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TO THE MOON!….Bloomberg reports that the space race may be heating back up. Only the players have changed:

President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.

….The potential change comes as Pentagon concerns are rising over China’s space ambitions because of what is perceived as an eventual threat to U.S. defense satellites, the lofty battlefield eyes of the military.

I’m not sure which is worse: that this suggests Obama is buying into an arms race with China, or that Obama is buying into the zillion-dollar manned moon landing boondoggle. If this report is true, I guess the only question left is which strained excuse he’ll use for continuing the moon program. Helium-3 mining? Staging site for mission to Mars? The Chinese will throw rocks at us if we let them colonize the place? Or will he use the excuse du jour: it’s great stimulus for our broken economy? Feh.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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