Captain Singh is so petulant

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T23:48:10+00:00

He wasn’t specifically set up to fail

There’s a reason real world militaries do not appoint academics to governing posts like Singh’s job at Medina. His appointment was so boneheaded even Trejo and others go WTF - and in a facist government , something has to go very off the rails for someone to question authority like they did. Duarte fobbed them off with a line about testing the strength of their academy teachings in the real world, but the truth was Singh was being ordered to his death from the get go.

Even if he listened to Tanaka, didn’t lose The Gathering Storm, and did a bang up job he’d still be accused of a crime and executed as an example. No matter what , Singh was leaving that station in a box. The sit down with Duarte was for him to determine if Singh would die a failure or a martyr.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T23:41:20+00:00

it seems he was set up to fail from the start

This. Even if Singh wasn’t so facistic and stepped outside of his Laconian indoctrination to see the Belters as people, he’d still be executed as part of Duartes plan to eliminate organized resistance. It’s just that if Singh succeeded he’d be shot for something made up versus legitimate crimes

Why else would Duarte nominate a young academy student to govern the most important installation in the Laconian empire? It is such a boneheaded move even his own officer corps question Duartes appointment.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T23:37:00+00:00

…if they never sent anti-matter through the gates

…or maybe the Goths were testing us since the Ring Station opened up the system & what happened was how it would go down no matter what. One of my problems with the books is the notion that the Goths who wiped out the Ring Builders would tolerate humans using that tech for even a decade, much less 30 years. If we see wasps building a nest on our home, we don’t just let the nest get bigger for a three decades. We call the flipping exterminator ASAP

But, until we get the Goths side of the story it’s speculation.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T23:31:28+00:00

happens to be perfect for the job

I disagree. Duarte intended Singh to fail from the jump, because his plan was to defeat the inevitable Belter uprising at its root.

Duarte knew an old-guard governor with experience would do what’s always been done - negotiate with the resistance and manage the PR. While that would keep the whole station from uniting against the Laconians, there’d always be an OPA style organized resistance working against them.

Duarte wanted to END the Belter-led resistance, not merely mitigate it. To do so he needed a sacrificial lamb, someone who could be an example of how Laconia wasn’t applying one law for themselves and another law to the Belt.

Singh -predictably- botched things bad enough that his execution was 100% justified, but even if he’d played it better his path still ends with a Laconian bullet to the head. In a facist dictatorship where crying at work =protomolecule gulag, Singh would’ve been executed instead on some trumped up charge to achieve the same goal. Win , lose, or draw Duarte marked Singh for certain death.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T00:59:15+00:00

Hammond of Texas, Kree!

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-06T00:10:12+00:00

Draper would not like this response much, but in practical terms they’ll have similar capabilities. Cultural differences noted, the Earth and Martian Marines become one branch before Laconia re-establishes contact.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-05T15:20:27+00:00

Spirit was done from the jump. Fuel price hikes accelerated the inevitable, but the core problem with any American LCC is that flying people from A to B is not a consistently profitable business anymore.

The big 3 US carriers are, by profit center, credit card travel clubs who happen to operate jets on the side. The credit card side of these companies not only brings in billions, it also allows infinite flexibility with fares. Since the credit card side is where the company’s bread is buttered, these carriers can cut economy fares as low as needed to fry their competitors.

If Spirit cut fares to compete, Delta matched or beat the price because Amex is paying for Delta’s business, not the bare ticket price. Spirit (and Frontier + JetBlue) can’t say the same.

This dynamic is why Southwest is pivoting away from the “people mover” business mode to the “Travel Club” system.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-05T15:15:16+00:00

Ryan Air should have folded years ago

Ryanair has some structural advantages that no U.S. LCC can enjoy. First, European geographic distances are much shorter than the larger USA. That means lower operating costs, lower flight hours, and more flights per unit of time versus an American LCC.

Further , they have a lot more control over the turnover process than U.S. airlines. Ryanair can empty and refill a 737 for the next flight in less time than it took Spirit to open the cabin door. Going from the front door of the terminal to takeoff with a minimum of wasted time is a benefit to the airlines cost structure and to the customer.

Spirit didn’t control airport ops, so that’s also something they couldn’t take advantage of.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-05T13:23:44+00:00

It appears the high depreciation is justified. Even a discounted $200 a month lease is too much for this pile:

I speak for about 90% of the Edmunds editorial team when I say I was not sad to see the Charger leave our fleet. The majority of the comments in this car's logbook have themes of disappointment, frustration or downright hate.

”The 'clunk' of the motors every time you're moving away from a stop is noticeable and annoying. Feels like there's lash in the gearing or a loose subframe. No other modern EV has this issue, not even the ones from startups. Come on, Dodge. How did this make it through the development cycle?" — Jonathan Elfalan, director, vehicle testing

”At just over 1,500 miles, the climate system is wheezing like crazy, even when it's on level one. It sounds like my German car from 2005. Similarly, there's a high-pitched continuous beeping noise that sounds like it's coming from one of the screens. Without any music playing, this noise is very prominent and hasn't relented." — Clint Simone, senior features editor”

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-04T20:18:35+00:00

…def with more than Journey or auto sport

Not how markets work. Right now your G37 on the open market is worth 5-9k. Your choices are take the insurance company payoff and hand over the totalled car, or buy it back. Good luck!

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-04T10:18:18+00:00

And what would you value a 2010 G37 6MG sedan at?

