As Washington Falters, California Leads the Way on Scientific Research

The government and its people are bound by a compact: Citizens finance their government, delegate it life-and-death powers, and expect security. This is not just a military or police matter; it also concerns protecting public health through vaccines, food inspection, and cutting-edge scientific research. In recent decades, however, Washington has frequently abdicated this core responsibility, paralyzed by ideology or incompetence, leaving a vacuum. Invariably, California steps in to fill it. 

This is not a story of partisanship or the most populous state using its clout. It is pragmatic self-preservation and strategic foresight. When Washington falters, California—leveraging its economic might, its world-class institutions, and its people—acts as a de facto nation-state to safeguard its future and the rest of the nation’s, whether through auto emissions or food safety. This trend reveals a critical shift in the American federalist system, where a single state has become an essential backstop for national progress. At the time of the Republic’s founding, the population difference between the most and least populous states was 10 to 1. Now it’s over 70-to-1.   READ MORE

The West has long militarized space. China plans to weaponize it. Not good.

Neil Armstrong brought the world to the moon. As the first man to tread on that rocky surface, he reminded us that this was not only an American achievement but another link in humanity’s aspirational chain. It was “one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.”

That happened almost 50 years ago.

Lunar landings are now back in the news, not because the marginal scientific or symbolic value of the current missions is high for mankind on Earth. Rather, it’s because national pride is driving America’s strategic competitors to escape gravity.

China and Iran both are hard at work launching and lobbing rockets into space to show that America no longer has a monopoly on technological leadership. They are also using these blast-offs and landings to warn us of their ability to match and surpass America’s scientific prowess. For good measure, they also want to remind us that they can easily land a nuke on the U.S. homeland.

If the Apollo program was the height of astronauts exhibiting the right stuff, the Beijing rocket program is looking like a perfect example of the wrong stuff. READ MORE