sfarcas

Anyone who claims the lack of joy about the 250th is a function of a rough economy was not alive in 1976. The country rocked in its 200th celebration and the economy was a FREAKING MESS. There is this Gen Z misconception that the '70s and early '80s were some sort of economic golden age of readily available, well-paying jobs, low cost housing and an all around sense of prosperity. WRONG. Google "Stagflation." Google "gas lines." Google "mortgage interest rates in the 1980s." Our economy today is a golden age by comparison, without exaggeration. Yet somehow in 1976 we could gleefully celebrate our nation's birthday without Democrats turning it into a Howard Zinn-inspired anti-history hatefest.

@travisakers Leftist destroyed the event by threatening to kill any entertainer that participated in it.

Knowing I would be alive for the 250th birthday of the United States has long excited the patriot and historian in me. Donald Trump has stolen the excitement and joy from an event that should have united Americans in celebration.

@josephepstein @leamaric They pull 6 molars before I got braces in 1978. They said I had a tiny mouth and needed to room to straighten my very crooked teeth.

As the Gen X son of a dentist, I have no clue what you are talking about. You must have gone to some horrible orthodontist if they are yanking out your teeth to do braces to fit teeth. The only teeth that I have known to get removed during those times are impacted molars. I think you kay be generalizing your experience.

90s face is a real thing, and it’s unfortunately due to horrible orthodontic practices. Ask me how I know 🌝

The E. Jean Carroll case against President Trump is one of the strangest civil cases in American history. The foundational problem is this: Carroll could not identify when the alleged incident occurred — not even the year with any precision. That should have killed the case as dead as a skunk on the road right there. Without a temporal anchor, no defendant — regardless of guilt or innocence — can mount an alibi defense. Trump, who has maintained detailed calendars and staff records for decades, was denied the most basic tool of self-defense: the ability to establish where he was. That is not a technicality. It is a due process violation at the constitutional level. Then Carroll produced the one piece of physical evidence she claimed corroborated her account — the dress she wore during the alleged incident. It was subsequently established that the dress was designed after the incident could have occurred. The sole corroborating evidence falsified her timeline. The case proceeded anyway. The resulting verdict was then weaponized in a defamation suit — where Trump was held liable for denying the allegation, while being procedurally barred from defending against it, because it was already "proven" in another court, regardless how flawed the procedure was. He was punished, in effect, for asserting his own innocence. Compounding everything: coordinated professional and physical threats so thoroughly intimidated the legal community that attorneys refused these cases regardless of available fees. When you systematically destroy a defendant's ability to retain counsel of choice, you forfeit the right to a legitimate verdict. An allegation is not evidence. Process without substance is not law. And a verdict produced under these conditions carries no legitimate authority — whatever its formal status. Not only is it the right move to investigate Carroll, but every other person involved as well. Trump is owed serious damages here, and there may be a few people who belong in prison for their roles in the case.

The unfortunate anomaly of New Glenn and the pad infrastructure raises the question: Can Falcon Heavy launch Blue Moon MK1-101 Endurance (Moon Base 1)? A 21.35-ton Blue Moon to TLI on Falcon Heavy Expendable is theoretically doable but would be one of the heaviest high-energy payloads Falcon Heavy has ever attempted. It sits right at the edge of what the vehicle can achieve. The #1 valid concern is topping off Blue Moon’s LH2/LOX in LEO, which Falcon Heavy using RP-1 simply cannot do. There is really only one option: a fully expendable Falcon Heavy (no recovery) with Blue Moon fully loaded to its max propellant of ~15 tons. Blue Moon’s wet mass is 21.35 metric tons, and a fully expendable Falcon Heavy can launch ~20-22 tons to TLI, leaving little or no margin. #2 valid concern is boil-off of Blue Moon’s propellant (LH2/LOX). LH2 should boil off more. Blue Moon MK1 needs roughly 5,500–7,000 kg (5.5–7 tons) of propellant for the lunar descent and landing phase. Adding 1,000-1,500 kg for boil-off during the 4-5 day transit and ~2,000 kg for trajectory corrections still leaves enough propellant to land the 3-ton cargo with reasonable safety margins. I don’t think boil-off would be a major issue. #3 concern is the Falcon fairing and Blue Moon’s dimensions. The legs would need to be modified to fold to fit in the fairing properly, but it is doable. In conclusion, this is the best option. If @NASAMoonBase really wants that lander on the Moon by the end of 2026, @blueorigin and @SpaceX will have to team up for one of the most powerful collaboration missions in spaceflight history. I say GO FOR LAUNCH 🚀 🇺🇸 🌕

