Michael Ramirez for August 04, 2020

SpaceX’s next design is actually called a Starship and is now under construction near Boca Chica, Texas.

Is this the way Trump’s Space Force looks in right wing fantasy land?

Elon Musk must be paying good money for this comic!

In the beginning was Delos Harriman, who sold the Moon. If this gets us into space RAH was right. Again.

All Hail the Prophet, Nehemiah Trump.

On the shoulders of NASA.

After NASA spent millions developing the tech, Musk is happy to take all the credit. And Ramirez is glad to give it all to him!!

Mike’s completely missed the mark on this one. It wasn’t private enterprise that fostered the future vision of Star Trek, it was the cooperative nature of the entire human population on Earth, along with assistance from others. In other words… “socialism”. GASP

I expect a workable warp drive will be developed about as quickly as a coordinated Covid response from this administration. /s

Let’s see the new Space Force bring a rocket back from space and land it on a platform in the ocean. With that kind of money we could just pay Mexico for the wall.

It is a pleasure to see a positive Ramirez cartoon. Enjoy it until tomorrow.

Privatizing an essential service (not sure space exploration is, but there is a military aspect) will put you at their mercy.. And.. subject to the highest bidder.

Boldly going where no government dare to go.

“Hi! I’m Michael Ramirez and I just can’t bring myself to rip our horrible president! I HATE AMERICA!”

SpaceX, ULA and Ariane may get us to space, but it still takes NASA, ESA, JAXA, etc. to develop the technologies to use space to our advantage.

The right-wing cry, “Earth First! We will mine the other planets later!”

I’m so happy that the space program is back on track, now. Elon Musk might be kind of a flake, but he’s also a visionary when it comes to space exploration, and I’m glad he and NASA accomplished this latests venture. I’m excited about what we might find, and how we can use it for the betterment of human kind. Can you tell I’m a Star Trek fan, and an optimist about the future of space exploration? I just hope I live long enough to see them build the first colony on Mars.

To covid and beyond!

REPORTER: Did you see the Space-X splashdown, Mr Trump?

Trump: Losers! I never hit a ball in the water and when I do, I send Lindsey in after it. Then he throws it toward the green but he throws like a girl so it only goes…

REPORTER: No, the rocket splashdown!

Trump: The Rockettes? Oh, they love me. In fact, I married them once. But then I cheated on them and they all high kicked me in the…

REPORTER: Never mind…

What SpaceX did was no small technological feat, but what we have right now is no starship, just gussied-up 1970s functionality. If Nixon hadn’t shut down Apollo as soon as its TV appearances began to feel routine, we’d be seeing some really advanced stuff (without the Star Trek magic gadgets, of course).

Government funding at its best is good for getting things started that are too expensive or too risky for private enterprise. And doing things that don’t work well as individual purchases (fire departments, infrastructure, health care†, …)

Private enterprise at its best is good at creating things that are already known to have commercial value and competing to make them available at low price or high quality. Of course at its worst, we get things like monopolies and price gouging such as we see with the US health insurance industry.

† Of the top nations in the world, exactly ONE doesn’t have freely available health care. That one is also, by no coincidence at all, doing the worst among those nations at handling the Covid-19 epidemic.

I. S. S. Free-Enterprise. (Independent Star Ship) colored ad dark red.

It’s ALWAYS about the money. It’s never NOT about the money.

Captain Kirk – “Scottie prepare thansporter”Scottie _"Aye Aye Captain. Who will we be transporting"Captain Kirk – “All the liberal a – - holes that hate our country”.Scottie – “Aye Captain”. “It may take awhile”. “They all post dumb comments on Go Comics everyday”.

Got to have a mix. We put all our eggs in the Space Shuttle basket and that did not end well.

Visit this webpage to see a relevant counterpoint: https://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=8449.(In case the link doesn’t show up or doesn’t work, search for Nick Anderson’s Editorial Cartoons, Image 8449, published on 10/06/2004.) Most people (including, apparently, Michael Ramirez) have no understanding of the vital role that the government plays in doing the basic science that makes it possible for private corporations to bring technology to market.

Egads… this reminds me of Reagan’s “Star Wars Initiative.” Just one reason why I am no longer a Republican (one of the others was the Pat Robertson brigade that took over the precinct meetings with their “legislate morality” clauses).