Daily Archives: September 6, 2021

Space Is Hard, but These 3 Space Stocks Can Reach Orbit – The Motley Fool

Posted: September 6, 2021 at 3:11 pm

Shareholders ofAstra Space (NASDAQ:ASTR) got a reminder last week that space is hard.

The company, which went public earlier this year via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, orSPAC, saw a test launch of its new rocket fall short of expectations after one of the five main engines powering the rocket failed. The stock fell more than 20% on the first day of trading after the incident.

Space has been a hot sector among investors, thanks in part to analyst estimates that it could represent a $1 trillion opportunity by 2040. But as Astra's experience shows, few rocket companies go straight up. There are substantial risks that come with space operations, and it is possible that not all of the public companies dabbling in space today will reach their destination.

For investors willing to brave the unknown and explore this new frontier, here's why three Motley Fool contributors believe L3 Harris (NYSE:LHX),Virgin GalacticHoldings (NYSE:SPCE), andRocket Labs USA (NASDAQ:RKLB) stand to benefit from the modern-day space race.

Image source: Getty Images.

Lou Whiteman(L3 Harris): L3 Harris isn't as glamorous a choice as some of the newer companies focused on space. But it does offer strong exposure to the cosmos with a lot less risk of losing everything.

L3 Harris is the nation's newest defense prime contractor, formed by the 2019 merger of Harris and L3 Technologies. Both of those companies had a focus on electronics and communications, and together they have a formidable portfolio of space offerings.The company doesn't make the powerful rockets needed to leave Earth's atmosphere, but it does make a range of antennas, transmitters, power modules, and other electronics that go into satellites.

The company's space and airborne division, which includes not just extraterrestrial work but also components for warplanes, accounted for about 27% of total revenue in the first half of 2021. In the most recent quarter, L3 Harris space grew revenue by 10%, capturing classified awards totaling more than $300 million. CEO Chris Kubasik said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that the company has a three-year space pipeline of "nearly $20 billion."

In L3 Harris, investors get a growing space business supported by a wide range of defense electronics, communications, and avionics assets. The company pays a 1.75% dividend yield, and management is planning to spend more than $3 billion on share buybacks in the quarters to come.

L3 Harris appears well positioned to gain altitude from here.

Rich Duprey (Virgin Galactic): Going into space is for risk-takers and the adventurous, and though investors need to be much more circumspect with the businesses they put their money in, I still like Virgin Galactic precisely for its derring-do.

I'll say up front that if the allegations of Virgin purposefully sweeping aside safety considerations simply to beat some arbitrary deadline are true, then that's unacceptable. Particularly when you're going into space, the risks are already great, and ignoring safety protocols can only exacerbate them with potentially devastating impact

With that said, I think the doubts expressed about Virgin are weighing on its stock, and that gives investors an opportunity to buy in just as it is poised to begin commercial operations.

Later this month, Virgin's VSS Unity will undertake its first commercial, human-tended research mission by carrying three paying crew members from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council to evaluate the effects of the transition from gravity to microgravity on the human body.

Virgin Galactic's Unity spacecraft. Image source: Virgin Galactic.

After the mission, Virgin will upgrade the Eve mothership and then begin commercial service late next year. It has already signed up 600 people paying $250,000 or more apiece for the opportunity to participate in the launch of the space tourism industry.

While missions for NASA and other commercial enterprises have been the base motivation behind private space travel, it is the tourism aspect of it that sparks the imagination and brings rocketry down to the human level. Virgin Galactic is the vehicle through which investors can participate in that.

Analysts eye some $120 billion in potential future demand for the rocketeer that could turn into some $1.7 billion in revenue by 2030 for Virgin, though it admittedly has to get over some high hurdles to reach altitude. Some analysts worry about the Federal Aviation Administration impeding its flight path, and my colleague Rich Smith, who is pitching a different space stock today, has doubts Virgin can actually realize such sky-high estimates.

It's that risk-taking and adventurous nature of founder Richard Branson that suggests to me this is more than possible. And while it might require a bit of a leap of faith to believe he can see it through, I believe Virgin has the potential to grow into its valuation.

Rich Smith (Rocket Lab): My favorite "new space" stock is Rocket lab, a tiny rocket company and recent SPAC IPO.

"New" or not, Rocket Lab has been putting satellites into orbit for quite a while now. In fact, since May 2017, it has launched 21 separate, successful missions, and put more than 100 satellites into orbit for commercial customers and U.S. government agencies including NASA and the U.S. Space Force.

And tiny or not, Rocket Lab is big enough that it recently won a NASA contract to send two spacecraft not just into Earth orbit, but all the way to Mars. In 2024, two Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft will travel to the Red Planet to conduct environmental surveys into the effects of solar wind on the Martian atmosphere. The company even has plans to send a spacecraft to Venus on its own dime.

I admit, flight manifests and future plans notwithstanding, the stock remains something of an unknown quantity. Most financial data providers don't even have an accurate read on the company's market capitalization, much less estimates for future sales and profits.

