We're going to begin with the events of the 21st century that tumble without coherence. It's one darn thing after another.
The headlines right now say “Suspect in Coachella Valley Trump assassination attempt denies accusation; Supports ex-president”— that's a headline from The Denver Post. It begins to describe something that's incoherent right now.
We're just going to leave it alone. It's the fog of politics with three weeks to go until the national election. There was an arrest, and a man was said to be carrying firearms with a counterfeit pass to a VIP sector. And there was a rally. And former President Trump was a mile or a mile and a half away. None of that is fixed. But that's the reporting we have right now.
We'll set that aside and go to the big news before this happened: Starship, a success never seen before. The launch of Super Heavy and Starship in the fifth test from Boca Chica. Starship was inserted into orbit, and Super Heavy did something that was only speculative until this moment. Super Heavy came down under command of SpaceX, fired its engines to slow it, and then settled into what is called the “chopsticks” and was recaptured on the launch pad, engine shutdown and perfectly ready to have another Starship put on top and launch again. Nobody ever tried this before.
In the meantime, Starship went on to do half an orbit and then descend under controlled descent, taking an enormous amount of heat on its underside where it has a blade of material, to redirect the heat, and then land it under controlled conditions exactly where they wanted it in the ocean. (Not on land; that's next).
It landed in the ocean, and they'd set buoys on all sides of the spot they'd picked out to land, and the buoys had cameras. So we saw Starship come down and settle into the ocean and steam sprang up. Starship sank and the engines turned off. In other words, a perfect launch.
Musk, at the Butler rally some days ago, was risk-on. He did what no rich man has to do: he committed himself to one side only. And he did it in a fashion that was energetic, enthusiastic, and clearly upsetting to half the nation or more. Certainly upsetting to half the elite who command Washington right now. And yet he did it. And then he put together the fifth test, and it's a triumph.
So what we have here is this question: does Trump have, thanks to Musk, the mandate of heaven?
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The Starship Launch