Elon Musk Falls to Earth

Billionaire Obama fundraiser Elon Musk has baffled observers with his behavior over the past few weeks. Something’s gotten into him, and it might have come from Mars. NASA, in late July delivered a blow to one of Musk’s big plans. “Mars Terraforming Not Possible Using Present-Day Technology,” the space agency said. Musk, as recently as last year, said he was “fairly confident” that he could send cargo ships to Mars by 2022, people there by 2024, and his plan included “over time terraforming Mars and making it really a nice place to be."

Musk argued that Mars had enough CO2 in the soil that, when liberated, it could create a pleasant greenhouse effect. That’s when NASA felt the need to rope in the leading scientists on Mars’s atmosphere, to politely correct Musk. This wasn’t the only disagreement between NASA and Musk this year. In May, NASA scientists objected to Musk’s idea that his aerospace company, SpaceX, could pack more fuel into its Falcon 9 rocket by keeping it at supercold temperatures. While Musk has found a paying customer for his planned commercial trip to the moon next decade, much of the past year has been a letdown for the rocket man regularly heralded as the hero of a new space age. Musk, just a few short years ago, was cool—Obama cool. When Obama visited Cape Canaveral in 2010, he strolled around the tarmac with Musk. Musk was the big-name speaker at the annual conference of the Export-Import Bank under Obama, and a top donor. Conservatives showered Musk with love as well, because he was supposed to privatize space travel and create new frontiers in innovation.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/elon-musk-falls-to-earth

They profited from child prostitution and then donated to Kyrsten Sinema

Money comes with strings, and that is bad news for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. The Arizona Democrat wants to become a senator but finds herself having to explain why she took political donations from the owners of a website accused of knowingly allowing advertisements offering sex with underage girls. Sinema took more than $53,000 from Michael Lacey and James Larkin, founders of the classified website formerly known as Backpage.com. The FBI seized control of Backpage in April 2018 because the adult section included advertisements for prostitution and human trafficking, which the website allegedly encouraged. The founders were arrested and Sinema immediately went into damage control. She tried giving the cash to charities that deal with sexual assault. Some refused, only extending the saga. And she tried explaining. "I am really sorry that this happened. I have asked my campaign to create better vetting procedures to make sure something like this never happens again," Sinema said in an interview. "We looked through the entire history of my congressional donor history, and it took a little bit of time, because none of the people who made these contributions noted any affiliation with Backpage on their contribution forms or their identifying information. I was not aware these individuals were affiliated with Backpage."

Some accepted the apology. Senate Republicans, unsurprisingly, have not. The NRSC just cut an ad blasting Sinema for taking the money when “no one was looking." Republicans aren’t going to let this one die anytime soon. But they should be cautious. The #MeToo movement revealed a lot of dirty money floating around. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., accepted campaign contributions from her disgraced colleague, Rep. Trent Franks. She quickly donated the $16,000 to veterans groups in December 2017 weeks before she announced her bid for Senate. At the end of the day, taking money from a creep is different from taking money from individuals credibly charged with pimping. The attacks could sink Sinema.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/they-profited-from-child-prostitution-and-then-donated-to-kyrsten-sinema