September 18, 2020

"Rich guys like rockets, I don’t know, they like rocket, boom."



Context, from "Donald Trump Mosinee, WI Rally Speech Transcript September 17":
We will land the first woman on the moon and the United States will be the first nation to land an astronaut on Mars. And, NASA is now the hottest space center anywhere in the world. And, when I took over three and a half years ago, there was grass growing in the runways, you know that it was closed down, it was a mess. We are now the hottest in the world. You see what’s going up. And, we’ve got a lot of rich guys sending them up too. I liked that better. I said, “Let them do it.” Rich guys like rockets, I don’t know, they like rocket, boom. I see dollars going right up, but they need a good place to launch. We have the best places. We have the best places, so it’s been incredible what we’ve done with NASA.
I'd love to hear Trump's uncensored analysis of rich guys and their rockets. I note the hand gesture. Obviously, it's about masculinity... potency... boom.

29 comments:

daskol said...

That's what makes Elon Musk so interesting. Sure, he's got a rocket company, but I think he's the only rich guy who started a company to dig down, not just go rocket, boom up.

DKWalser said...

As I was driving yesterday evening, I heard a portion of Trump's rally on the radio. When the station broke away for a few commercials, the announcer said Trump was doing "stand-up, mixed with policy proposals". I thought that was an apt description. He, and those in attendance, seem to have so much fun at these rallies. He mixes a lot of humor in with the serious content.

Michael K said...

Mysterious price increases on rockets.

What's going on ?

But along the way to its breakthrough win with the Space Force on August 7, something curious happened in the way SpaceX priced its services. The price for using its Falcon Heavy vehicle more than doubled from what Musk originally claimed would be the maximum cost.

Fernandinande said...

Obviously, it's about masculinity... potency... boom.

Landing on the moon and Mars, and the existence of orbiting communication satellites, are obviously just unintended consequences.

clint said...

He's not wrong. Musk, Bezos, Branson...

chuck said...

Obviously, it's about masculinity... potency... boom.

That was Norman Mailer's take. I think he felt small...

Readering said...

At least bananas are much cheaper.

Joe Smith said...

This is the only country on earth where a private citizen could start a space/rocket company and actually pull it off.

NASA has been a complete joke/disaster for many years now, and Elon and Bezos, like smart capitalists, saw an opportunity and took it.

I've said it before, Musk is the kind of immigrant we're looking for...

mezzrow said...

It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

Texan99 said...

Imagine a president with a little insight into rich guys who might pour their money into projects we care about. Eek.

WisRich said...

I laughed. How can you not like the guy.

Mary Beth said...

I consider myself fairly conventionally feminine but I like things that go boom. I prefer that rockets with people riding on them not go boom, I'd rather hear a loud, roaring whooosh. "Boom" makes me think of Challenger.

Bill said...

Streets full of people, all alone
Roads full of houses, never home
Church full of singing, out of tune
Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow, never wet
Hands full of money, all in debt
Sun coming out in the middle of June
Everyone's gone to the moon

Long time ago
Life had begun
Everyone went to the sun

Cars full of motors, painted green
Mouths full of chocolate-covered cream
Arms that can only lift a spoon
Everyone's gone to the moon

Everyone's gone to the moon
Everyone's gone to the moon

Wince said...

"Rich guys like rockets, I don’t know, they like rocket, boom."

Love and Rockets, So Alive

My head is full of magic, baby
And I can't share this with you
I feel I'm on top again, baby
That's got everything to do with you

I'm alive, huh, huh, so alive
I'm alive, huh, huh so alive

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Rush was talking about masculinity today, or lack thereof in todays men.

A caller said she married an older guy because she couldn't find what she was looking for.

donald said...

I have come to love this douchebag that I fucking hated the first time I was called The Donald on the USS Ranger CV-61 in 1982.

Oso Negro said...

Best President ever.

Francisco D said...

If we send a mission to Mars during the Trump administration, Trump will be impeached because it will be alleged that he was trying to build a hotel there.

Of course, Putin is financing the hotel and White Supremacist Trumpists will be building it.

Freder, ARM, Inga, gadfly, Howard, steve uhr, Adam Schiff and the usual suspects will assert that in three ... two ... one ...

JML said...

Before it was rockets it was airplanes and ships and other early means of exploration. Will one of them toss a note in a bottle out in outer space?

Rick.T. said...

"But let me introduce you to my Rocket '88
Yes it's great, just won't wait
Everybody likes my Rocket '88"

David53 said...

If you don't own any Tesla it's not too late. Tesla is as close as I could get to SpaceX, but SpaceX is privately owned. Tesla has been very good to me.

Leland said...

NASA was definitely not a priority to Obama. Trump gives them far too much credit. KSC is a great place to launch vehicles, but Cape Canaveral is just as good and run much smoother by the USAF.

Caligula said...

NASA has been little more than a jobs program for many years now. And nothing quite exemplifies that as well as NASA's big new rocket, the "Space Launch System" rocket that's been in development since 2011, burned through over $18 billion, and has yet to launch anything.

Nor is there anything about this big new rocket that is in any real way original (other than perhaps its size). New technologies? No, it's designed to use old Space Shuttle parts. You'd at least think something made out of old junk would be cheap, but (of course) it's just the opposite. Assuming it ever actually flies. Assuming someone figures out what mission it's supposed to accomplish.

"Private space" may be corrupt in that it's dependent on government contracts; nonetheless to date it's shown more creativity than NASA has for many decades.

Is there any real reason (other than the obvious: contractor work that's been carefully spread out into politically important districts) this organization shouldn't simply be shut down and (perhaps) replaced with something dramatically smaller? And perhaps with some incentives beyond creating/preserving as many jobs as possible?

Josephbleau said...

"A casual observer might conclude that having secured long-term relationships with the government’s civil and military space programs, SpaceX no longer feels as constrained to hold down costs."

I would guess they no longer feel constrained to hold down prices, not costs. I don't believe that Elon automatically gets 40% of the volume regardless of what he charges vs other vendors.

daskol said...

Donald, that’s funny, but that was also my nickname, even through my name is not even Donald.

Roadkill711 said...

commercialization of space is the future. Government is to expensive and inefficient to make it happen. Trump understands that.

n.n said...

Life as a gender metaphor. Where the female sex perceives a penis, the male sex envisions a rocket.

gadfly said...

Air emissions arising from pulp and paper mills are of particular concern because of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, total reduced sulfur compounds (TRS), and other hazardous air pollutants released from the mills. Emissions from paper mills can produce strong odors in the communities in which they are located ...

Studies in occupational settings show that paper mill workers experience an excess of dermatitis and airway inflammation ... . Currently, there is little research ... about the potential health effects of chronic community-level exposures to air emissions from paper mills ...


Video of the nut cases in Mosinee, WI (a stinky papermill town) attending a Trump Rally without masks and refusing to observe social distancing and displaying the telltale Ritalin stare, leaves little doubt that the rotten cabbage smell, over time, has an adverse effect on the brain. A little known fact is that Donald Trump grew up in Jamaica Estates, Queens which is only 10 miles from the now defunct Paper Factory at 3706 36th Street in Long Island City's derelict industrial area. Whoda thunk that Adderall-taking Donald actually lived near a polluting mill?

Nichevo said...

This SpaceX launch had some one-time fixed costs for building the special ground facilities. (These sats have to be kept vertical.) Nothing's changed.