Elon Musk

@elonmusk
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Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.

Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and… Show more
8:14 PM · Jan 16, 2025 //

Elon Musk @elonmusk
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It’s harder than it looks

Ryan Saavedra @RealSaavedra
CIA Director Nominee John Ratcliffe yesterday: “There's only one country in the world that can parallel park a 200-foot rocket booster. The Chinese can't do it. The Russians can't do it. We do it.”
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2:05 AM · Jan 17, 2025

Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan and Deputy Archivist William J. Bosanko released the following statement today on the Equal Rights Amendment and the constitutional responsibilities for administering the ratification process:

“As Archivist and Deputy Archivist of the United States, it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the constitutional amendment process and ensure that changes to the Constitution are carried out in accordance with the law. At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.

“In 2020 and again in 2022, the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable. The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts. Court decisions at both the District and Circuit levels have affirmed that the ratification deadlines established by Congress for the ERA are valid. Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As the leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework in which we operate.

“The role of the Archivist of the United States is to follow the law as it stands, ensuring the integrity of our nation’s governing institutions. Personal opinion or beliefs are not relevant; as the leaders of the National Archives, we support established legal processes and decisions.

On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.

It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex. //

Note the date of the Virginia's ratification: January 27, 2020. The original Congressional resolution that sent the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification included a ratification deadline of seven years. The original deadline was March 1979. There was an extension, passed by a simple majority — not the two-thirds majority required for constitutional amendments — and signed by President Carter.

However, the president has no role in the passage and ratification of constitutional amendments, as the Supreme Court decided back in 1798. //

Even the interns running the White House social media accounts and press releases have to understand that this "affirmation" means less than nothing. The Equal Rights Amendment has not been ratified. It is not the law of the land. It remains as it was: a failed effort to amend the Constitution. Again, the President of the United States has no role in amending the Constitution. It is, as MacBeth said, "...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." //

The President of the United States has no authority to make any such decree, and Joe Biden can "affirm" this until his eyes fall out and it means a grand total of nothing. This administration is leaving as it lived: with no knowledge of the Constitution and how this republic is supposed to work, and only a tenuous connection with reality. //

mdavt
2 hours ago
Hasn't the Archivist stated she will not abide by any such order?

RedPanda mdavt
an hour ago
Yep!

https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2025/nr25-004

These two women are a symptom of a disease being suffered by so many people in our society. They are faceless participants in this degeneracy and the driving force behind this normalization of extremism. //

According to E! News, Phillips said her earnings are "in the millions" after her 100-man stunt. Billinger says she earns roughly $750,000 a month on her OF account.

That means there are thousands and thousands of people, most of them men, giving up their money to subscribe and watch these women debase themselves in these extreme ways. As sick as Billinger and Phillips are, these subscribers are pushing this to happen. Every new sign-up is an encouragement. //

With face-to-face interaction taken out of the equation, we have become something other than people. Phillips and Billinger aren't two women with emotions, personalities, and humanity, they're entertainment.

In the same way the slaves and prisoners were in the Colosseum, watching them be destroyed in real time isn't registering due to the mental detachment. What we're watching in front of us is grotesque and horrible, yet it's so normalized for too many because the internet has allowed us to view this kind of thing for years without having to put ourselves anywhere near it. We can be a faceless observer from the safety of our homes who, upon getting what we want out of it, can click away and not have to worry about any of the consequences afterward. //

But if I'm being honest, I'm not entirely sure how this gets better altogether. If Phillips and Billinger were to suddenly realize the error of their ways, find God, and become the most vocal anti-porn advocates you've ever heard of, then there would be two more women to take their place. If you were to take down the OnlyFans platform, others would rise up.

I don't know how to fight this, and fear this is going to be a problem that either gets better after it gets severely worse, or Christ returns.

In the meantime, the only thing we can do is guard ourselves against it by making sure people understand how damaging this stuff is, not just to view but to take part in.