Here's what bothers me about all the artists pulling out of The Great American State Fair. Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Milli Vanilli (who knew they were still around) and others claim that they can't play this event because it's too divisive and has caused security concerns. PLEASE, HELP ME UNDERSTAND. I can't see the people who want to attend a Freedom 250 event causing security threats. Are these threats instead coming from the people who are AGAINST this celebration? And what part of Freedom 250 is divisive? Please, be specific. I love Martina McBride. What changed that made this event no longer "non-partisan?" I'd like to know because NONE of this should be about politics. I remember the Bicentennial. Everyone got together, Republicans and Democrats, to celebrate the 200th birthday of our nation. I remember people HATED President Ford and Nixon at the time. But they still showed up to celebrate. They didn’t boycott due to the person in the Oval Office. The celebration was bigger than the president. Freedom 250 should be exactly the same. No politics. No partisanship. If that's really what it's turning into, I'd like to know exactly how. Until then, it just looks like partisanship and fear of retaliation from their own side when performers drop out.

RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) events are not unusual in the rocket world

@detroitsux You are sick. How dare you pin your father’s behavior on all boomers. My grandparents handed down every car they ever owned to their kids and grandkids for free. They were the least selfish people you ever met.

@martinamcbride I lost all respect for you. This 4th of July was celebrating ALL 50 states and ALL of America. You must made it partisan when it was only about celebrating 250 years of America.

@gadgetboy1981 @BSF42069 VAB was not hit.

@BSF42069 The VAB was hit, really?

Pad is destroyed, vehicles were lost, the NASA VAB was heavily damaged, Blues headquarters took debris, the ISS got hit by the pressure wave This is an apocalyptic spaceflight event. GAME OVER for Blue 😢

@SciGuySpace The lightening tower is gone. Do you think the launch tower can be saved or will it have to come down and rebuilt?

Early reports that one tower and the transporter erector at LC-36A were damaged beyond repair appear to be true.

@CallmeFIFTY_92 @SciGuySpace That’s a test article they used to test the transport erector.

@SciGuySpace What about the booster at the end of the ramp?

Hearing that Blue Origin’s other New Glenn first stage booster, Never Tell Me The Odds, has been damaged. It was inside the nearby HIF facility.

@Linda999141 @SciGuySpace That’s just a test article. It never had a skirt.

@SciGuySpace There's a booster outside the HIF that appears to have some skirt damage.

@AstroSurveyor @SciGuySpace No, that isn’t Never Tell Me the Odds. That’s a test article BO uses to test the transport erector arm.

@SciGuySpace From aerial photos this morning, it looks like Never Tell Me The Odds was outside the HIF facility.

@MorEdge_Insight From what I can see, only the lightening tower fell. The launch tower and water tower look intact.

Everybody’s calling the Blue Origin explosion last night a failure. They’re missing the point. New Glenn didn’t go quietly. It roared during the static fire test, lit up the Florida sky, wrecked the pad and took down the lightning tower. Nobody hurt. That’s what pushing real hardware to the edge looks like in 2026. Blue Origin’s whole mission is moving heavy industry off Earth so the planet can breathe. You don’t get there playing it safe. This was raw data at several thousand degrees. One big boom closer to making it work. The tower fell. The mission didn’t.

@Twist_404 @SciGuySpace Don’t forget how many SpaceX blew up before they got it right.

@SciGuySpace 28 billion and still no satellite in orbit. Meanwhile, space x and rocket lab have a whole track record

The implications of New Glenn’s failure are probably worse than you think. I dig in here to some of the most serious concerns. arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/…

@stilltakingnaps @SciGuySpace You clearly have no idea how many NASA blew up when they were in development phases. There were many.

@SciGuySpace btwn elon musk and jeff bezos both blowing up their rockets, maybe we just leave the rocket building to nasa

Based on a handful of sources, this is what I've been able to glean about the New Glenn failure this evening in Florida. TL;DR, it's freaking bad. arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/…

@SciGuySpace What is TL and DR?

All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.