<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next? A unicorn captured in Tennessee?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0The world I grew up in has changed. American Universities are\u00a0handing out Play-Doh<\/a>\u00a0to comfort distraught liberals and \u201cNever Trump\u201d students. Protestors\u00a0defaced a Thomas Jefferson statue<\/a>at the University of Virginia due to his slave ownership. Race baiters\u00a0attacked Hobby Lobby<\/a>\u00a0for displaying raw cotton in vases. The P.C. Police have continually demonstrated their desire to attack the America many of us love.<\/p>\n Now, the snowflake class is writing articles stating Ron Paul \u2013 the former Texas congressman that made a career out of criticizing bloated defense budgets and hawkish foreign policy decisions \u2013 is shilling for the defense industry.<\/strong>\u00a0Their \u201cevidence\u201d is that he received five-year-old campaign contributions from some employees of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which they falsely credited with coming directly from the companies themselves.<\/p>\n Dr. Paul\u2019s alleged wrongdoing was writing an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0mildly critical of Elon Musk, a government subsidy-eating machine and poster boy for left-wing environmental causes.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the article, Paul, an Air Force veteran, expressed his opposition to Section 1615 of the National Defense Authorization Agreement (NDAA), which\u00a0many speculate was written with the congressional intent of quietly extinguishing all serious competition to Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/strong><\/p>\n Section 1615 would bar the Air Force from funding any new launch vehicles.\u00a0<\/strong>Coincidentally, in just a few short years, there will only be one established launch vehicle left in the marketplace — Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n If the NDAA is passed as is, it will stay that way for a long while.<\/strong><\/p>\n Talk about a get-rich quick scheme.<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n This provision has the potential of putting a lot of taxpayer money in Elon Musk\u2019s already fat pockets.<\/strong>As Dr. Paul already noted, \u201cgovernment contracts account for about 70 percent of SpaceX\u2019s contracts. U.S. taxpayers have provided SpaceX more than $5.5 billion in the form of Air Force and NASA contracts.\u201d Should Section 1615 be passed by the Senate today, that percentage will likely increase exponentially.<\/p>\n The P.C. Police are easy prey for the cult of personality that is Elon Musk.\u00a0<\/strong>They reject even the possibility of Musk, one of their heroes having ulterior motives \u2013 whether it\u2019s support of the carbon tax, support for the Paris Accords\u00a0which he indirectly profits from<\/a>, or now \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 possibly pushing 1615 through to passage.<\/p>\n Since 2003, Musk has\u00a0given<\/a>\u00a0over $500,000 to Washington politicians, almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. SpaceX has even\u00a0handed money<\/a>\u00a0to lobbying firms to work on pushing through past NDAAs, which contained language that would have seemingly benefitted his company \u2013 including expediting the already-planned-on government Russian engine ban, which SpaceX\u2019s only serious competitor relies on.<\/p>\n All this Washington meddling is really sad when considering that the whole beauty of SpaceX\u2019s founding was how it cut into what was once the unchecked market share of an industry giant and proceeded to cut costs by sizeable margins.<\/strong>\u00a0Now, the founder of that same company may be working to bring the industry back to its glum past — muscling out not just established veterans. Musk has shown himself to be a merciless competitor, claiming scalps throughout the industry and even\u00a0not ruling out<\/a>\u00a0martians\u2019 interference for his failures.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s blogging army points to how Section 1615 still allows for the funding of new rocket engines as push back that it will create a de facto SpaceX monopoly, claiming that it will keep his Russian engine-dependent revival afloat. And it might \u2013 on paper. But, as Pentagon officials\u00a0have said<\/a>\u00a0time and time again, replacing the engine will lead to significant cost increases, making Musk\u2019s company the only affordable option left for use in the United States.<\/p>\n Even if 1615 didn\u2019t jeopardize the security of established market participants, would that make it an admirable provision?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Is that what the followers of Musk, the so-called free market visionary, have resorted to — keeping the status quo intact, but shutting the door on anyone else that may come next?<\/p>\n The Musk followers see no wrong in their leader. He is the man that has promised to take them to the stars. He can do no wrong.<\/p>\n\n