OK, keep in mind orbital parameters. The ISS's orbit was specifically placed the way it was to allow the Russians to get to it with ease. It's on a steep incline that takes orbital corrections to manuver to from any other launch site than Baikanour. It passes directly over Canaveral occasionally, but the delta-v required to do a one shot insertion orbit to ISS from Canaveral is expensive. That's why the Shuttle was downrated for ISS missions in payload and duration.

Shuttle was also a hell of a lot more complicated than a Soyuz capsule. It's like comparing a Prius to a Model T. Soyuz was designed for no-frills get them to orbit. Shuttle was designed to get a shitpile of cargo to orbit along with the crew and the gear to operate independently of anything once there. Think of it more like a spacegoing Winnebago.

Thats where the other also runners come in, Orion, Dreamchaser, et al. If a NASA inspector downchecks a Dragon 2, somebody will be able to fly out. Once these all come online, we really won't need Roskosmos.

Of course you realise that most of the oil leases are owned by Koch Industries through various cutouts, right? It is a matter of public record, you know.

Gas/coal generators are cheaper because they don't have to go to court every other day to defend their permits. A large part of the cost of building a nuke plant is legal costs just to keep building. See Perry Nuclear Plant for more info. They kept stopping construction whenever a judge issued an injunction, and since the buildings and reactor housings weren't complete, they had to keep a crew there full time playing cards so they could jump back to work when the injunction lifted, and were prohibited from doing maintanance on the site while the injunctions were in effect. Weather in northeast Ohio isn't pleasant, there was a lot of damage that needed removed and rebuilt before they could continue until they got handed their next injunction.

Keystone XL won't do a damned thing for the taxpayer at the gas pump. It's designed to take the dirtiest most corrosive form of oil from American-leased fields in Canada to refineries in Texas so they can be shipped overseas for more profit. If they REALLY wanted to use the oil in the US, they wouldn't be piping it to Texas. They'd be piping it to refineries in the north.

Keep in mind that all the exploration of the Moon so far is like taking a detailed analysis of a single grain of sand from a beach and declaring that 'nothing of value is on Earth.' We haven't come close to any statistically meaningful samples yet.

John E. Stiers' 'Lunar Republic' series.

Point being made is, it was 'illegal' for Putin to annex Crimea.

He did it anyway.

I dunno, from here, it looks like he's attempting a Soviet Reunion.

Hope he can get the original drummer when he 'gets the badn back together'...

You're assuming he already has support in Congress. Keep in mind they haven't sent him a budget in five years. Considering that's supposed to be the top priority per the Constitution, seems to me that somebody's dropping the ball. And it don't look like El Presidente.

Yeah, he can undo it. He just can't make it stick. Next asshole in the chair can undo his undoing with the stroke of a pen. That's why they need a law in place to fix this. There's just no way he'll get that unless some serious changes happen in the midterms. Congress needs to purge the Tealiban and get people in there willing to compromise and govern.

No, we're saying that in order for the changes to stick, it will take Congressional action, i.e., a law. Executive orders can be rescinded by the next guy in the chair. See LBJ's rescinding of JFK's executive orders dismantling the CIA.

So sorry, the Constitution requires he step down at the end of his second term. None of this 'El Presidente For Life' bullshit you see in bad movies.

Executive orders can be overturned by the next guy in the chair. Case in point, Kennedy wrote three executive orders dismantling the CIA and spreading its programs to the winds. Some were to be assigned to the FBI, some to military intelligence, so on and so forth. One of the first things that Johnson did when he took the chair was to write executive orders rescinding Kennedy's executive orders to dismantle the CIA.

Obama is a constitutional lawyer. He taught constitutional law. He knows if he tries to shut down the NSA by executive order, which is his right and power as the chief executive of the Executive branch, ordering a department under the Executive branch, that order can be rescinded at any time. He needs Congress to pass legislation to stop it if the fix is to become permenant. Or, at least permenant until the Supremes wipe it away.

Of course just about everybody in Congress voted in favor of the PATRIOT Act. If they hadn't, their political opponents at home would have had a field day in the next election cycle. "Congressman Blowhard is AGAINST security. Vote for Candidate Fuckwad. HE'LL KEEP YOU SAFE!" At the time, if you weren't in lockstep because "America! FUCK YEAH!!" you got accused of being unAmerican, told to pack your shit and leave the country, etc. Because, if you didn't buy corporate America, the terrorrorrorrists win.

And no, you can't stop the law of the land with an executive order. That's not what they're for. Executive orders are how the president manages the Executive branch. They have no standing or force outside the branch. Why do you think Obama EO'ed a minimum wage increase for federal contractors only? Because that's as far as he could push it. Federal contractors work under the Executive branch. And he took shit for doing that, the 'tyrant' rants cranked into high gear. They're also used to set policy and priorities for enforcing the laws on the books. Considering he can only work with the funding CONGRESS gives him, he has to prioritise. There just isn't enough money in the pipeline to do everything.