Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin files protest over SpaceX lunar contract

ORLANDO, Fla., April 26 (UPI) – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, filed a formal protest Monday over NASA's April 16 decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract. Blue Origin lodged the protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress. The protest focuses on the decision to award only one company, SpaceX, the lunar lander contract from a three-way competition. Alabama-based Dynetics also had developed a lunar lander for the contest. Blue Origin's protest alleges that NASA made the SpaceX award after it held a meeting with Elon Musk's company late in the competition, on April 2, to allow SpaceX to alter its bid. NASA didn't make the same offer to Blue Origin, according to the company's protest.

NASA's decision was "flawed," according to a statement from Blue Origin, and "not only delays, but also endangers America's return to the moon." A NASA spokeswoman said Monday evening the agency was working on a response to the allegations for the media. SpaceX didn't immediately respond. SpaceX and Blue Origin, owned by two of the wealthiest people on the planet, competed for contracts to land people on the moon by 2024 – a goal that Musk said last week could be met.

SpaceX intends to use its Starship deep-space rocket as the lunar lander. The company has completed test flights of Starship prototypes, but all such tests ended in fireballs after flight. NASA officials had acknowledged during their public comments about the SpaceX award that weak funding from Congress impeded the award. NASA sought over $4 billion over the last two years to fund lunar landers, but received about $1.45 billion. Kathy Leuders, associate administrator for the agency's human exploration programs, said on April 16 that NASA still wants to support other companies' pursuit of lunar lander technology.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/04/26/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-NASA-protest-SpaceX/8941619471583/

>>13521476

Protesting he lost, some of these people are nothing moar than 2 year old children, time for him to get a binky.

>>13521483

Wait till people find out we haven't even made it there, the years and money spent perpetuating a lie..

Japan's ruling party defeated in parliamentary by-elections amid COVID-19 surge

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost all three parliamentary seats in by-elections, delivering a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ahead of general elections in October. The LDP's candidates were crushed at the polls Sunday as the Suga administration failed to live up to public expectations amid the coronavirus pandemic. Suga's approval rating plummeted to below 40% this year as COVID-19 cases rose in the country, Kyodo News reported Monday. Corruption allegations also have dogged the ruling party. The by-elections in Hiroshima and Hokkaido were held to fill seats vacated by former ruling party lawmakers. Politicians had resigned after they were accused of buying votes and bribery, NHK reported Monday.

The Hiroshima election was held after Anri Kawai, wife of former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, lost her seat. Anri Kawai was found guilty of "vote-buying" during a 2019 election, according to Kyodo. "Voters passed a severe judgment on the Suga Cabinet," said main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan secretary general Tetsuro Fukuyama. "It is the result of a buildup of people's discontent over scandals involving politics and money and the novel coronavirus response." Suga may have not hit the campaign trail on behalf of his party's candidates. According to Kyodo, the prime minister did not travel to Hiroshima or Nagano prefectures during the campaign to show support for his party.

Lack of voter interest also may have hindered turnout, which was the lowest on record for Nagano and Hokkaido at 44.4% and 30.46%, respectively, according to the report. Leading Japanese newspapers are blaming the government for the defeat. The Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial statement that the government's coronavirus response and the "money issues" of ruling party politicians were responsible for their loss. A poll conducted from Friday to Sunday by local paper Nikkei showed 65% of respondents in Japan said they disapprove of Suga's handling of the deadly virus. Japan has said the Tokyo Olympics is to proceed as planned, despite declaring a state of emergency Friday for key regions.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/04/26/Japans-ruling-party-defeated-in-parliamentary-by-elections-amid-COVID-19-surge/4321619449375/

Biden creates task force to spur unionization of U.S. workforce

President Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday to lead a White House task force aimed at the unprecedented goal of unionizing more workers in the U.S. with the broad support of the federal government. Mr. Biden signed an executive order creating the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment to mobilize Cabinet agencies and other federal offices to help workers “organize and successfully bargain with their employers,” the White House said. National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix called Mr. Biden’s task force “a blatant payoff to the union politicos who backed his campaign” in 2020.

The panel, whose vice chairman will be Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, will have 180 days to meet with labor unions and others to develop policy proposals to encourage more worker organization. The White House cited a “steady decline” in union membership in the U.S., from more than 30% of the workforce in the 1950s to 10.8% in 2020. “This decline has had a host of negative consequences for American workers and the economy, including weakening and shrinking America’s middle class,” Mr. Biden said in the order. “Meanwhile, some workers have been excluded from opportunities to organize unions and bargain collectively with their employers by law or practice, and so have never been able to build meaningful economic power or have a voice in their workplaces.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the move as a “historic effort” to mobilize Washington to help unionize workers. She said the task force will have a “specific focus on increasing worker power and marginalized and underserved communities.” It was another sign of organized labor’s grip on the Democratic Party and its influence with Mr. Biden. Unions gave more than $27 million to Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign and groups that supported him, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The initiative was announced less than a month after online retail giant Amazon defeated a move to unionize workers at its huge warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. It also follows a series of pro-union steps that Mr. Biden has taken, including a shake-up of the leadership at the National Labor Relations Board and an endorsement of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, broad legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a close Biden ally, said the president “is acting to remove the structural impediments to the power and promise of unions so workers can join together for a better life.” “Workers finally have a champion in Washington,” she said. Conservatives and pro-growth groups slammed the executive order as an effort to put Mr. Biden’s thumb on the scale of the labor market. Sean Higgins, a research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, said Mr. Biden “seems to believe joining a union is an obligation that the federal government must prod workers to do.” “This executive order is a harbinger of further aggressive sales tactics from this administration on behalf of its union allies,” Mr. Higgins said.

Mr. Mix said the move will result in “another attempt to rig the law against workers who want nothing to do with union officials’ so-called representation.” “This is yet another move by the Biden White House to give the president’s Big Labor political allies more power at the expense of the rights of rank-and-file workers who overwhelmingly have chosen not to affiliate or associate with a labor union,” Mr. Mix said. Joe Kildea, a spokesman for the conservative Club for Growth, called the move “another page in Biden’s growing handbook on how to lose jobs in 100 days.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/26/biden-creates-task-force-spur-unionization-us-work/

>>13521687

>I'd be expecting to see some really freaked out democrats like Pelosi and Shumer, Fienstien and nadless, and the fukker of fang fang.

Could it be that silence speaks louder than words?

>>13521844

Hmm, his insurance policy in plain site..these people are stupid..no question.

>>13521858

Regarding Clinton death…thinking back to 9/11/16.. We all remember her leaving the 911 ceremony in her scooby van..or better said she was thrown in. When she finally emerged from Chelsea's place..We saw the fake Hillary, possible she died that day, and maybe kept on ice, for such a time as this. Something to ponder..