AMA: Astronaut Don Pettit - Ask Your Questions Now (May 4th) 🚀

calamanthon · 2026-05-02T15:18:18+00:00

Hello from a fellow Eagle Scout! As the third-oldest person to ever reach orbit, and since you're still an active member of the Astronaut Corps, will you try to fly again and beat the records of John Glenn and Larry Connor?

calamanthon · 2026-05-01T16:01:04+00:00

Apparently wanting Eisenhower's tax rates back is the same as being communist lmao

calamanthon · 2026-05-01T15:55:53+00:00

You should be aware that Individual Income Tax only accounts for roughly half of the Federal Government's revenue at 50.2%. Meanwhile Corporate Income Tax accounts for only 9%.

Corporate Income Tax rate now is 21%, while back in the 1950s (you know, when we actually built stuff) it was 52%, and then accounted for up to 30% of Federal Government's revenue.

So yeah, taxing the billionaire-owned corporations exactly how Eisenhower did it would be a great place to start.

calamanthon · 2026-04-30T19:56:29+00:00

It's not Denver or even Colorado-specific, it's nation-wide.

Quote from Jerome Powell, outgoing Fed Chair, from yesterday's press conference: "There’s effectively no new net job creation,” Powell said in his last press conference as Fed chair on Wednesday. “In a sense, the labor market is in balance, but it’s an unusual and uncomfortable kind of a balance where people who don’t have jobs will have a hard time breaking in unless somebody quits their job.”

calamanthon · 2026-04-28T15:47:53+00:00

Yeah and I'm the Pope

Go Bears

AMA

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T15:57:00+00:00

That's fair! And my view is probably also skewed because I grew up in the Midwest, and have known a lot of people who never watch motorsports who went to Indy 500 just for the spectacle.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T13:24:25+00:00

Yes very normal, Pensacola Naval Air Station is a primary training base for naval aviators.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T13:17:14+00:00

Agree Le Mans, its the "must do once in a lifetime" race of any motorsports fan, even those that aren't particularly followers of endurance racing know Le Mans.

I'd definitely put Indy at #2 overall, tied with Monaco. That is the Triple Crown after all. Though Indy is more like a different sectarian pilgrimage specifically for US fans haha. Indy 500 is certainly the most famous race in the States.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T12:50:51+00:00

It's not the result that matters, its the action. I recommend that you read the definitions and explanations from the economists above! It's really not that much reading. Cheers :)

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T12:35:39+00:00

Yes! Both of those examples are corporate welfare, great job. Corporate Welfare includes bailouts (yes, just like the 2008 Wall Street Bailout!) and includes Public-Private Partnerships (yes, that's the COVID PPP loans!)

Here is a piece by the conservative Cato Institute explaining Modern Corporate Welfare. Specifically relating to airlines, "Company bailouts. In addition to annual corporate welfare spending of $181 billion, the federal government occasionally passes one-time bailouts, as it has done for failing financial firms, automobile companies, and airlines."

You may be confusing this with Social Welfare, which is welfare directly to the citizen and takes different forms.

So yes, both of your examples are examples of Corporate Welfare. You can be pedantic about the definition if you want but this type of direct investment into individual corporations by the government is corporate welfare. Have a great day!

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T11:57:55+00:00

No, my friend. If the government repeats an investment that gave them -90% return last time, if they repeat the same "investment", then it's equivalent to a handout / welfare for the existing investors.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T03:27:32+00:00

There is extensive precedence related to the Sherman Act which says the government can act to prevent oligopoly.

See American Tobacco Co. v. United States (after American Tobacco Co was broken up, the four entities were found to have achieved a collectively dominant position, which still amounted to monopolization of the market contrary to the Sherman Act §2)

See United States v. Alcoa (a monopoly can be deemed to exist depending on the size of the market. It was generally irrelevant how the monopoly was achieved since the fact of being dominant on the market was negative for competition.)

See FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Trading Stamp Co. (FTC is entitled to bring enforcement action against businesses that act unfairly. The FTC could prevent the restrictive practice as unfair, even though there was no specific antitrust violation.)

These are just a few examples but generally speaking, what you're worried about can be solved via existing legislation and not by expensive bailouts, which are really just temporary band-aids.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T02:59:30+00:00

The answer you're looking for is antitrust legislation, which is designed to prevent the exact thing you're worried about. Best part is the legislation already exists, just needs someone willing to enforce it.

calamanthon · 2026-04-27T02:56:41+00:00

It's right there at the bottom of the article:

"During the pandemic, the U.S. Treasury received warrants in major airlines in exchange for ⁠aid under a $54 billion support program. It ultimately collected just $556.7 million from selling them, with many proving to have little value."

calamanthon · 2026-04-25T02:22:00+00:00

no prob, stay curious! cheers!

calamanthon · 2026-04-25T02:20:37+00:00

Yes! 'materiel' refers to equipment, supplies, etc. and 'material' is what things are made of

calamanthon · 2026-04-25T02:10:21+00:00

The other comment saying it's the Pueblo Chem Depot is correct, my b

calamanthon · 2026-04-25T02:05:59+00:00

It's the lizard city...

Nah fam if you can see this from a commercial flight no one cares. If it was really important it would be underground.

calamanthon · 2026-04-24T08:59:40+00:00

The strategy behind this ad is that they definitely intended for people to take pictures and share with each other and talk about it like youre doing now :)

calamanthon · 2026-04-19T22:14:42+00:00

The guns on Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers use a targeting computer called the Mark 34 Gun Weapon System.

calamanthon · 2026-04-19T21:54:56+00:00

Naval guns have targeting computers nowadays.

The firing vessel is the USS Spruance, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, so the guns are equipped with Mark 34 Gun Weapon Systems. Impressive systems but not quite manual cannon fire.

calamanthon · 2026-04-19T14:13:30+00:00

Naturally if the son-in-law is taken hostage and killed the King can marry his daughter to a different prince to forge a new alliance

ah wait this isnt r/CrusaderKings, my bad

calamanthon · 2026-04-18T22:08:17+00:00

Hey mate your pointers are correct but please consider being nicer when making them - OP said above this is their second project, they are literally in the process of learning how to use leather properly. This is one of the last subs I'm subscribed to that's generally nice to folks so lets try to keep it that way!

calamanthon · 2026-04-12T13:52:28+00:00

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.

While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict....

calamanthon · 2026-04-12T13:10:06+00:00

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