But with a strong record of success, an established customer base for its Electron rocket, and plans underway to build an even bigger rocket (the Neutron, expected to have 27 times the payload capacity of the Electron), at the very least, I can say that Rocket Lab looks to be moving in the right direction: pointy end up.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Forget rockets a lunar elevator is the future of Moon travel – BBC Science Focus Magazine

Posted: at 3:11 pm

What do you see when you look at the Moon? Beauty? Craters? Some people see dollar signs. Youll occasionally see our only natural satellite billed as Earths eighth continent because its full of resources that are hard to ignore. A rare form of helium, helium-3, could be used in fusion power stations here on Earth. Rare elements, such as neodymium, could be extracted and returned home for use in smartphones and other electronics.

But how do we get them here without blowing all the profits on rockets? According to a study published in 2019, a lunar elevator could be the answer. A cable anchored to the lunar surface would stretch most of the 400,000km (250,000 miles) home. It couldnt be directly attached to the Earth, due to the relative motions of the two objects, but it could terminate high in Earth orbit.

That would have the added benefit of placing it above the bulk of our space junk, a growing problem as we launch ever more satellites. Solar-powered robotic shuttles could move up and down the cable, acting as a conveyor belt to ferry precious resources our way.

It may sound like an outlandish prospect, but Zephyr Penoyre and Emily Sandford the two University of Columbia astronomy PhD candidates behind the study believe we could pull it off for a few billion US dollars.

To put that into context, Jeff Bezos liquidates $1bn (over 700m) of his Amazon stock every year to fund his Blue Origin space tourism company. NASAs Artemis programme, which is sending the first female astronaut and first astronaut of colour to the Moon later this decade, is costing $86bn (60bn). Such is the value of the Moons resources, a separate study estimated that a lunar elevator would pay for itself within just 53 trips.

The cable, which would be no thicker than a pencil, would weigh 40 tonnes well within the remit of modern rockets, such as SpaceXs Starship. Unlike a space elevator that would travel from Earths surface into space, a lunar elevator stopping slightly shy of our planet wouldnt have to contend with huge gravitational forces.

The Moon has no atmosphere either, which simplifies matters. That means the cable could be made from existing materials, such as Kevlar, instead of the yet-to-be-invented super-strong materials needed for an Earth-to-space elevator.

We could also combine the two. In April 2021, Chinese state-run media presented the countrys idea for a Sky Ladder. This would see a spacecraft winched up an elevator from Earths surface to a waiting space station, before being flung towards the Moon where it would meet another elevator that would lower it down to the lunar surface.

The idea of space elevators has been around for over a century without much progress. But if enough people or, more likely, corporations become enamoured with the chance of making big bucks, we could see the lunar equivalent of a gold rush in the decades ahead. Elevators could well turn out to be a way to keep costs down and profits literally sky-high.

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UPDATE 1-Virgin Galactic to fly Italian Air Force on research mission to space – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 3:11 pm

(Adds details on mission plan, background)

Sept 2 (Reuters) - Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc is launching its first commercial research mission named "Unity 23" along with the Italian Air Force to the edge of space, it said on Thursday.

The space travel company has set late September or early October as the time for the mission that will carry three paying crew members from the Air Force and the Rome-based government agency National Research Council.

The crew will study the effect on the human body as they move from gravity to a low-gravity atmosphere and provide insights for future spaceflight systems and technologies.

The mission follows a successful first crewed test flight to space by Virgin Galactic's passenger rocket in July.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a deviation in the descent of the flight that took billionaire Richard Branson to space.

The company had said in July that it plans at least two more test flights of the spaceplane before beginning regular commercial operation in 2022.

One of those flights will carry four Italian astronauts-in-training, according to Chief Executive Michael Colglazier. (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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Les Roches brings together the world’s leading experts in space and underwater tourism to analyze the challenges this emerging sector will face in the…

Posted: at 3:11 pm

The pioneering event on space and underwater tourism, which brings together the main international space agencies and private ventures, will celebrate its second edition at Les Roches from September 22nd to 24th, coinciding with the autumn equinox and in hybrid format, with one full day of face-to-face presentations and two additional days of virtual sessions.

SUTUS 2021, under the title "Tourism Beyond Natural Borders", is a unique event, organized by Les Roches, one of the most important in the world together with Medina Media Events.

This edition will feature renowned international and national professionals from the aerospace industry together with officials from NASA, ESA, and JAXA. During the three-day conference speakers and panels will discuss, among other current issues, private travel to space and the private capital ventures working to make the dream reality alongside more scientific research into areas like agriculture on other planets. Upon returning to Earth, participants at SUTUS will dive into the world of subaquatic tourism, where marine archaeologists, diving experts and intrepid explorers will show them this unexplored world.

In addition, the Les Roches campus will also host a demo area where innovative projects related to tourism from different national and international companies will be exhibited, such as the emergency shelter designed by ESA, a zeppelin floating over the campus, an educational project by The City of the Stars which consists of a 4x6 meter portable planetarium that forms part of a virtual reality walk through the solar system.

