Yes, because the camera focuses on the smudge.

Yes, because the camera focuses on the smudge.

The cost of supplying food is going to push colony owners to make the colonies self sufficient with food.

We have Arctic and Polynesian parts of the world imported food prices are already insanely expensive. When you Antarctica like research bases, the food cost gets borne by government entities because the cost is even higher due to shipping. Now, add a zero or two to the shipping cost to get food to the Moon.

So, once a Moon base gets to the size of a McMurdo station, someone is likely going to figure it will be cheaper to build the ability to grow food on the Moon rather than ship everything from Earth.

It doesn’t even have to be a complete meal at first. The Moon could start with basic starches like potatoes and rice to supplement dehydrated meat and vegetables. Over time, more crops get added and some protein like shrimp and chicken are able to be grown on the Moon. You might not get a steak, but it could be enough to make some colonies mostly self sufficient.

Most of the colonization of the Americas was mercantilist in origin. The initial discovery was started as a way to find a trade route to China and many colonization efforts were more about resource extraction than anything else; it took a century before colonies started popping up focused on religious freedom.

As for the comparison to Antarctica, there was an intentional pause put on colonization as it became apparent that colonization was finally within humanity’s technological grasp and there were possible mineral rights that would make colonization worth it.

Colonization will likely be slow, but I expect that economic uses for the Moon will be found.

Virginia was a colony for over 150 years before declaring independence. A century and a half may be long enough to build out an agricultural base.

The Moon also has some benefits to colonization, including an easier place to launch spaceships beyond Earth.

It is a lot easier to fling a rock from the Moon to Earth than to fling a rock from Earth to the Moon.

Looking at the USA, it would be far more likely that American lunar colonies would be given a path to statehood long before independence came up. The USA already has two states not on the American mainland. The only colony rejected from being integrated was the Philippines and that was because Americans didn’t want to integrate such a large non-white population into the country. I don’t think a lunar colony colonized by Americans would have that issue.

Looking at China, I don’t know. China would likely attempt a similar process of integration, maybe to the point where senior political leaders have a stint running a bureaucracy on a lunar colony.

As to whether the Moon would unify its colonies as they kick out Earth colonizers, likely not. The independence wave in the Americas never united across across colonizing powers. The only way that there would be a united Moon is if one nation conquered the Moon and lost it or post colonization wars saw a post-colonization country conquer the Moon; this would likely not happen given the Moon’s strategic importance to Earth. Earth could accept an independent Mars; Earth could never accept an independent and unified Moon.

I liked AWOL Nations’ cover of Beds are Burning.

How do you feel about ska?

Save Ferris - Come on Eileen

The Interrupters - Bad Guy

No Doubt - It’s My Life

Brazil? It depends how the next election will turn out.

The White Christian Nationalists are hoping to start the end times.

I agree.

Not everyone knows what you know and it sounds like you’re judging them based on the assumption that they do.

They might not be lying.

Yeah. It is possible that, in Scenario 1, the bosses were just incompetent. It is possible that either no one in the room knew the problems OP is having or they were people low in seniority who were afraid to speak up.

Border defense for the USA would be increasing the number of customs agents along the Mexican border by a significant number. The USA has never had a Russia like threat in its border who could invade at any time.

The National Guard mainly handles civil defense now, but there were more civilian oriented groups during World War II and the early Cold War. It is mainly volunteer and acts as dual use to support the US Army in times of war. I got my first COVID vaccinations at a National Guard run facility.

To answer your question of if mandatory civil service would help the USA, you would first need to build the institutions needed to use the manpower. There really isn’t a use case on the civil side that could use millions of young people who may not have the drive or the knowledge base to do more than basic grunt work.

It is a lot harder to understand where people are coming from regarding the Internet. Part of that includes people not reading and processing the whole text as written.

No

Typing of the Dammed?

Yes.

I think that, along with it, no one really loved Nickelback. They came in at the right time with the right sound which was ok to listeners. When they started getting overplayed, there wasn’t a major fan base who still wanted to keep listening.