to create a custom cake celebrating a gender transition, and now I’m before the Colorado Supreme Court in that case — with the support of a remarkable 22 states — after the Court of Appeals ruled that the law can be used to force me to express things I don’t believe.

Sadly, I’m not the only one.

Read the whole thing.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Deadly Palestinian Public Relations Scam That Dupes the Left. “Like I said in the headline, it’s an actual public relations scam. The rich ‘Palestinian’ history that the perpetually aggrieved American protester class thinks is being fought for is a work of creative fiction. It’s an even easier sell to the American Left today, given that they spent all of 2020 convincing themselves that Joe Biden was a thoughtful centrist who would bring some class to the White House.”

JUST TO ASK IS WHITE SUPREMACY: ‘What’s the anti-racist perspective on the atomic mass of boron?’

NOT THE FIRST TIME, NOT THE LAST: Yikes! Biden Glitches so Badly During a Speech That His Wife Has to Rescue Him.

THE DOGS DON’T LIKE THE DOGFOOD: Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren’t Cooperating.

The first wave of buyers willing to pay a premium for a battery-powered car has already made the purchase, dealers and executives say, and automakers are now dealing with a more hesitant group, just as a barrage of new EV models are expected to hit dealerships in the coming years.

“The curve isn’t accelerating as quickly as I think a lot of people expected,” said John Lawler, Ford Motor’s chief financial officer at a conference in September, on the EV adoption rate. “We’re seeing it flatten a bit.”

This is just market forces at work but they work much better when Washington doesn’t have it’s big, fat thumb on the scale.

THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH DANGEROUS IMMIGRANTS IS TO TURN THEM BACK AT THE BORDER. THIS IS THE SECOND-BEST WAY: French Interior Minister Calls for ‘Systematic Expulsion’ of Dangerous Foreigners After School Attack.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: I’ve Seen a Junker on the Highway Before but Never Like This. “It’s your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have a midnight bicycle drug delivery service, the used boxers thief, and Washington Man’s naked shopping spree.”

SURPRISING EXACTLY NO ONE IN WASHINGTON: Federal authorities accuse Menendez of acting as foreign agent. “The indictment charges Nadine Menendez — the senator’s wife — and Wael Hana, a North Jersey businessman, arranged a series of meetings and dinners with Egyptian officials and later acted as conduits between the senator and Egyptian officials. In return for Sen. Menendez’s influence on these and other matters, prosecutors say, Sen. and Mrs. Menendez received bars of gold, cash, and other items, accusations first aired in the initial indictment unveiled last month.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): It would be easier to make a list of people in Washington who aren’t on some sort of foreign payroll.

CONGRESS WOULD PROBABLY PREFER TO: We Haven’t Forgotten About Jamaal Bowman’s Fire Alarm Stunt.

PRIORITIES:

The Biden admin is funding drag shows in Ecuador but is forcing Americans trapped in a war zone to sign a note promising to repay the Government the cost of evacuating them. pic.twitter.com/O9hXIJbxbA

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 13, 2023

Say, what’s become of those thousands Biden left behind more than two years ago in Afghanistan?

I DID NOT THINK THAT: Think Diversity Officers Help Minority Students? Guess Again.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Just 1% of all US homes changed hands so far this year.

Just 1% of all US homes changed hands in the first half of this year, the lowest share in at least a decade, according to data from Redfin.

Only about 14 out of every 1,000 existing homes moved from one owner to another in the first half of 2023, compared to 19 of every 1,000 during the same period in 2019. That means home buyers have 28% fewer homes to pick from than before the pandemic upended the US housing market.

The pre-pandemic turnover rate is fairly typical for the modern housing market, according to Redfin, but a more active market would have a rate closer to 40 or 50 of every 1,000.

The main reasons so few houses have sold so far this year is that there aren’t many on the market to buy and people can’t afford higher mortgage rates.

No one can afford to buy and no one can afford to sell.

UGH: Did a Professor Advocate for Child Sex Work?