Carlos Dez de la Lastra, Managing Director of Les Roches Marbella, said SUTUS was born to become a benchmark for luxury tourism. For this new edition of SUTUS, theres no better place than Les Roches, a hotel management training school and benchmark of quality education both inside and outside our borders, to collaborate with this exciting project.

In this second edition, and through the platform by Medina Media Events that has been used in the 4K-HDR Summit, the 5GForum and Extenda Global, virtual assistants and registered companies will be able to follow all the sessions via live streaming and have B2B meetings between them and the speakers.

In-person participation, due to anti-Covid measures, will be restricted to speakers, institutions, sponsors, VIP attendees and the media.

Through the website http://www.sutusummit.com you can register and access the official program. SUTUS is an opportunity to listen to keynote speakers talk about the most ambitious challenges of the emerging space and underwater tourism sectors and to share knowledge and business opportunities.

FOR MEDIA ASSISTANCE AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS, PLEASE CONTACT:[emailprotected]

MORE INFORMATION:https://www.sommet-education.com/

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McMillin: Virgin Galactica grounding shows need for international space-traffic control – The Denver Post

Posted: at 3:11 pm

With about 20 active spacefaring nations, 90-plus space agencies around the globe, commercial space flights, and thousands of satellites in Earth orbit, its time for international space-traffic control.

Nobody wants a couple of multi-million-dollar satellites crashing into one another, and the economic loss isnt the only concern. A smash-up could raise questions of whether it was a hostile attack, and it would create hundreds of small pieces of space debris.

So far, the tracking that started at the dawn of the space age has become increasingly sophisticated and has been able to keep things orderly. But close calls and alerts to satellite operators about potential dangers are increasing.

This weeks grounding of Virgin Galactica because it strayed from its flight path on the July 11 flight that carried founder Richard Branson, two pilots, and three other passengers briefly outside the Earths atmosphere is a case in point, although its flight was regulated through airspace by the Federal Aviation Administration.

As more spacecraft travel to and from space through FAA-regulated airspace, it only increases the need for a formalized space-traffic control system was mentioned frequently at the recent 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, along with updating the rules for responsible behavior in space.

But it was clear that nationalism and the quest for military superiority in space could get in the way.

Space traffic management and rules are topics that have bubbled through the military, civilian and commercial space communities for years, but theres a sense of urgency as we have entered what Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, called the second golden age of space.

Consider just a few statistics: The number of satellites in low-earth orbit rose from 2,100 in 2019 to 4,900 today; the cost of getting a payload into space has dropped from the Space Shuttle rate of $25,000 a pound to $1,250 a pound on a commercial rocket; more than 32,000 objects, including the International Space Station and small pieces of debris, are being tracked by the Space Force (an estimated 250,000 smaller pieces of debris untracked by the military are in low-Earth orbit), and the global space economy was estimated at $447 billion in 2020 with few impacts from the pandemic.

In Colorado, there are more than 500 aerospace companies and suppliers, including operations for nine of the top 10 in the country. Those companies employ more than 33,000 people for an annual payroll of $4.3 billion, according to the Colorado Space Coalitions 2021 report.

Even as symposiums speakers talked about the need to maintain a safe and stable space domain, satellite data was being relayed to assist rescue workers in Haiti, wildland firefighters in California, water managers working to allocate a shrinking resource in the parched West, and those involved with the frenzied evacuation of Afghanistan.

Indeed, the world relies heavily on space systems in many aspects of daily life.

The idea of controlling activity on a global scale for the good of all isnt a new concept. We do it in the air, on the sea, and with the telecommunication airwaves. The time has come, and were perhaps already late, to do it in outer space.

I detected some dissonance, though, in the remarks on this topic at the symposium.

Uniformed and civilian speakers connected to the Department of Defense or U.S. national security interests were nearly half of the general symposium program (16 of 35 presentations), so the drumbeat to maintain U.S. prominence in space was loud. And the drumbeat of China is a threat (and to a lesser extent, Russia) was louder.

Heres a sample of those voices:

Even NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who participated in several forums and generally spoke about civil space endeavors and international and commercial partnerships, said: Were in a space race with China.

Speakers on international panels and the director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) were more likely to talk about the importance of space systems in combating climate change and for disaster mitigation. They clearly favor a United Nations approach to space traffic control.

The United States has started this work and, you might be surprised to learn, so has New Zealand, whose space agency was created just five years ago.

In 2018, President Trump directed the Commerce Department to develop a space traffic management system and to mitigate the effects of space debris for commercial providers. The job falls to the Office of Space Commerce.

It makes sense thats where the Federal Aviation Administration started after fledgling efforts by the airlines to institute air traffic controls.

The Space Force will continue to maintain its catalog of objects in space.

Pelzer said hes glad that work is underway as it can serve as a draft for a UN solution.

