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Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the moon and asteroids:
In 2015, the Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262) into law. This bill was intended to "facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry" by making it legal for American companies and citizens to own and sell resources that they extract from asteroids and off-world locations (like the moon, Mars or beyond).
On April 6th, the Trump administration took things a step further by signing an executive order that formally recognizes the rights of private interests to claim resources in space. This order, titled "Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources," effectively ends the decades-long debate that began with the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.
This order builds on both the CSLCA and Space Directive-1 (SD-1), which the Trump administration signed into law on December 11th, 2017. It establishes that "Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law," and that the United States does not view space as a "global commons."
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:06PM (3 children)
Russia is a pale, pale shadow of the Soviet Union.
Yes, though the strength is relative. The European countries are also a pale, pale shadow of the force they were even a few decades ago. So it is not a reduced Russia going against a strong and mighty military in Europe. It is Russia going against a weak and enfeebled Europe with few to no soldiers and the few that are there are mostly out of shape and smuggling trackers^W phones [thedrive.com] around with them, if they even bother to show up for exercises.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:34PM (2 children)
Most European countries still have a universal draft and robust industrial bases to supply the materiel of war. Russia doesn't. And for all the hullabaloo, Europe still has NATO with the US in it. Russia has, well, Russia.
Russia would get badly spanked on Day 1 of the glorious Putin offensive.
So, as an exercise in, "Hey, imagine if..." it's weak beer. There are a couple real games to be had, though. India vs. Pakistan, This Time It's Nuclear! China, The Once and Future Middle Kingdom. North Korea, The Mad Dog Must Be Put Down.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 15 2020, @12:45PM (1 child)
There are a couple real games to be had, though. India vs. Pakistan, This Time It's Nuclear! China
There are a lot of proxies from around the world feeding that fight there. But of the three conflicting parties, China seems to be working effectively to play the other parties off against each other so that it can stay out of the limelight as it continues to annex parts of that territory for its Belt and Road. However, they are not the only country goading the other agressors so it does have potential to get out of control in a way that adversely affects the rest of the planet.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday April 16 2020, @11:42AM
Nobody around the world cares about India vs. Pakistan but the two principal parties. China is not playing them off against each other because it is firmly on the side of Pakistan, having fought more than one war with India in modern times. Beijing's Belt and Road project mostly follows the old Silk Road, which does not run through Pakistan or India.
India and Pakistan, beyond being adversaries to each other, are rivals to China and counterweights to it.
Twenty years ago when George W. Bush was talking about invading Iraq on a flimsy pretext I was shouting to the hills that America and NATO needed to enlist China's neighbors to encircle it. They are the existential threat, not a bunch of bearded tribesmen scratching rocks in the hills of Central Asia. We should have done that, and now we are beginning to count the cost. The stand-off with the Soviet Union will look like a cakewalk in comparison.
Washington DC delenda est.