In his view, it will be the aftermath when people want to quickly rebuild and come face to face with California’s progressive bureaucracy that will red-pill thousands of Democrats. //

One of the podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis is the Versus Media Podcast by Stephen L. Miller, who you may know as @redsteeze on Twitter/X. In a recent episode, Miller suggested that the reason the media is working overtime to deflect blame for the fires is because they know that if California goes red, Democrats will never win another presidential election.

Don’t think it couldn’t happen. Florida, Iowa, and Ohio are solidly red states now but were considered swing states just a decade ago.

As a nation founded on the revolutionary truth that “all men are created equal” with rights that come not from man but from God, we will never be indifferent to the suffering of our fellow man. But ultimately, under President Trump, the top priority of the United States Department of State must be and will be the United States. The direction he has given for the conduct of our foreign policy is clear. Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:

• Does it make America safer?

• Does it make America stronger?

• Does it make America more prosperous?

Under President Trump, the dollars of hardworking American taxpayers will always be spent wisely and our power will always be yielded prudently, and toward what is best for America and Americans above all else. //

Rubio struck a very serious tone as he discussed the foreign policy priorities of Donald Trump, and competently answered all of the questions from the panel. Rubio's answer to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) showed what the power structure will be like in the new administration:

"The foreign policy of the United States will be set by the president, and my job will be to advise and execute."

But one of the most interesting exchanges was with new Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), who was able to unseat Jon Tester in Big Sky Country, and he was impressive in his questioning of Hegseth. It was hilarious, but it also got to the most important quality that a SecDef needs to have.

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
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SENATOR TIM SHEEHY: How many genders are there?

HEGSETH: Two.

SHEEHY: I know that well, I'm a "she-he (Sheehy)." What is the diameter of a rifle round fired out of an M4A1?

HEGSETH: 5.56.

SHEEHY: How many pushups can you do?

HEGSETH: I did 5 sets of 47 this morning.

SHEEHY: Most important strategic base is in the Pacific?

HEGSETH: Guam.

SHEEHY: How many rounds of 5.56 can you fit into the magazine of an M4 rifle?

HEGSETH: Standard issue is 30.

SHEEHY: What size round is the M9 Beretta standard issue sidearm for the military?

HEGSETH: 9mm.

SHEEHY: What kind of batteries do you put in your night vision goggle?

HEGSETH: Duracell.

SHEEHY: You represent what warfighters deal with every day on the battlefield. You understand them. What happens is - decisions made in rooms like this cause d*ad 17, 18, 19-year-old Americans. Your priority is warfighters. I support you.

Bondi is a terrifying woman if you're a Democrat, and just how scared of her Democrats are more than came through in their questioning of her. They would hardly ever let her speak. When she started giving answers they didn't like, or when she'd checkmate them, they'd either talk over her or immediately move on.

You only do that when you have an unmitigated contempt for the person you're engaging with, and I'm pretty sure that this contempt stems from their fear of Bondi. They are terrified that she will do to them what they did to Trump, to Republicans, and to us.

Their strategy isn't necessarily to stop her confirmation — which is more than likely going to happen — it's to set up narratives that make Bondi seem like she's abusing her position in order to weaponize the justice system against Democrats. Yes, this is exactly what the Democrats did during Biden's administration, but they're still hoping they can sell this narrative in an age where the legacy media has lost a great deal of its power.

If they can get social media clips circulating of them warning Bondi against doing such a thing, and admonishing her for Trump even thinking about doing it, then when a Democrat is inevitably caught up in something they can appear on networks with a "see, I told you she was corrupt" and a "Trump is everything we warned everyone about" for good measure. //

So if they did nothing wrong, then Democrat politicians have nothing to worry about. She will maintain the honor of her position... but if you did break the law, then don't be surprised to have a one on one meeting with justice as arranged by Pam Bondi. //

LDRider
12 hours ago
Bondi. Pam Bondi.

Southern California has been ravaged by wildfires, which have destroyed the communities of Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu. So, Newsom needs the Trump administration's goodwill (and recovery dollars) and is now changing his tune.