Of course, China and Russia werent at the symposium to weigh in on the subject.

Neither was the New Zealand Space Agency, which is rapidly developing a regulatory regime to support the growth of a safe, responsible and secure space industry, which meets our international obligations and manages any liability arising from our obligations as a launching state.

Its working with LeoLabs, a California-based company that is building a network of ground-based radars to track even the tiniest piece of debris in low-Earth orbit and provide real-time data to satellite operators.

New Zealand is using that tracking data to ensure everything it licenses for launch about 100 satellites so far is where its supposed to be and doing what its supposed to do.

For us its a template of how to do operational space-traffic safety management, which has not been done anywhere, said Dan Ceperley, CEO and co-founder LeoLabs.

Ceperley has been talking with the Commerce Department, too.

We need a regulatory body defining the rules of the road and actually monitoring whats going on in space, he said.

He didnt want to weigh in on who should be the regulator but noted that space is an international arena and there is collaboration that crosses many borders. He believes the thing that contributes the most to good behavior in space is transparency.

The new space race is primarily commercial, and we want to make that successful, he said. We really dont want a conflict in space and transparency can drive deterrence.

With tracking, aggressive behavior or irresponsible behavior will be spotted and discussed, and that encourages good behavior, he said.

UNOOSA has played a significant role in shaping good behavior with the formation of international space law since its creation in 1959. The cornerstone is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which allows for freedom of exploration and the non-appropriation of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.

Four subsequent treaties have reinforced and updated the original treaty, but the last of those was the 1979 Moon Agreement.

UNOOSA also issued guidelines on debris mitigation and sustainability. Those are guidelines still, they encourage good behavior.

Updating those agreements and expanding them to include space traffic control is badly needed, and some speakers spoke to that.

It might have been easier before the United States and other nations realized that lunar resources could likely be used to create a space outpost and to get humans to Mars and beyond. Thats why everyone is rushing to get back on the moon and to be first.

We need to be there first and greet others, said U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who serves in the Senate aerospace caucus and the Space Force caucus. We are behind in this new space race.

Dominance in space will be a key factor in ensuring our security in years to come.

Others leaned in more toward international cooperation.

Aschbacher noted that Russia and China have invited ESA to participate in lunar missions, and the agency provided tracking for Chinas lunar probes, the latest of which was launched last year. ESA also has what he termed valuable partnerships with NASA, including for the Artemis lunar mission.

Thats the general backdrop for figuring out international space traffic control and debris mitigation.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July issued a memorandum on five Tenets of Responsible Behavior in Space.

They are: operate in, from, to and through space with due regard to others and in a professional manner; limit the generation of long-lived debris; avoid the creation of harmful interference; maintain safe separation and safe trajectory, and communicate and make notifications to enhance the safety and stability of the domain.

Thats a lot like what the UNOOSA promotes in its treaties and guidelines.

And a lot like what Ceperley means when he talks about good behavior.

So maybe theres hope for more international agreement especially if the United States tones down its dominance in space rhetoric.

Sue McMillin is a long-time Colorado reporter and editor who worked for The Gazette and Durango Herald. Now a regular columnist for The Denver Post and a freelance writer, she lives in Caon City. Email her at suemcmillin20@gmail.com.

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Guide to the Galaxy: ‘It’s Written in the Stars’ – Parkland Talk

Posted: at 3:09 pm

By Kyle Jeter

New and old intertwine as my 5.0-milliwatt, 532-nanometer green laser traces patterns of stars that, in many cases, were first outlined by our ancient ancestors thousands of years ago.

Some of these patterns are full-fledged constellations, while others are smaller pictures found within the 88 official constellations so-called asterisms.

The famous Big and Little Dippers, for example, are not actually constellations in and of themselves but are easily identifiable asterisms within the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, respectively. Other well-known asterisms include the Summer Triangle, the Teapot of Sagittarius, the Keystone of Hercules, and the Great Square of Pegasus.

As the bright green ray of laser light slices through the still night air, I can almost see the light bulbs turning on in my students minds as they begin to connect our classroom learning to the actual night sky.

At such a moment, I can imagine the elders of ancient tribes sitting around a fire at night and sharing stories of the sky handed down to them through countless generations.

Now, however, anyone of any age can easily identify the constellations on their own using technology that was almost unthinkable when I began teaching in 1994. Apps such as StarWalk or Google Sky allow you to point your cell phone toward any section of the night sky and visualize the outline of the constellations in vivid detail.

Even though this technology has been around for a few years now, Im still amazed by it!

Learning how various cultures around the world interpreted the same areas of the sky has always fascinated me. Where the ancient Greeks saw a Scorpions tail, the ancient Polynesians visualized a giant fishhook (Disneys Moana illustrates this wonderfully).

Whereas most cultures made patterns of the stars, the Incas and Australian Aboriginals notably also recognized patterns in the dark clouds of the Milky Way itself. They saw animals such as a Llama (Incan) or an Emu (Aboriginal).

