DDubs

It’s no secret that we intend to launch Starship a lot, targeting thousands of flights per year. That cadence will require the ability to launch from many different locations, so we are constantly exploring to find viable sites to expand Starship operations in the future, both domestically and internationally

The Guardian piece is worth reading carefully because the evidentiary structure it documents is specific. Alito's majority opinion gutting the VRA rested on a particular factual claim: Black voter turnout exceeded white voter turnout in two of the last five presidential elections, both nationally and in Louisiana. That claim was copied almost verbatim from a DOJ amicus brief. The DOJ calculated turnout as a proportion of total voting age population - which includes non-citizens, people with felony convictions, and others who cannot legally vote. The widely accepted methodology uses citizen voting age population, which excludes ineligible voters. Using that method, The Guardian found Black turnout in Louisiana exceeded white turnout in only one of the last five elections - not two. Using Louisiana's own secretary of state data, Black turnout has not exceeded white turnout in any of the last five elections. The DOJ was asked why it used the inferior methodology. It acknowledged using total VAP. It did not answer the question about why. Michael McDonald, one of the nation's leading voter turnout experts: "If I wanted to manipulate the numbers in a way that was favorable to the government's interest, I would be using voting age population." He added: "Someone knew what they were doing." The racial turnout gap has "exploded" over the last 15 years. The 2013 Shelby County ruling directly increased that gap. The Court's prior decision suppressed Black voter turnout. The new ruling cited the resulting lower turnout as evidence protection was no longer needed.

The real systemic racism today isn’t about White people holding Black people down. It’s a self-sustaining system inside Black communities that’s actually run by Black leaders. It works like this: Black neighborhoods get packed into heavily Democratic districts through gerrymandering, creating guaranteed voting blocs. The political machine then needs those votes to stay in power. To keep getting them, they promote a narrative that racism is everywhere and White people are the real enemy. The more you push this message, the higher you rise in the status hierarchy. In this culture, your status goes up the more loudly you complain about racism, Republicans, and systemic oppression. The loudest victims and professional activists sit at the top. They get book deals, TV appearances, speaking fees, and power. The school teachers, pastors, and influencers who enforce this narrative are next. They get respect and influence by attacking anyone who steps out of line — especially Black conservatives. Regular Black folks who just want to work, raise their kids, and live normal lives get very little status in this system. Success through personal responsibility actually threatens the narrative, so it’s quietly discouraged. It’s self-bondage. Black people have the freedom to vote differently but rarely do, because their entire social hierarchy is built on staying in the grievance game. The worse conditions get in their communities, the more it proves the narrative that they need more help and more Democratic policies. It’s a perfect system. The crop — the votes — gets harvested every election because the people running it have convinced everyone the chains are actually protection. And the people enforcing it most aggressively aren’t White racists. They’re Black leaders who’ve built their entire identity and income around keeping their own people emotionally enslaved to this story.