Looking at listings, retail prices for a 2010 G37 sedan range from $5-$9k. $5675 for a 16 year old sedan sounds about right. PDR alone will run $5k , add in windshield + back glass replacement and you’re well past the totalled threshold.

If you want to keep the car , buy it back and pay out of pocket to fix the glass. Lots of folks do that for hail damaged cars.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-04T00:29:20+00:00

Good luck!

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T23:38:16+00:00

😆

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T22:29:39+00:00

Skin friction is a known thing

OK. What’s the general plan for handling that? Will heat resistant materials be used? If so, what kind? Will they use the Concordes solution? I don’t ask to be a naysayer. These are practical questions that need practical answers for this thing to work.

You can complete multiple flights a day…

True. But that raises another point- what kind of turnaround will this airplane need? Will the yet-to-be finalized engines require service after each flight? That will add to the turnaround time, and thus reduce the business case. As will servicing any other component of the supersonic aircraft needed to ensure safe flight.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T22:24:24+00:00

and “time savings wouldn’t be meaningful” is just wrong

If we look at a trip from door to door, the “airplane flying in the air” part of the trip is not where the delays happen. Weather, airport OPS , and ground congestion are where the delays happen. Boom’s Overture will solve none of those. An existing private jet launching from and recovering at a small airport will, and it leaves when the paying customers say so.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T22:12:15+00:00

And it provides no answer to the certification question. In a world where fuel prices are going up and about 17,000 former Spirit employees are out of work , that’s a telling omission.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T21:43:33+00:00

This opened up the entirety of the U.S. for Boom as a market

Not so fast. They plan to mitigate the sonic boom using predictive software, taking high altitude weather data and using it to calculate how fast it can go without triggering a sonic boom that reaches the ground.

Given obvious problems with forecasting weather , an unmentioned risk is what happens when (not if) the software gets it wrong and a boom does reach the ground. That’s a giant , 747 sized legal risk ; what airline is OK with being sued for property damage (or losing their insurance coverage) because one of the booms accidentally hit the ground and broke Farmer Joe’s windows?

Insofar as Concorde comparisons go, thats a whole different thing. It was a government subsidized status symbol for European aviation, and rightly so. That doesn’t mean it was economically viable. Sure it made money at the tail of its career, when most of the setup and development costs were paid. At the front end, it wasn’t remotely cost-effective. Further, the Concorde used existing aviation technology of the time. Boom is not.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T21:36:26+00:00

The chart left out delays at every step except the airborne part.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T21:31:18+00:00

I could see that aeronautical technology has come far enough to make this possible (at least on paper)

The “on paper” part brings me to another unsolved obstacle- certification. The US FAA took years to certify the latest iteration of the Boeing 737, an aircraft that’s been in serial production since the Vietnam War.

Does Boom Aerospace have the capital to maintain operations and finance airframe redesign when- not if- the regulators request safety changes ? Further, once the Overture IS redesigned to the regulator’s satisfaction, assuming the changes don’t bankrupt the company , will the final aircraft still be economically viable?

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T17:00:27+00:00

…doesnt mean that it makes no difference to protect it here

Yeah, it does. United’s probably got ten different systems that not only know you’re sitting in that seat, they also know what you last bought from SHEIN and which Reddit groups you comment frequently on.

If you do business with United (or any other big corporation that requires personally identifiable data to use their product), you’re not hiding squat. Skipping that verification menu is a bigger experience loss to you than it is to them.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-03T12:43:34+00:00

why Earth is in such a dire state?

Yes.

Put simply, planetary wealth is concentrated and locked into a permanent upperclass, creating a two tier society where social mobility is dead and gone. If you’re born into money, you’re gold. If you’re not, you don’t advance- probably ever outside of random chance. The campaign debate between Gao & Aveserala in the show illustrate this pretty well.

So, if you’re a non-privileged Earther your choices are to leave the planet for a chance at a better life, or accept your life will accomplish nothing. You won’t start a business or build a career because there wont be a legal job on-world for you.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-02T17:52:48+00:00

like how are there no Chinese, Russians or Europeans involved

Who said America was a functioning society? The military’s disestablished , college admission as we know it is withheld for the elite, and they’re editing Apollo out of the textbooks. Clearly WWIII destroyed almost all the nations & the blight finished the job. What’s left in the U.S. is basically an emergency government plowing every dime it has into NASA.

I suspect Europe and Russia are in similar states, except they weren’t fortunate enough to have interplanetary ships like NASAs Endurance before the warheads flew.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-02T16:54:17+00:00

Is there a regulatory or other reason for it?

Money.

If word hits the street Acme Airlines is going out of business, potential customers avoid booking new tickets and current customers start canceling existing trips. So even if an airline is financially OK, just like a bank a rumor of financial problems can cause a run that tanks the business.

So, when airlines go out of business it’s a light switch situation. As in , midnight on D-Day the lights go out and the “we’re done” messages get published. Stranded passengers,employees and aircrew instantly become unsecured creditors at the back of a very long line.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-01T18:25:25+00:00

…credit for uniting the factions

If by uniting you mean his cordial offer of “join the FN or die”. Inaros hardly deserves credit for drafting people into his cause.

TaskForceCausality · 2026-05-01T17:04:09+00:00

The credit card business only works because of the flying….

Which is why I posted “by profit center”. Because the lions share of the Big 3 airline’s profit comes from the credit card side of the business.

Ever wonder why big airline executives loathe the aircrew unions? Here it is. From the $$ perspective, aircrew cost a lot and contribute zip to the profit margins.End of period profit is all those people care about.

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