And the wildly creative mythologies around the world that sprang from these various sky interpretations are remarkable both in their similarities and differences. For example, why did so many disparate ancient cultures view the Pleiades Cluster of stars as the 7 Sisters? Could some common mythologies date back to our common African heritage? We dont know.

Although the ancient mythologies written in the stars are entertaining, another type of star story is revealed to astronomers by the real-world celestial objects found within the constellations. That is the story of how stars are created, evolve, and ultimately burn out.

For instance, within the Orion constellation, a cloudy spot below his famous Belt (another asterism) represents part of his dagger. However, whatappears as a tiny smudge to the human eye is actually a vast star-forming cloud known as the Orion Nebula. It is about 24 light-years in diameter (for scale, it takes light only about 5 hours to travel from the Sun to Pluto!).

Despite being approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth, the nebula can easily be seen with the naked eye.

Peering inward with the Hubble Telescope, astronomers have spotted tiny disks surrounding some newborn stars forming within the Orion Nebula. These proplyds (short for protoplanetary disks) contain the building materials for future Solar Systems.

Let gravity do its thing for a few million years and voila! You have yourself a system of planets in orbit around a fledgling star.

Once a star ignites, its lifespan is dependent upon its mass. The most massive stars shine magnificently but are doomed to destruction. Stars such as Deneb in Cygnus and Rigel and Betelgeuse in Orion fall in that category.

The star Bellatrix (one of many names borrowed from the sky by author J.K. Rowling for her Harry Potter novels) may also meet the same fate, but its mass is borderline.

At the other end of the stellar spectrum, dull, reddish, low-mass stars may burn for trillions of years. Our Suns nearest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri, is such a star. They dont garner much attention, but they are the most numerous types of stars in the Universe.

Stars are typically born in clusters, such as the magnificent Pleiades in Taurus or the Beehive Cluster in Cancer the Crab.

The young stars of these so-called Open Clusters will drift apart after a relatively short time, but for now, they often make perfect viewing targets for a pair of binoculars or a small backyard scope.

The vast majority of stars, including our Sun, will never explode as a supernova. Instead, they will undergo a remarkable transformation toward the end of their energy-producing run in which the stars outer shell separates from its core. As the outer material drifts away, the inner shell acts like a lightbulb illuminating the outer shell like a lampshade.

These short-lived planetary nebulas are some of the most colorful, striking, and intricate objects in the heavens. The Ring Nebula in Lyra and the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula are planetary nebulas worth searching for (although a telescope will be needed).

As for the ultra-massive stars that do experience a fiery, explosive end, the shell of these supernova explosions form yet another type of nebula called a supernova remnant, or SNR. These are rare objects in part because they dissipate rapidly. The Crab Nebula in Taurus is a prime example.

Collectively, these nebulas and star clusters allow astronomers to understand the life cycle of stars. For generations, astronomers have painstakingly pieced together this complex tale of stellar evolution. And although there are always gaps in our knowledge, astronomers now understand the physics of stars to a remarkable degree and can predict their fate to a high degree of accuracy.

Whether you are learning to identify the constellations with only your eyes and an app as a guide, or you are beginning to scan the skies for nebulas and star clusters with a telescope or binoculars, countless treasures await your discovery.

Take some time to learn the night sky as our ancestors once did. Each of these celestial gems has a story to tell.

Kyle Jeter has been reading about Astronomy since he was five years old and has never stopped learning since. Since 1994, he has both lived in Coral Springs and worked at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. He has a daughter, Kayla, and a son named Kyle. Jeter started the Astronomy program at the high school in 1997.

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Merchants of Death – Washington Times

Posted: at 3:07 pm

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Nothing reveals peoples true selves like death.

Take the new law passed by the state legislature in Texas, for instance, regulating abortion of humans who have a detectable heartbeat.

It seems like a pretty reasonable place for a society to begin the discussion about that moment at which an unborn human baby assumes God-given and constitutionally protected rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Perhaps even that most precious Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

Oh, but this is not a reasonable discussion with honest, fair-minded people who care about rights, liberty, life, or even privacy. No, they are frothing zealots who peddle death with a rage hotter than the Taliban and bow to every abortion with blind, religious fervor.

A reasonable reporter seeking reasonable answers asked a reasonable question about President Biden last week. Who does he believe then should look out for the unborn child? the reporter asked.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki could not contain the rage that flickered behind her black eyes.

He believes that its up to a woman to make those decisions, she replied. And up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor.

In other words: Heartbeat? What heartbeat? I dont hear a heartbeat.

Perhaps realizing she had failed to answer the simple question, Ms. Psaki shifted from not answering the question to attacking the reporter for being born without reproductive organs.

I know youve never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant, the Merchant of Death spat with contempt. But for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The president believes that right should be respected.

Wait? What?

What right? Whos right? The right to life? The right to kill? Or the right to privacy? For the baby with a heartbeat?

End of discussion for the Merchant of Death.

