Donald Trump is the emperor of the galaxy: Why did the United States lay claim to the Moon?
The victorious march of coronavirus infection across the United States could not overshadow such an important event as the upcoming 2020 presidential election. During the election race, candidates spare no effort, promising voters heavenly pretzels after their election, or putting forward initiatives, each more wonderful than the other.
For example, Trump’s main (and, most likely, now only) competitor, Joe Biden, the Democratic leader and Obama’s former vice president, demonstrates his heartfelt concern for the electorate by proposing “voting by mail.”
The current President Donald Trump, having taken a slight breath from the sanitary concerns associated with sending army units to New York and the remaining aircraft carriers with healthy crews to the shores of Latin America, returned to the election race from a completely unexpected direction.
It was noticeable that Donnie again wanted to enter the game with already proven trump cards, like “Make America Great Again!” and even “America ponad use!”, demonstrating cowboy straightforwardness and pirate attack. For example, the “squeezing out” of protective masks and other personal protective equipment right at the Chinese airport, from under the noses of France, Germany and Canada who paid for them. As well as threats against India in order to knock out supplies of inexpensive antiviral drugs and generics from it.
Donnie's voluntarism made the most staunch supporters of the United States shudder. NATO allies showed a nervous tremor, reproaching the White House and its head for using Wild West methods.
To be fair, it should be noted that not only the United States is resorting to pirate methods in the fight against Covid. For example, France laid its paw on a cargo of 4 million masks en route to Italy and Spain. This same simple method was used by Germany, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic, which “redistributed” in their favor transit cargo with medical supplies heading to Italy.
In general, this Euro-Atlantic solidarity is incredibly touching.
When partners and allies came with claims to the American president, Trump the Magnificent made a brilliant decision that was most consistent with his election program - he issued the Defense Production Act, immediately publishing it on Twitter.
According to the new law, American enterprises are required to mass produce medical and sanitary products intended only for domestic consumption. The subtext of the law seemed to hint that “squeezing out” someone else’s property in favor of the Americans is also a good thing.
From now on, the largest American manufacturers of medical small items - the companies 3M Corp and Honeywell International Inc - are obliged to supply their products, first of all, to the national consumer, that is, to US medical institutions. Moreover, ZM Corp, which has production facilities in China, sadly reported that the US government had banned it from supplying medical supplies to Canada and Latin American countries.
Simply put, Trump demonstrated to his voters that in plague days the shirt belongs to the body, and NATO allies, and even the “Canadian branch,” can walk through the forest with their problems.
In general, in light of the upcoming elections, Trump is presenting himself as a tough and uncompromising cowboy, protector and provider on a national scale.
It is noteworthy that Trump also worked on his mistakes, building his election line and relations with the press in such a way that no one could ever accuse him of foreign information support.
The result was the “Executive Order Establishing a Committee to Review Foreign Participation in the US Telecommunications Services Sector,” signed by the US President.
If you look at the root, the new document is capable of causing considerable pain to Trump’s enemies from the Democratic Party, who used the services of Ukrainian oligarchs and Yanukovych’s notorious “black fund” in the last elections. Accordingly, if candidate Biden begins to throw a barrel at Donnie, again recalling to him the help of “Russian GRU hackers,” then the timely signed document will unpleasantly sparkle in Trump’s hands as a weapon of retaliation.
The public, of course, should have paid closer attention to this interesting decision, but lively discussions were devoted to another, issued in parallel, document - “Order on encouraging international support for the recovery and use of space resources.”
In particular, it contains points that have already caused an explosion of conflicting emotions.
In a brief formulation, the order boils down to the following: Donnie now extends American jurisdiction to outer space and does not order space to be considered a global commons.
The text of the document states: “The Secretary of State objects to any attempt by any other state or international organization to interpret the Moon Agreement as reflecting or otherwise expressing customary international law.”
And further: “Successful long-term exploration and scientific discovery of the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies will require partnerships with commercial organizations to extract and use resources, including water and some minerals, in outer space. However, uncertainty regarding the right to extract and exploit space resources, including the expansion of the right to commercial recovery and exploitation of lunar resources, prevents some commercial entities from participating in this venture.”
Therefore, if someone wants to open a factory on the Moon to produce the thermonuclear fuel helium-3, which our natural satellite is said to be rich in, or some other useful resource, this someone will first have to ask permission from the US Secretary of State.
But “Americans must have the right to engage in commercial exploration, production and use of resources in outer space in accordance with current legislation.” The “current legislation” in this case must be understood as national American law, applicable to the entire Universe. Not a weak application, right?
In general, such delusions of grandeur from the United States, which suddenly lost its civilizational and ideological counterweight, should have long been expected. If greed and master of the world syndrome are not treated, then sooner or later it will go into the terminal stage.
America no longer recognizes space as a public domain. Under Trump, at least. Then, perhaps, they will return to this topic, when they’re drunk, but while Trump sits on the throne in the White House, he does not want to share space with others. Existing international agreements are not a decree for him.
The document explicitly states: “The United States is not a party to the Moon Agreement. ("Agreement on the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" Adopted by resolution 34/68 of the UN General Assembly on December 5, 1979). Moreover, the United States does not consider the Moon Agreement to be an effective or necessary tool for guiding nation states to promote commercial participation in the long-term exploration, scientific discovery, and use of the Moon, Mars, or other celestial bodies...
Truly, Donald Trump is the emperor of the galaxy! Minimum - Solar system, with the Kuiper belt and the Oort comet cloud.
American hegemony is becoming cramped on our cozy planet. Since the Universe is no one's, it means it is American! Signature stamp.
America no longer needs aircraft carriers - it needs space dreadnoughts!
And yet, carefully reading the stunningly ambitious document signed by the businessman president, you find in it a point that turns all these Palpatine plans into a joke, into an election bait:
“This Order shall be carried out in accordance with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.”
That is, the standard question arises: political will alone will not be enough - where is the money, Zin?
Simply put, this powerful order should be considered solely within the framework of the election race, as a means of influencing the great power instincts of Americans and American big business. And then, everything is like Khoja Nasreddin’s: while the American jingoistic patriots wait for the full allocation of allocations for hegemony in space, “either the donkey will die, or the padishah will die.”
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