Subcommittee chairman Cruz: pirates threaten the open seas, and the same is possible in space, hence need for a Space Force.
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 14, 2019
Ted Cruz argues that Space Force is necessary because… wait for it… space pirates. Leave it to Cruz to take a dumb Trump idea and make it sound even dumber. pic.twitter.com/xjjItA3EV3
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) May 15, 2019
There’s a joke to be made that Ted Cruz might possibly be a space alien in a badly-designed human suit, but seriously: even TV Tropes doesn’t take ‘Space Pirates’ seriously.
Senator Ted Cruz thinks those of us concerned about climate change are alarmist, but he’s adamant that the nation invest in protection against space pirates https://t.co/aq1VL1kHhs
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) May 15, 2019
Of course, Raphael ‘Ted’ Cruz is taking the resulting online abuse predictably:
I, for one, blame the space pirates. https://t.co/4jXiBYqT85
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) May 16, 2019
Presumably related, somehow, to Cruz’s new boogeymonsters (note Rep. Johnson’s home state):
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), chair of the House Science Committee, questions the administration’s budget amendment for NASA in a statement: “…based on the limited information provided to Congress it is impossible to judge the merits of the President’s budget amendment.”
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 15, 2019
Funding the Moon effort by raiding Pell grants will destroy bipartisan support for the space program for a generation.
Everything Trump touches dies.@TheRickWilson https://t.co/b6n76wWwqG— Robert Zubrin (@robert_zubrin) May 15, 2019
It’s like if Eisenhower first funded NASA by gutting the GI Bill.
— Chris Iannacone (@ChrisIannacone) May 15, 2019
“Education – feh! SPACE PIRATES, pew pew pew!”
Mike J
I’m all for more moon mission if they send Ted Cruz.
Sebastian
We are so fucked.
Yutsano
@Mike J: No oxygen. No freeze dried food. No radiation protection.
Yes I’m going to be bitter as fuck about Beto not beating him. But let the idiots in Texas enjoy their embarrassment from the Canadian carpetbagger.
joel hanes
No longer even rise to the level of “irritable impulses”.
This is just random.
Mart
Yeah, fisherman skiffs armed with desperate men with AK-47’s – orbital intercept missiles – pretty much the same thing. I am starting to get Ted Cruze. Visionary!
MagdaInBlack
Oh. Dear. Lord.
I am in awe. ?
Steeplejack
Just watched an interesting documentary about Annie Oakley on PBS’s American Experience. Check your local listings. Recommended.
SiubhanDuinne
I had seen references to that … thing … on Rafael’s face, but until watching the video clip just now I hadn’t actually seen it. And now I am yearning for my lost innocence.
Ruckus
@Yutsano:
The idiots are enjoying Tad Cruz, but then they are idiots.
NotMax
Captain Harlock!
Also too, threats from space herpes and kung fu robots!
:)
Steeplejack
I have no idea why Disney XD has Phineas and Ferb on in the middle of the night, but it’s awfully seductive. Especially this one-hour crossover with the Marvel universe. Doofenshmirtz and the Red Skull? Nick Fury and Perry the platypus? WTF.
The superheroes’ powers get swapped.
All kids’ shows should be this good.
Sebastian
@Steeplejack:
I remember that. It’s pretty good but cheesy in a Ph&F way.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Kiddies need something to unwind with after a double shift in the coal mine.
/Trumpworld
Duane
@Sebastian: As bad as it is imagine if the House was republican. Couldn’t stop the evil stupidity .
Steve in the ATL
@Duane: they did two years of incalculable dommage (Lol) when they held all three branches. We really, really need the senate though.
NotMax
@NotMax
Also too, Disney After Dark still in the pre-approval pitch stage.
:)
Steeplejack
@Sebastian:
I like Phineas and Ferb in general. Waiting for the niece and nephew to catch up. They’re still at Bubble Guppies and Paw Patrol.
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax: princess jasmine is going to be a huge hit!