A person named Richard Hanania picked up the discussion where Ms. Psaki left off.

You cant screen for Down syndrome before about 10 weeks, and something like 80% of Down syndrome fetuses are aborted, Mr. Hanania wrote on the Twitter website, retreating to the well-worn euphemism fetus instead of human or baby.

If red states ban abortion, we could see a world where they have five times as many children with Down syndrome, and similar numbers for other disabilities.

Well, Mr. Hanania certainly makes a case for heartbeat abortions, but I dont think its the one he intends to make. Its more like that old question about whether if you had an opportunity to kill Hitler when he was a baby, would you?

To Mr. Hananias credit, at least he is more honest than Ms. Psaki and willing to engage her argument to its logical conclusion. He makes no pretenses that the abortion industry in America is about anything other than eugenics, which of course, was the whole basis for Planned Parenthood in the first place. And Hitlers political party as well.

Another good question for Ms. Psaki and the Fourth Reich: Does the president support the right of a woman to abort a baby who has a heartbeat but not reproductive organs? Or, how about aborting a baby with a heartbeat because she does have reproductive organs? Or does that right only extend to babies with disabilities, such as Down syndrome?

How about the right to abort a baby with a heartbeat who is suspected might turn out gay? Or born with gender dysphoria? You know, as Mr. Hanania explained, those abnormalities can give a place a bad reputation.

Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at the Washington Times.

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Chemerinsky: The Supreme Court has done a poor job protecting against police abuse of power and racism – ABA Journal

Posted: at 3:07 pm

U.S. Supreme Court

Following the death of George Floyd, the nation focused attention on the enormous problems of police violence and racism in law enforcement, but there is a failure to put blame where much belongs: on the United States Supreme Court.

Many provisions of the Constitution exist to limit what police can do and to protect the rights of all of us, including those suspected and accused of crimes. Yet the court has done an ineffective, and indeed a poor job, of enforcing provisions of the Constitution intended to constrain the police. The Supreme Court has historically and consistently empowered the police to engage in racialized policing that especially harms people of color.

That is the thesis of my new book, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights. There are many provisions of the Constitution meant to limit police behavior. The Fourth Amendment restricts the ability of the police to seize people and to search them. The Fifth Amendment protects the privilege against self-incrimination and constrains police questioning. The due process clauses of the Fifth and 14th Amendments impose many restrictions, including preventing suggestive police identification procedures, such as lineups.

Yet through almost all of American history, the Supreme Court has done little to enforce these provisions and to constrain the police. For the first century after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the court virtually never decided a case about them, leaving the police unchecked by the Constitution. Except for a brief time during the Warren Court, particularly from 1961-1969, the court has narrowly interpreted these constitutional protections and instead has consistently ruled in favor of the police.

It is not hyperbole to say that under current law, as developed by the Supreme Court, the police can stop any person at any time and frisk the person, a power that is disproportionately used against Black and brown people. There is little protection of individuals from coercion in police interrogations, so long as the police dont use physical force. The court has virtually ignored the problem of false eyewitness identifications that have led to convictions of many innocent people, especially when a person is identifying someone of a different race. The court has made it difficult for victims of police abuse to successfully sue, even when an officer used egregious excessive force leading to serious injuries or death. In fact, the court has weakened, or gutted, all of the remedies that might be used to challenge police misconduct.

In empowering law enforcement, the courts decisions have led to enormous racial disparities in policing. In 2016, Black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers, according to the Guardian. They were also killed at four times the rate of young white men, a study in the American Journal of Public Health found. It also showed Hispanic men are nearly twice as likely to be killed by police as white men. The United States Civil Rights Commission concluded that while people of color make up fewer than 38% of the population, they make up almost 63% of unarmed people killed by police. Overall, civilian deaths from shootings and other police actions are vastly higher in the United States than in other developed nations.

And even when death does not result, there is a serious problem of excessive police force, especially directed at racial minorities, that causes physical and psychological injuries. There are seemingly endless accounts of police unnecessarily striking suspects, especially men of color, with batons, using tasers, applying chokeholds, and employing far more force than needed under the circumstances. The Center for Policing Equity found that 1 in 5 Americans interacts with law enforcement yearly. Of those encounters, 1 million result in use of force. And if youre Black, you are 2-4 times more likely to have force used than if you are white.

Discussions about the problems with policing usually do not focus on the Supreme Court, which does not hire or train or supervise or discipline police officers. It does not set budgets for police departments or manage their operations. As people focus on what police do on the streets, the connection to Supreme Court rulings is not apparent and seems remote. But the Constitution contains crucial provisions limiting how policing is to be done and what the Supreme Court says about them, or more importantly does not say, has an enormous effect on what police do every day. Without enforcement of the Constitutions constraints on police, all too often the rights of criminal suspects and defendants become illusory.

To take one example, under the Supreme Courts decisions, police can stop and frisk virtually any person at any time. Studies in many cities show that police disproportionately use this power against people of color.

