Occupy Mars

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

From Trump’s second inaugural, if Musk could write it:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on Mars, and returning him safely to the earth.”

John F. Kennedy, in an address to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, said the exact same thing, substituting the moon for Mars.

I think that this, above all, explains Elon Musk’s attraction to Trump. He wants Trump’s support in his quest for Mars. NASA has a budget of $20 billion a year, much of it duplicative of what SpaceX is doing. Some of this money is being spent unnecessarily. Musk wants that money.

Musk has a prettygood idea of the massive amount of money the mission to Mars will cost. He may become the world’s first trillionaire, but he doesn’t want to bear this burden alone. I think he hopes some of the money he and Vivek Ramaswamy will save with DOGE can be directed to the Mars program.

If all goes to plan, President Trump will see the SpaceX Starship launch from Texas today. It will be a sight Trump will never forget. This is the rocket Musk plans on sending to Mars. Perhaps it will inspire him to dedicate his administration to the glory of going to the red planet.

Re-elect Nick Begich

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

Alaska has always been dependent on the federal government, so we like our Congressional delegation to build up seniority, and power. It’s in our own self-interest. We had Representative Don Young for 49 years as a result.

His enemies had to indict and convict Ted Stevens to end his forty run as one of our Senators. It’s true that his replacement, Mark Begich, only served one term, but he was a Democrat in a Republican state.

Democrat Representative Mary Peltola’s win two years ago was a carefully engineered fluke, enabled by the vanity of former Gov. Sarah Palin, who split the Republican vote. Our new Congressman, Nick Begich, will have the great advantage of incumbency as long as he wants it.

Which brings us to Lisa Murkowski. Any advantage her seniority might give her is canceled by her behavior toward Republican Presidents. She hates Trump, it’s mutual, and her representation of the state for the next four years is a liability, not an asset. She’ll be ripe for the picking in 2028. It’s not as though she has a record of accomplishment to run on. Far from it.

Gov. Dunleavy leaves office in two years, and his plans are unknown. He may take a job in Washington, or he may head up an effort to build a gas line from the North Slope. Or he may go fishing. In my humble opinion, if he ran against Murkowski he’d beat her.

Which brings us back to Nick Begich. He should be able to stay in the House as long as wants. Running against Murkowski would be taking on an unnecessary risk. On the other hand, I’m sure Nick will never forget, or forgive, Murkowski’s last-minute endorsement of Peltola.

If Dunleavy chooses not to do it, Nick Begich would be doing not only the State of Alaska, but the entire country, a favor by retiring Lisa Murkowski.

In the meantime, congrats to Nick and his campaign team for running an outstanding campaign.

This was not a landslide

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

It’s not a landslide when the loser gets 226 electoral votes, and you lose a bunch of winnable Senate races, and have a House majority of only five seats or so. It’s not a landslide when you get 50.1% of the vote.

!964 was a landslide. Johnson won 61% of the vote. !972 was a landslide, with Nixon also getting close to 61%. !984 was a landslide, when Mondale won one state, his native Minnesota.

In all three of these cases, it was a referendum on an incumbent. It could happen in 2028, with the Republican running on the success of Trump’s presidency.

But 2024 was not a landslide.

Cuba Libre! Go, Marco, Go!

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

When Rubio was a kid, growing up in Vegas, his grandfather, a refugee from Castro, told him all about communism and Cuba. It turned young Marco into a flag waving American patriot, which he remains.

My doctor is a liberal, and a Cuban immigrant. He has family, including his mother, is still back on the island. He says he wishes the US would just invade Cuba and get rid of the communists.

There are a lot of Venezuelan refugees in Florida, and they’re like Rubio and all the Cuban Americans. They hate the leftist regime in their native country and want to see it overthrown.

I hope Marco is given a free hand in Latin America. As our Secretary of State, he can work for regime change in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

We eventually want regime change in China and Russia as well, but those are tougher nuts to crack. So let’s start with Cuba. I hear it’s a beautiful island, and a natural tour destination for Americans.

Maybe Marco’s got the right stuff to pull it off. It will be fun to watch.