Thomas Catenacci @ThomasCatenacci
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NEW: California is withdrawing a request for the Biden admin to approve its EV truck mandate. Under the rules, a large share of truck sales in CA and other states would have been forced to be electric by 2035. Less than 1% of truck sales are EVs.

A major setback for activists.
6:47 PM · Jan 14, 2025. //

Newsom is fighting to save his political career and keep control of power. This move makes it clear he is not succeeding. His hand-selected CARB agency is simply doing his bidding. Along with the terrible optics of Newsom standing in front of burning buildings and practically dancing with glee, Californians are rejecting the whole climate change schtick the Democrats love to trot out when their save-the-environment policies do exactly the opposite. Many recognize that any environmental gains that might have been produced through these EV mandates have gone up in smoke. //

polyjunkie
4 hours ago
Well. Gonna be interesting when Congress requires that the reservoirs and power line maintenance ALREADY APPROVED by CA voters be built or no rebuilding money. Someone once said, “Never let a crisis go to waste”….😳😊

In case you aren't acquainted with the details, Ratcliffe is nailing Rep. Adam Schiff in the above excerpt. He was the "chairman of the intelligence committee" that went on various news programs to lie to the American people and claim that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian information operation. That ultimately led to Schiff being censured and prevented from rejoining the committee after Republicans won the House of Representatives in 2022.

Ratcliffe, who was DNI during Trump's first term, was the only major intelligence official to come out and tell the truth about the laptop. He did so under a barrage of attacks from the press claiming he was misleading the public to protect the soon-to-be second-term president. In the end, he was vindicated while people like Schiff never apologized for the falsehoods they pushed. That is exactly why Ratcliffe is the right man to lead the CIA. That organization has been politicized and weaponized against Americans for far too long. The time to bring everyone back in line is now, and those who don't want that can "find a new line of work."

With the wildfires in the Los Angeles area still raging, a new exclusive report from the UK's Daily Mail's Perkin Amalaraj reveals that the Los Angeles Fire Department has, for some time, been literally begging the city council for funding to replace aging equipment and hire new maintenance staff. Those pleas went unanswered, and now we see the results. //

Here's the part I find baffling: My son-in-law, a paramedic and volunteer firefighter for a small Iowa county of about 12,000 people — the kid is basically Captain America — reports that his little, mostly rural county has just funded the purchase of replacements for one of their three modern fire trucks and all three of their ambulances. Between the county seat's town council and the county, he assures me that the emergency services departments are a high priority and get what they need.

Would that Los Angeles had their priorities so properly in order.

As I’ve said to many of you in our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was—to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s it. That is my job. //

My only special interest is—the warfighter. Deterring wars, and if called upon, winning wars—by ensuring our warriors never enter a fair fight. We let them win and then bring them home. Like many of my generation, I’ve been there. //

The desperation of the left was evident in the fact that no one addressed policy or strategic questions with all of them choosing to direct personal attacks on Hegseth's character. //

It is difficult to get away from the feeling that the Democrats knew they had nothing to stop him, so they resorted to smearing him as much as possible before he takes office.

Hegseth came across weakest on the complaint that he'd refused to engage in one-on-one meetings with any of the Democrats other than the ranking member. His reason for doing so was obvious. The substance of any conversation would be lied about or distorted, and the conversation would give the Democrats a chance to test how he would respond to questions. Hegseth unconvincingly passed this off as "scheduling conflicts" because you can't very well try to come across as bipartisan while revealing that you don't trust the Democrats. //

In terms of optics, Hegseth was polite, responsive, and telegenic. He was able to successfully filibuster during some particularly nasty personal attacks and not look flustered or angry. In terms of intelligence, he may very well have been one of the two or three smartest guys in the room.

On any given day, SpaceX is probably launching a Falcon 9 rocket, rolling one out to the launch pad or bringing one back into port. With three active Falcon 9 launch pads and an increasing cadence at the Starbase facility in Texas, SpaceX's teams are often doing all three.