The court opened the door to this practice in Terry v. Ohio, in 1968, under the liberal Warren Court. Notwithstanding the language of the Fourth Amendment, which requires probable cause for a police stop or search, the court said that only a lesser standardreasonable suspicionneeded to be met. To this day, the court never has defined reasonable suspicion other than to say that it requires more than a hunch and less than probable cause.

In subsequent decisions, the court made it easy for the police to find reasonable suspicion in almost any situation. Whren v. United States, from 1996, is particularly important. Undercover officers in Washington, D.C., became suspicious when a car stopped at a stop sign for about 30 seconds. They followed the car until the driver committed a minor infraction, turning without a signal. Even though undercover officers in D.C. were not allowed to enforce traffic laws, the police pulled the car over, ordered the driver and passenger out of the vehicle and searched the area of the car where they were sitting. They found illegal drugs.

The traffic stop clearly was a pretext; the officers had no authority to enforce traffic laws and no interest in doing so. The court said that does not matter. The actual motivation of the officers is irrelevant. The court said that the decision to stop an automobile is reasonable where the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation has occurred. So long as the officer has probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion, that a traffic law has been violated, the officer may stop the vehicle.

If police officers follow anyone long enough, they will observe a driver changing lanes, turning without a signal, exceeding the speed limit by a mile or two an hour, orand this is the easiest for policethe car not stopping long enough, or too long, at a stop sign. It is irrelevant for Fourth Amendment purposes that the officers actual motivation for the stop had nothing to do with traffic enforcement. And studies show that this power is used disproportionately against people of color. Emma Pierson and the Stanford Open Policing Project analyzed data on vehicle stops from 21 state patrol agencies and 35 city police departments from 2011 to 2018. They found that Black drivers were stopped 43% more often than white drivers relative to their share of the population.

This is just one example of how the Supreme Court has empowered the police and how it has led to highly racialized policing. But what can be done about it?

In light of the political composition of the Supreme Court, now and for the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that it will interpret the Constitution to control the police. If the court continues to fail, and I fear it will given that a majority of the justices have shown no concern or awareness of the problems with policing in the United States, then we must turn to other institutions to control the police, check police abuses and end racist policing in the United States. Congress, state legislatures and city councils can enact new laws to reform policing. After the tragic death of George Floyd, bills were introduced into Congress and into state legislatures to impose crucial new checks on the police. Unfortunately, these have stalled; even the progressive California legislature failed to enact new laws last year.

State courts can interpret state constitutions to protect rights and to impose limits on state and local police departments. State constitutions always can provide more protection of rights than the United States Constitution. For example, some state courts, such as in Arkansas and Washington, have rejected Whren and prohibited pretextual police stops.

The U.S. Department of Justice can aggressively enforce existing laws to reform police departments. A federal law, 42 U.S.C. 14141, authorizes the DOJ to sue police departments when there is a pattern and practice of civil rights violations. This has been used to reform many major police departments, such as in Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore and Cincinnati. The Trump administration expressly refused to use this authority, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that once more the Justice Department will be bringing suits under it.

All of these actions can make a big difference in how policing is done in the United States. And perhaps someday, the court will fulfill its duty of enforcing the parts of the Constitution that are meant to control the police and ensure equal justice under the law.

Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He is an expert in constitutional law, federal practice, civil rights and civil liberties, and appellate litigation. Hes the author of several books, including The Case Against the Supreme Court (Viking, 2014) and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State, written with Howard Gillman (Oxford University Press, 2020). His latest book is Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights (Liveright, 2021).

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Chemerinsky: The Supreme Court has done a poor job protecting against police abuse of power and racism - ABA Journal

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Man who shot at cops in unrest over Floyd death is acquitted – ABC News

Posted: at 3:07 pm

A man charged with attempted murder after firing at Minneapolis police officers in the chaotic protests that followed George Floyds death has been acquitted of all charges against him

By AMY FORLITI Associated Press

September 3, 2021, 9:02 PM

4 min read

MINNEAPOLIS -- A man charged with attempted murder after firing at Minneapolis police officers in the chaotic protests that followed George Floyds death has been acquitted of all charges against him.

Jaleel Stallings argued self-defense during his July trial, testifying that he fired at the unmarked white van after he was struck in the chest with what turned out to be a nonlethal rubber bullet fired by police.

Stallings, 29, testified that he thought he was being attacked by civilians, had been struck by a bullet and was potentially bleeding out, his attorney, Eric Rice, told The Associated Press on Friday. Court documents show that after Stallings was hit, he fired three shots toward the van as a warning, then took cover. He surrendered when he realized he had fired at police. No officers were hit.

Stallings case drew new attention this week when an online digital news outlet, Minnesota Reformer, reported on his acquittal and examined the case in depth. The Reformer published body camera footage of his arrest that shows Minneapolis SWAT officers punching and kicking Stallings as he lay on the ground.

