Party Of Science: Democrat Congressional Candidate Brianna Wu Doesn't Know How Gravity Works

The Federalist ^ | February 28, 2017 | Bre Payton

[Heartlander]

Party Of Science: Democrat Congressional Candidate Brianna Wu Doesn’t Know How Gravity Works

February 28, 2017 By Bre Payton

U.S. House candidate Brianna Wu, a Massachusetts Democrat, is worried that people will drop rocks from the moon that will hit the earth and kill people.

Wu, who gained notoriety after getting involved in the GamerGate controversy of 2014 and is now challenging sitting Rep. Stephen Lynch, tweeted that she isn’t happy about SpaceX’s plan to ferry private citizens to the moon by 2018, for reasons that will make your head explode.

it's almost like someone deleted the second tweet as it was incredibly stupid pic.twitter.com/CvhUOhCJ4c

— uberfeminist (@uberfeminist) February 28, 2017

She also made it abundantly clear that she has no idea how gravity works.

here is the second tweet, copied here for my own recordkeeping pic.twitter.com/o3MVu8ofKe

— uberfeminist (@uberfeminist) February 28, 2017

Wu has since doubled down on her earlier assertions that the moon is dangerous because you can fire a large rock from it and hit the earth.

2/ Like, you all can make fun of that statement, but it will still be true. This is why the militarization of space is so dangerous.

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) February 28, 2017

For the sake of fairness, let’s play along with Wu’s theory for a hot second. Let’s say that the moon, which is an estimated 238,900 miles away from earth, could potentially become a tactical base from which asteroids or missiles could be launched towards our planet.

Oooh, scary.

But if someone did intend to destroy our home planet from space, they wouldn’t need to send people to the moon to mine large rocks and build a really big slingshot aimed towards earth. It would be significantly cheaper and easier for someone to launch an orbital weapon into space that could rain missiles down on our planet at a closer range. Lucky for us earthlings, this kind of space weaponry has been banned for decades, thanks to a series of treaties dating back to the Cold War. Long story short, Wu’s concerns are very far-fetched and practically improbable, if not entirely impossible.

Wu isn’t the only Democrat who’s made an eyebrow-raising statement about physical reality. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) once said he was afraid the island of Guam would tip over and fall into the ocean if too many people were on it at once.

“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,” Johnson said.

That clip will never get old.

Hey Democrats, ya’ll should probably rethink the whole “we love science more than you” schtick until you can figure out what gravity is and how islands are formed.

[Fantasywriter]

Somebody better at engineering than I am needs to help me out. The earth is in constant motion, rotating around the sun. The moon is in constant motion, rotating around the earth. Anything fired from the moon would take time to get to earth. A, How would accurate aiming be achieved? B, How big would the projectile have to be, in order not to burn up in earth’s atmosphere?

[KC_for_Freedom]

A great novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein.

Moon fights for independence from Earth using a mining tool to accelerate ore and fire it to waiting locations on Earth. The tool was adapted to fire large rocks at cities.

[central_va]

Can God create a rock so large that even He can’t lift it?

[central_va]

The Apollo Moon mission was basically firing a projectile at the moon, and back again.

[Vic S]

We should send her up there to throw rocks down at Russia until they fess up that they colluded with Trump to get him elected.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I get 3,096 fps (v²=2Gm/r). In any case, yes only a high-tech gun could fire something at that speed, but then it would be small enough to just burn up in earth's atmosphere if given that (very precise) trajectory. The meteor that hit over Russia recently was several meters across. Launching something like that from the moon would be a major undertaking.

[xkaydet65]

She must have read and completely misunderstood The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

[Vic S]

We should send her up there to throw rocks down at Russia until they fess up that they colluded with Trump to get him elected.

[silverleaf]

Yeah! And maybe Viagra can fix that “soft power” Linseed Graham is worried about exercising through the US State Department

[Little Ray]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein.

She is correct.

But the technology and infrastructure for bombarding Earth with kinetic energy weapons (rocks) from the moon is a long, LONG way off. Building a catapult to throw packages to Earth will be labor intensive - we’ll know about it.

[Kickass Conservative]

Starship Troopers? Keep the Bugs off the Moon.

[Fantasywriter]

Right. So the anticipated projectile would cost as much as an unmanned moon mission.

However, point of reentry for space missions is to slow down sufficiently NOT to burn up in the atmosphere. The question remains, how big would the offensive projectile have to be in order for some reduced part of it to reach (earth) ground level and do damage?

[Wallace T.]

Brianna Wu is a feminist activist who was the focus on the Gamergate controversy. She and several others complained about allegedly sexist and misogynist video games. This led to a huge controversy with verbal fights and harassment allegations between SJWs and mostly male, libertarian and conservative leaning gamers. This fight is one of the undercurrents behind the grass roots rejection of the uniparty candidates like Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton last year. The Left strayed into what was really not their business and the gamers fought back.

Ms. Wu is running against Stephen Lynch, a sitting Democrat congressman who is a moderate, at least by New England standards, being pro-life and pro-defense, although liberal on most other issues.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Actually your figure is correct. I messed up the calculation.

[IYAS9YAS]

U.S. House candidate Brianna Wu, a Massachusetts Democrat, is worried that people will drop rocks from the moon that will hit the earth and kill people.

Well, either she's read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and is worried something like that will happen, or she's a moron.

My bet is she's never read Heinlein...

[central_va]

2001 Space Odyssey: Bone becomes a space craft.

This scene blew my mind as kid sitting in a theater a long time ago.....

[central_va]

Depends upon velocity. The faster it’s going the more it burns up.

[central_va]

Read this.

[central_va]

Read this.

[IYAS9YAS]

Congressman Wu may be an idiot, but Heartlander is a dangerous idiot for proclaiming someone stupid by loudly shouting something more stupid.

Can you show me something that links Heartlander to Bre Payton, who is the author. Heartlander posted the article, Bre Payton wrote it. Bre Payton is also female according to her by-line, and Heartlander is male, according to his "about" page. I see no link between the two anywhere.