The company achieved another milestone Friday with the 25th successful launch and landing of a single Falcon 9 booster. This rocket, designated B1067, launched a batch of 21 Starlink Internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. //

But SpaceX's accomplishment of 25 flights offers an opportunity to step back and take in some context. The newest and final iteration of the Falcon 9 design, known as Block 5, debuted in 2018. At the time, SpaceX officials said they planned to fly each booster 10 times before standing down for more thorough refurbishment.

SpaceX now plans to launch each Falcon 9 booster up to 40 times. Engineers temporarily removed two Falcon 9 boosters from SpaceX's launch rotation in 2023 for in-depth inspections after their 15th flight. That allowed SpaceX to extend each booster's certification to 20 flights, and last year, officials announced they were going for 40. //

SpaceX is also recovering and reusing payload fairings, the shell that encloses satellite payloads during their initial climb through the atmosphere. Last month, the company confirmed it flew a fairing shell for the 22nd time, another new record. SpaceX's factory in Hawthorne, California, must also churn out new upper stages for each Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flight. That's 135 of these multimillion-dollar stages for each Falcon mission in the last 365 days, or one flight (and one new upper stage) every 2.7 days. //

Imagine, for a moment, the sprawling footprint and bloated headcount of SpaceX's factory if it had to manufacture a new Falcon 9 booster, nine engines, and a payload fairing set every 2.7 days. How cost-effective could that be? Would it even be possible? It's mind-boggling enough to visualize the blistering production pace for Falcon 9's upper stages in Hawthorne or SpaceX's Starlink satellites in Redmond, Washington. //

Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, has suggested that his company must produce 100 or more Starships per year to fulfill his Mars settlement ambitions, even with full reusability. //

While SpaceX's competency with reusing Falcon 9 boosters gets a lot of attention—landing a rocket is still incredible, even after seeing it nearly 400 times—its manufacturing prowess with Falcon 9 upper stages suggests that building 100 Starships each year just might be doable someday.

astro_pettit
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4d ago
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Comet C2024-G3 taken on GMT010/12:12. It is getting really bright as it moves towards perihelion. Most definitely eye visible. Being a handful of degrees from the sun, the zodiacal light is bright enough to interfere.

Nikon Z9, Nikon 50mm f1.2 lens, 1/5th second, f1.2, ISO 3200, adjusted Photoshop, denoise, levels, gamma, EV, color.

astro_pettit
•
2d ago
Top 1% Poster

Single photo with: Milkyway, Zodical light, Starlink satellites as streaks, stars as points, atmosphere on edge showing OH emission as burned umber (my favorite Crayon color), faint red upper f-region, soon to rise sun, and cities at night as streaks lit by the nearly full moon.  Taken this morning from Dragon Crew 9 vehicle port window.

Nikon Z9, Sigma 14mm f1.4 lens, 15 seconds, f1.4, ISO 3200, adjusted Photoshop, levels, contrast, gamma, color, with homemade orbital sidereal drive to compensate for orbital pitch rate (4 degrees/sec). //

astro_pettit
OP
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3h ago
Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Poster Top 1% Poster

Black/white/colored specs are from cosmic ray damaged pixels. Unfortunately, there is a firmware bug in Z9 pixel map (Nikon is aware of and is fixing w next upgrade) that prevents it from working after a large number of damaged pixels occurs; pixel map worked for a few weeks on orbit and then quit with an error so now we can not use that feature. I am taking many dark frames and will fix my images after I return to Earth.

But this one woman has men figured out down to their core.

As TikTok user "Brennatalkstoomuch" says in her video, women need to understand that men love "quests." What does she mean by that? She explains that this might not apply to all men, but all the men she wants in her life love quests.

She notes, however, that men hate "puzzles," and she explains what she means.

"Most men don't want you to be coy, and confusing, and elusive," she says. "They want you to have very clear quests that you tell them 'this is exactly what I want, I want you to do this, and I will be happy when you do it.'" //

Brenna compared it to a video game, saying that she could offer him a hot cup of coffee the moment he gets in from the job, as this will trigger the reward centers in men's brains. He completes a quest, and she gives him resources for his trouble. "He's leveled up" Brenna says, "he's winning now!"