A booking photo of Stallings taken after his arrest shows visible facial injuries. Rice said Stallings testified he had a suspected eye socket fracture, bruising and cuts. Court documents say he also had labored breathing after the arrest, which Rice said was likely due to the impact of the rubber bullet to his chest.

Rice said hes not aware of any pending investigation or discipline for the officers, but requested such information if it existed and believes it should have been disclosed as part of trial discovery.

When asked if the officers were being investigated or disciplined for use of force, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said he cant release any information because the matter is under internal review.

Stallings is now seeking the courts permission to allow him to release body camera footage that became public evidence during trial, after a prior order in the case restricted dissemination of videos. A hearing on that issue is scheduled for later this month.

Stallings May 30, 2020, arrest made headlines during a time of unrest in Minneapolis, which included the burning of a police station, in the days after Floyds death. He was charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder, multiple counts of assault and other charges. His case got added attention when the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a local nonprofit group, paid $75,000 in cash to get him released on bail.

According to court documents in his case, when Stallings realized he had fired at police officers, he immediately put his gun on the ground and lay face down, with his hands on the ground. A pretrial order from Judge William Koch said Stallings was motionless for 20 seconds and posed no obvious threat before Officer Justin Stetson and Sgt. Andrew Bittell approached him. The order says Stetson began kicking and punching Stallings in the head and neck, and Bittell began kneeing and punching him in the stomach, chest and back.

The judge found that Stetson and Bittell violated Stallings' Fourth Amendment rights during the arrest and that their actions were objectively unreasonable.

Officer Stetson and Sergeant Bittell allowed their anger and/or fear to overtake their faculties and they beat Mr. Stallings for nearly 30 seconds before attempting to place him in handcuffs, Koch wrote. The video evidence does not support their testimony Mr. Stallings was resisting arrest in any way, instead he surrendered to their authority.

The new attention on the case comes just months before Minneapolis voters will be asked to weigh in on a ballot question that would eliminate the police department and replace it with a new Department of Public Safety that would use a more comprehensive public health approach.

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The domestic legacy of our global ‘war on terror’ | TheHill – The Hill

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. governments subsequent war on terror. As part of this war, the government has engaged in extensive military operations abroad.

While attention is currently focused on its withdrawal from Afghanistan, we must note that in prosecuting its war on terror, the U.S. government has also massively expanded its powers at home. While these powers have been adopted in the name of protecting people and freedom in America, they also pose a threat to our liberty. The anniversary of the attacks offers an opportunity to take stock of these long-lasting government powers.

Less than two months after the attacks, Congress passed the PATRIOT Act, which expanded the governments domestic surveillance powers, including the power to review information about people that is held by third parties. It also weakened Fourth Amendment protections related to trap and trace searches, in which incoming phone calls to a person are recorded. In addition, President George W. Bush issued an order to ease the constraints imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on the National Security Agency (NSA). This allowed the agency to execute warrantless searches of American citizens emails and phone calls.

After several reauthorizations, key provisions of the PATRIOT Act expired in March 2020. However, its spirit is alive and well. The underlying surveillance apparatus, which was expansive even before 9/11, is still in place. And many surveillance activities and programs outside of the PATRIOT Act still exist in expanded form and will be with us for the foreseeable future.

A second domestic legacy of the war on terror is the militarization of domestic police forces. According to one estimate, since 9/11, the Department of Defense has transferred $1.6 billion worth of equipment to law enforcement agencies for items like mine-resistant vehicles, machine guns, grenade launchers and military aircraft. Domestic police departments have also obtained stingrays, or cell site simulators, which can be used to make cell phones transmit information, such as location and other identifiers. Originally developed for military and intelligence use abroad, these devices are now used by local law enforcement, which can spy on people in the United States with little to no oversight.

A final domestic legacy of the war on terror is civil asset forfeiture, which allows the police to seize assets from anyone suspected of illegal activity, but without having to charge them with a crime. The PATRIOT Act weakened earlier protections against forfeiture abuse, making it easier for the government to seize the property of anyone suspected of being associated with terrorist activity. Once property is seized, owners who want it back have the onus of demonstrating innocence. Further compounding this perverse system is the arrangement in which state and federal authorities share the proceeds from the sale of seized assets. Law enforcement thus has an incentive to take property assets, since the evidentiary bar is low and the benefits are high.

These expanded government powers impose high costs on many innocent people. The hardest hit are people who lack the money and time to fight back through the courts.

The famous sociologist William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) once observed that, it is not possible to experiment with a society and just drop the experiment whenever we choose. The experiment enters into the life of society and never can be got out again.

This is certainly the case with the post-9/11 expansions of government powers. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020, there were protests against police brutality throughout the country. Protestors were monitored through aerial surveillance, and a range of military-grade equipment was deployed. More recently, since the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, there have been calls for a new war on domestic terror.

Perhaps the lasting legacy of the war on terror is the expansion and entrenchment of government power over the lives of Americans.

Christopher J. Coyne is senior fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is the co-author of Police State, USA which appears in the fall edition of The Independent Review.

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