WHEN THEY TELL YOU WHO THEY ARE, BELIEVE THEM: ‘Squad’ Members Were Boosting Hamas Long Before It Beheaded Babies. “Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ayanna Presley, D-Mass., Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., each published press releases and personal statements in response to the early morning raid by Hamas terrorists that took the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, including 25 Americans, and resulted in more than 3,000 wounded. In each case, their comments began with empty platitudes for the violence experienced on both sides, before they turned to casting blame on Israel and justifying Hamas violence.”

UNLIKE HIS NEW SUITS, THAT’S A GOOD FIT: Fetterman Takes His Hilarious Lack of Self-Awareness to Late-Night TV.

LAUGHING WOLF ON WHAT AN AMERICAN OCT7 MIGHT LOOK LIKE: Thoughts & Sea Changes.

To go back to the networks here and elsewhere, I was asked about my thoughts on targets. I think it depends on which group is involved. In terms of what some here may have been thinking, I believe they thought they could control a significant amount of those coming in and use them much like BLM during the ‘Summer of Love.’ Which also seems to answer the question of if BLM or Antifa were the Brown Shirts. To me, looks like the avowed Marxists (see their own statements) won that dubious prize, and it looks like Antifa got somewhat double-crossed in the process. Wondering if that might be a result of realizing that Antifa has some interesting ties overseas and might be taking its orders from eleswhere and not here as good little troops. Hmmmmm.

Given where some of the Antifa leadership is reported to have gotten their training, I find it interesting that some of the attacks (probes) on our power grid seem to also be tied to certain parts of Europe according to some reports I’ve seen. Betting in both cases that those who train and lead may not speak Russian, but I bet those who trained them did. Bet they are tied together in other ways too.

Target selection here depends on which group. I suspect the Chinese controlled groups will go for military and infrastructure. Hard to do much about an attack on Taiwan if we can’t get planes off the ground, ships to sea, or other such delights. Russian backed is much the same, though I would expect them to hit more at the power grid and food. Those backed by the Mad Mullahs and similar will hit soft targets and go for general rape and murder in order to humiliate, terrorize, and show dominance over the Great Satan. There are some other groups rumored to have people here courtesy of our insecure southern border that might go for different, or at least different combinations.

Short version is that I see our power grid, transportation, food production and distribution as the “serious” targets, with schools, events (raves/concerts anyone?), religious services and other soft targets being the choice of the terrorist crowd. I can also see some of the serious crowd using the soft-target crowd as cover so they can do things and make it look like a part of the terror. I also think that if you live in a Blue city, things will be very bad. The idea was (I think) to make you scared and willing to give up freedoms for the illusion of safety. That plays right into the terrorist/soft-target crowd and they may well ramp that up on their own.

Since it seems unlikely our national leadership is interested in eliminating soft targets (quite the opposite these days) and our blue cities have even worse leadership, your best option is to make your home and yourself a hard target — but you knew that already.

Much more food for thought at the link.

KRUISER SAYS “BAD CALL”: ’60 Minutes’ Is Going to Let Biden Play President on Sunday. “To anyone who is being honest with themselves, the last thing that a violence-weary world needs right now is more Joe Biden.”

ROUTINE BUT NEVER BORING:

Side boosters for the @spacex / @NASA #Psyche launch landing at LZ-1 & LZ-2. Video from Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. What at a show! 👍🏻🚀😍 pic.twitter.com/MRML7tNEj5

— JohnCn (@JConcilus) October 13, 2023

The mission looks good so far — godspeed.

DIFFERENCES MATTER:

GROUND INVASION IMMINENT: The Israel Defense Forces tells residents of Gaza City to evacuate towards southern Gaza due to what appears to be an imminent ground invasion by 300,000 IDF Forces. A spokesman said the IDF understands that the evacuation could take time and that it's…

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 13, 2023

“Meanwhile, Hamas is telling the Palestinian citizens to stay put in order to use them as human shields.”

Hamas needs dead Palestinian children to muster international opinion against Israel for retaliating against Hamas’s murder of Israeli children.