?BillinGlendaleCA
In the strange file…the local mountains have snow predicted for tomorrow night.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Blue’s Clues? The Wiggles?
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Musical back-up provided by The Haremettes.
;)
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Nope. Masha and the Bear. That’s good too.
Wayne Marks
Ummm…. why would the Senator from Texas, which includes, you know Houston, be against a space program?
Houston, we have a problem.
Sebastian
@Duane:
I don’t know. We might be looking at widespread unrest.
One thing that always keeps me going is the knowledge that they cannot win because in order for them to win NY and CA would have to capitulate.
Jay
@Wayne Marks:
He’s pro-Space Force because of Space Pirates.
And a moron.
He can’t hold the idea of NASA, Huston, Space in his head at the same time as Space Farce, Space Pirates and rimming Needy Amin.
Jay
@Duane:
@Steve in the ATL:
@Sebastian:
They had the House under Needy Amin, for two years and pretty much only got Tax Cuts for Billionaires and Corporations, with some minor ACA fuckery.
“Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress compiled a substantial record of policy accomplishment—the economic stimulus, bringing the financial system back from the brink of collapse, rescuing two automakers, universal health care, sweeping reform of financial regulation, and major changes in student loan programs, among many others. ”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/research/president-barack-obamas-first-two-years-policy-accomplishments-political-difficulties/amp/
JoyceH
I saw Ted Cruz explaining that we need the Space Force to protect “space commerce” (which doesn’t exist) from “space pirates” (which also doesn’t exist) – and I tried to come up with an instance where a government created a program to deal with a problem that didn’t exist yet. I came up dry. Can anyone think of an example?
Jay
@JoyceH:
Eisenhower built the Interstate System before there were large amounts of interstate traffic, private or commercial.
Kevin Cosner built a baseball field before there were ghost baseball players.
joel hanes
Ted’s seen the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DozyN4OpuYA
NotMax
@JoyceH
Japanese internment.
Swine flu scare.
Just two (of obviously disproportional gravity) off the top o’ the noggin.
Sebastian
@Jay:
True and those two years were filled with activism and marches and protest. That’s all gone now. All we do is sit and watch.
Plato
The entire party has become a group of gutless cowards dancing to the dunce’s stupid tunes.
M. Bouffant
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ‘Tain’t strange, it’s climate change.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Quite a few folk at the time thought that the Japanese internment addressed a problem.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Which mountains? I have photos of our cabin with snow in May a few years ago so it does happen.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
The challenge posed was for an example of “a government created a program to deal with a problem that didn’t exist yet.” Belief or lack of same, whether merited or not, was not a stipulation
Citizen_X
@JoyceH: The War on Drugs?
Ken
@Mart:
In the “eating funny mushrooms” sense, maybe.
SFAW
I think y’all are missing the big picture: with the new big interest in Space
GhostForce, that makes it that much more likely that Firefly will be back.Of course, with Wash dead (sorry for the spoiler) and Ron Glass having passed on, it will probably suck.
Space Pirates. JHC, what a fucking moron.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Is that the Tinkerbell Stratagem?
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, it did. In much the same way that voter suppression laws address a problem.
Don
“Mark Watney, Space Pirate!” Too late, Raphael.
H.E.Wolf
@Sebastian:
I’m late and this thread is extinct. However: when someone says that, 99% of the time they’re (a) male, (b) ignoring what women are doing, and (c) doing squat, themselves.
RL
https://youtu.be/-uf5WeZOvcI
RepubAnon
@NotMax: Who knew anime was reality-based?
Bill Arnold
Senator Cruz might be worried that those “space pirates” are high-tech environmentalists, and that they oppose fossil fuel interests.
J R in WV
@Wayne Marks:
You misunderstand, Senator Rafael is wholly in favor of a Space Force, literally in case of Space Pirates.
Yet he is completely opposed to doing anything about Global Climate Change, which he claims is a fiction, a hoax being drummed up by lieberals to… something, something… bla, bla…