Person of the Day: China Missile

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In January China launched a missile that destroyed a target satellite. This is really bad because they can now do that a lot (even to U.S. communications systems). They have also now created about 1600 pieces of dangerous flying space garbage.

It turns out we knew about this in advance and said nothing, did nothing, needing to give ourselves future cover for a mythological Star Wars system. Said Joseph Cirincione of the Center for American Progress, “This was absolutely preventable. The Chinese have been proposing a treaty to ban weapons in space for years. We have refused in order to pursue this fantasy of space-based anti-missile weapons.”

Weak in the head = weak on defense. Free slogan.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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