Space Forum / Shuttle / October 2007

For the record, that has never stopped anyone from trying to sue in
the past.  I'm sure that the agreement for space travel has that
language, but for some reason folks over here seem to think that kind
of legalese is unenforceable.  And it's probably because people get
paid when they sue...

--
lab~rat  >:-)
Stupid humans...

In the 20th century money became more important than people.  In the
21st century money will become more important than the laws that are
passed by elected officials, who owe money for their campaigns to
major corporations.  Thus big money will put itself in a position of
total authority.

The trade agreements that are signed between nations have small print
that replace the laws of nations with decisions by international
councils in the interest of trade.  This is a continuing process and
puts major corporations into a position where they don't have to
follow the laws of any country or pay money from lawsuits to
individuals even when lawsuits are brought prosecuted and won.
Transfer pricing and transferring products from one nation to another
through tax-havens, allow major corporations to avoid taxes.

This has been used mostly by US firms against supplier nations, but
the process is ongoing and will ultimately put all major global firms
in absolute control of world affairs.

On September 11, 1973 the democratically elected President of Chile
was killed by people hired by the CIA because he promised to raise the
salaries of copper miners to a level equal to half that of the US
copper miners. A right wing puppet government was installed by the
United States after the killing.  The torture and murder of so many
Chilean people that followed was shameful to the world.  But most
Americans who never saw the story accurately reported in the US on our
television networks, controlled by the corporations who instituted the
killing in the first place, are unaware of this and US culpability.

Over the past 20 years, following our military's failure in Vietnam,
which was largely blamed on the media by military planners, there has
been a concerted effort to change the nature of news reporting in
America to bring it under tighter control of the corporations beyond
that in 1973.  And this effort has succeeded in undermining any
critical analysis and often any critical knowledge of what is going on
in the world, totally making the stage managed elections an exercise
in public entertainment - with the outcome known well in advance, sort
of like wrestlemania.

The experts are in charge, and they listen primarily to the experts
within corporations.  The idea that ordinary untutored citizens could
contribute meaningfully to this process is laughable in their view.
The only protection offered the average citizen is that afforded by
'tradition' - tradition that is redefined and eroded with each passing
generation.

In this environment there is always introduced new scientific and
technical information and capabilities.

Rockets are a simpler version of jet engines.  But because rockets can
orbit the Earth, they can be used to project weapons from any point on
the Earth to any other in a matter of minutes.  So, rockets, naturally
are important strategic weapons.  So, missile proliferation is a
legitimate government issue.  Prohibting and controlling that
proliferation of rocket technology is one of the things the US
government is committed to.  Another is prohibiting and controlling
the proliferation of nuclear technology.  This means that rockets and
especially nuclear rockets are infeasible for anyone to develop.
Anyone, anywhere become targets.  Because an effective rocket of this
type destroys US nuclear and military hegemony.

Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara decided in December 1963 to end
serious nuclear rocket programs, also to end the cooperation between
the nuclear weapons labs and civilian space labs, and to end serious
development of any launchers larger than that and more capable than
that needed to get to the moon, and once the moon landing was assured,
funding for NASA was dramatically cut.

This was all done for very important national security reasons.  To
control missile proliferation, and also for political reasons.  In the
1960s there was an air of unlimited potential and possibility for the
world. Kennedy's vision of the US being first among equals, of
converting the cold war to a space race - the same way that Europe
avoided wars for centuries by competing on the oceans and in foreign
lands - we could compete against one another in the development of the
solar system.  And the US would curtail intelligence operations and
replace them with operations like the Peace Corps to build trust and
understanding, and address the issues of disparity of income around
the world.  This stood in stark contrast to the then secret commitment
by the US to maintain and exacerbate disparities of income for the
sole purpose of maintaining military and economic dominance.

So, Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin in Dallas in November 1963,
and his plans for space and a peaceful coexistence on Earth were
undone by December 1963 by LBJ and McNamara.

In today's environment, where the elected President of the US in 2000
receives a Nobel Prize for his work to help the world against
corporate excesses, while the son of a former CIA director usurps
power from the true winner and leads the country from one disaster to
another - it is not an environment where anyone who does not follow
the corporate party line will have true power in the world.