Brenna notes that when a man loves a woman, nothing makes him happier than making her happier by accomplishing quests.

She adds that women tend to minimize themselves in this regard out of a fear of being an inconvenience, but notes this isn't how men's brains work. It's not an inconvenience to make our women happy through completing tasks and requests. All a woman has to do in return is be appreciative and express thankfulness.

Her final tip to ladies is "don't say sorry," say "thank you." In other words, women tend to be apologetic for their belief they're being an inconvenience or complication, when in reality they're the reason he wants to quest in the first place.

https://x.com/TheBrandonMorse/status/1878829034727190691

Hegseth's focus on cultural battles will distract Defense from its mission.

Nations come back from lost wars and economic disasters. They don't come back from cultural collapse. I would contend that the primary challenge facing the US military is that the military ethos and warrior spirit needed to prevail in combat is being eroded at a staggering rate. Unless Hegseth can stop that and get back to first things, nothing else matters. //

Expect fireworks, but in the end, expect Pete Hegseth to do what needs to be done to get a majority vote from the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Vaultwarden is an unofficial Bitwarden server implementation written in Rust. It is compatible with the official Bitwarden clients, and is ideal for self-hosted deployments where running the official resource-heavy service is undesirable.

Vaultwarden is targeted towards individuals, families, and smaller organizations. Development of features that are mainly useful to larger organizations (e.g., single sign-on, directory syncing, etc.) is not a priority, though high-quality PRs that implement such features would be welcome.

There have been several audits done on Vaultwarden of which some are publicly available, read more about it on our Vaultwarden Audits wiki page.

Supported features

A revolutionary current clamp engineered for powerful performance and unmatched portability.

Pokit Innovations

There is much to be said for the new administration’s plan to have a nongovernmental organization investigate how well, or how badly, government agencies are currently handling the taxpayers’ money. But there is a limit to how much money can be recovered by simply cutting back on “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal spending.

There are, however, additional billions of dollars that could be tapped, from a source that not many people think about. That is the vast—almost unbelievable—amount of land owned by the federal government. Some of that land—such as military bases—is used to house the government’s own operations. But the great majority of that land is not.

The rest of this government-owned land is so vast that there is little to compare it with—except whole countries. And not small countries like Belgium or Portugal. The amount of land owned by the National Park Service alone is larger than Italy. The land owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service is larger than Germany. The land owned by the Forest Service is larger than Britain and Spain combined. The land owned by the Bureau of Land Management is larger than Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the Philippines combined.

The idea of selling huge amounts of government-owned land is not new. Before the federal income tax was created in the early 20th century, land sales were sometimes a significant source of federal government income in the preceding two centuries. The prospect of large-scale land sales was considered during the Reagan administration, but the political opposition was too strong.

As of 2015, government-owned lands were valued at $1.8 trillion by the Commerce Department. This is the kind of money that can make a real contribution to the government’s fiscal balance, at a time when so many government operations are urgently in need of support.

As for the current value of these lands to the government, that value is largely negative. The money that these lands bring in is often only a fraction of what it costs the government to take care of them. Wildfires on land managed by the federal government have been about five times the size of wildfires on “non-federal lands,” according to a 2022 study by the Congressional Budget Office.

Land transferred from federal ownership to the market economy can also contribute to more affordable housing. When the same kind of house costs several times more in one part of the country than elsewhere, it is often because the cost of the land is higher rather than because the house costs more to build. That in turn is often because the land is either more scarce or because of laws restricting the building of anything on that land. But, where more land is available to build on, the same kind of house can cost a fraction of what it costs elsewhere.

The federal government owns a little more than one-fourth of the total land area of the United States. The time is long overdue to consider whether that is the best economic arrangement. And reconsideration is especially needed at a time of urgent fiscal problems.