Posted on 08/05/2026 10:01:31 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
Elon Musk reveals what happens when a rocket launch needs approval from Fish and Wildlife
Elon: "Nonetheless, we were forced to kidnap a seal, strap it to a board, put headphones on the seal and play sonic boom sounds to it to see if it would be distressed."
Elon: "This is an actual thing that happened. This is actually real. I have pictures."
Before the seal, there was a shark.
Elon: "One of the things that was a bit of a challenge at one point is that they were worried about our rocket hitting a shark."
He asked for the data to calculate the odds. They refused, in case shark hunters got hold of it.
Elon: "Then they said, well, there's another part of Fish and Wildlife that can do this analysis. I'm like, well, why don't you give them the data? They don't, we don't trust them. Like, excuse me, but they're literally in your department."
Then a second agency raised whales.
Elon: "If our rocket does hit a whale, which is extremely unlikely beyond all belief, that whale has some seriously bad luck. It's the least lucky whale ever."
The seal test was for launches out of Vandenberg, where the seal population has been rising for years.
Elon: "So if anything, rocket booms are an aphrodisiac based on the evidence."
Elon: "The amazing part is how calm the seal was. Because if I was a seal, I'd be like, this is the end. They're definitely gonna eat me."
Elon: "Its seal buddies are never gonna believe him that he got strapped to a board and they put headphones on his ears."
They did it twice.
Elon: "I don't think the public is quite aware of the madness that goes on."
(Excerpt) Read more at x.com ...
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“not a single person has been hauled in for any of fraud you found heading DOGE,”
Yet. DOJ is investigating, but I’m skeptical that there ever will be arrests. People did get fired, though, and that’s something.
AI: “Estimates indicate that between 260,000 and nearly 400,000 federal workers and contractors lost or left their jobs nationwide due to reductions in force, closures, hiring freezes, and deferred resignations.”
We’ve been in Imprint Hell for a couple of months, after Shell ended their basic fuel cards through Citi. They transferred all their financial stuff to Imprint, which issued everyone MasterCards.
We do not want a credit card forced upon us. Plus, we never received them in the mail, so they could’ve been stolen from our mailbox. It’s impossible to call and report it because AI runs the show. It’s impossible to call and cancel your account. It’s impossible to speak to a human unless you speak the words, “I agree”, to the AI gatekeeper, forcing you to agree to Terms And Conditions. Per legal sites I’ve researched, a recorded verbal “I agree” over the phone is the same as signing a contract.
Innocently living our quiet life, and this “organization that is not a sole proprietorship” you refer suddenly invaded us.
We’ve filed a case with our Attorney General’s office, and they’ve become involved. Whether or not the AG can help is questionable.
“And this my friends is what will lead to the end of western civilization. Unbridled bureaucracy”
If only it were “unbridled bureaucracy” - it’s HATRED of the country, PURE HATRED, by a large group of people, as it has been nearly 100 years. The “unbridled bureaucracy” is simply one of their tools for destroying the country.
I would hope people on our side could finally figure it out...but not happening.
This been going on for decades .. Doing missile launch test from aircraft we had to get EPA approval and it was extremely hard sometimes especially doing test shots in a maritime environment. You had to do checks on whales and other marine life in the area on the actual day of the launch. Didn’t matter if it was an inert or live warhead.
Well I’d feel a little better if your AI list included “fired for defrauding the government”.
That would also “Be” something...
I would, too. But it is what it is.
Our government is rife with idiots.
"I would like a rocket license, please?"
“ It’s the least lucky whale ever.”
Except the whale that met Arthur Dent and a bowl of petunias.
When a human is strapped down for tortuous purpose it’s called “waterboarding”. When a seal is strapped down similarly is that “landboarding”?
Seriously though, the irony of the government environmentalist’s horrible “testing” seemed to fly right over their heads.
But consider this for getting qualified people back into the space industry:
Memo to all DEI hires of the past ten years to voluntarily assemble on the launch pad of the next scheduled launch for a pep talk with Robert DeNiro, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand.
Once they’re assembled close the entrances and conduct the lunch. If those celebs are there it’s a win-win. This should free up a few hundred slots immediately.
Launch. But serving a lunch would be nice.
It’s california, what about the snail darter?
Do the snail darter next...
There was an episode of Star Trek where the ship was traveling through a galactic void so vast that they would not pass a star, moving at Warp 9, for years. The crew had to go into stasis for boredom.
Then, in the middle of the void, the ship had to wake them up. The ship was being attacked by some invisible, undetectable alien race because somehow it was polluting cold, dead, empty space. It was, of course, the humans fault, along with the idiot aliens, robots and AIs that hitched their wagons to hatefully stupid human civilization.
The reason real space is great is because there are no seals or snaildarters or any other form of life out there. One of the reasons Elon want to go there is to get away from the idiocracy that is metastasizing on Earth.
I thought you could trade environmental credits.
To credit your process, you could just cut down the tree thereby saving more than the expense of your process
So now Atlanta has summertime air quality limits on VOC that are exceeded by the trees!
As the old saying goes
“There’s no reason for it. It’s just company policy.”
*****
Actually, they want us in cages. AND trees, ala Planet of the Apes.
Back in the days when we were serious about anti-missile defense, environmentalists wanted to stop the program because of fears the missile interceptors exhaust would poison the atmosphere. They should have been concerned about the effects of the Soviet thermo-nuclear warheads impacting the US.
I’m ready to go. Let the liberal nut jobs and Muslims destroy themselves. A permanent base on the Far Side of the Moon is where I want to be. It would be a great place to do radio and optical astronomy. I could live out the rest of my days happily exploring, through an eyepiece, places I will never be able to travel to.
Far away from the hate and the fear we have to live with every day.🔭
Elon is a saint!
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