I say to hell with Greenland and Canada

Back in the 60's before he went to the Moon but when he was already an astronaut, Buzz participated in civil rights marches, the only Apollo era astronaut I've ever known to have done so.

 

Taking this as a tongue-in-cheek thread...

Back in 2011, xkcd projected only 1 man who had walked on the moon would live until 2025. (65 Years) We've still got 4, tracking along the 95th percentile. I'd prefer Harrison Schmidt -- Harrison Schmitt - Wikipedia -- who served a term in the Senate for New Mexico to Aldrin, also because he's five years younger and might be around awhile longer. Also, I borrowed his UW-Madison office for a bit in graduate school.

 

A circumference of over 10,000km, 0 Citizens / 2 Senators ... it would distill the American system to its very essence of geography over people

 

Won’t happen. Moon barely has any oil, let alone exploitable natural resources. There’s also a lack of indigenous people to genocide. It’s just not that patriotic.

 

Puerto Rico voted for statehood just a few years ago as I recall. Why not start there?

I would also suggest we split California up into 5 states with 10 senators.

 

If I can draw the lines, you've got a deal.

 

Puerto Rico has suffered a brain drain. Now they're having trouble keeping the lights on. Imagine the senators they would send to Congress. Puerto Ricans in Florida are trending Republican.

 

I still like the idea of downsizing: sell California to China and use the proceeds to pay down our debt. Californians get universal healthcare, safety and infrastructure. It’s a win for all parties. Call Americans 49ers.

 

Trump just trolling...

Keeping the media distracted while he goes over a myriad of nuclear EO's he's going to deploy on January 21st.

 

He has no intellectual interest in those things, he just has to keep himself entertained until he sees them for the first time when he signs them

 

California has one of the largest economies in the world and it's the backbone of technological advances as well as the home of our most important shipping port. What a terrible idea

 

Yep, cutting off one's nose despite the face comes to mind. If we are going to sell off a state, how about Alabama, Mississippi, or Kentucky?

 

Canada would be a major coup due to their vast natural resources and robust access to the Arctic (which is no doubt hiding more undiscovered natural resources). Get 'er done, Herr Trump.

 

Schmitt is the world's leading advocate of mining Helium-3 from the Moon as an energy source.

 

Semi-related but I've definitely been shifting money to helium stocks as I know it's a finite resource and it's going to become an issue

 

I remember when people laughed at me for calling the US an empire, now we are just talking about what territories to acquire/annex for expansion for entertainment. Must be what bored Russians do on their message boards.

 

84-40 or Fight!

 

Russia wants Ukraine.
China wants Taiwan.
Why cant we want Canada and Greenland?

Status quo.

 

You know your fusion options! He-3 cycles are the best way to have fusion without producing weapons material (tritium) and lots of high-level waste.

I tend to think H-bombs and high-level waste are cases of "horse is out of the barn", so I favor proof-of-concept of D-T fusion power first (it's "20 years away"... like it was when I was freshman nuke in 2000) and then "cleaner" fusion later.

(As a guy with three NucE degrees who teaches Gator NucEs... let's build some BBRs -- big, boring reactors... and keep researching something better... maybe we'll get lucky.)