DrZ, the US government villified a bunch of innocent people and burned them alive just to get a bigger budget for the ATF. Covering up an attack in space would be much easier.
Definitely need a defense in place, and a live feed to lots of tv networks on earth. The enemy of my enemy ...

I must remind you, Dr. Zarkov, that ill-natured people can always find an excuse. Therefore a defense would be necessary. But I have the obvious defense to suggest: nickel-iron payloads, harvested from among the meteoroids. In other words, smart meteors. A strike by a heavy-enough payload would devastate its target. And it wouldn't even need any nuclear or even chemical explosive, "high" or "low."

Actually, I must correct myself. I didn't suggest this. Robert A. Heinlein did, in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Recently I wrote six essays saying what was wrong with Star Trek. First and foremost was their promotion of pure communism--for that's what their New Economy amounted to. Second was their Articles of Federation, which the producers literally cribbed, word-for-word, from the UN Charter. If you doubt that, go find a 1977 Star Fleet Technical Manual in your local library. Read the Articles of Federation. Change "Intelligent life-form" to "human" and "Federation Council" to "Security Council," and substitute USA, Britain, France, Russia, and China for Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri, and you have your UN Charter.

Worse yet, in Deep Space Nine they used a lot of Hinduism, in their tales of the Prophets on the one hand, and the "Domineering" Great Link on the other. For what does it mean to join the Great Link of Changelings, except to achieve the Hindu Nirvana, which means dissolution of individual identity and the joining of the ultimate collective?

I had in mind a seven-year cycle that would tell what would happen to the Federation moving forward. Having fought the costliest war in its history, it would pass Townshend-like Acts on its new colonies in Gamma Quadrant. Those colonies would then re-fight the American War for Independence. Then I decided to take it further: with a full-blown mutiny within Star Fleet that ended with the overthrow of the original United Nations and the capture of the one person, or rather the succession of clones, responsible for all the bitter warfare the Federation had with Klingons, Romulans, and even the Dominion. I would end it with this "person" standing trial before a judge and jury brought in from the Delta Quadrant--and then the dissolution of the Federation and the reorganization of Star Fleet as an independent, non-governing fleet of interstellar rangers, tasking themselves to keep the peace (for an annual premium, like insurance), recruiting all comers regardless of race or planetary origin, and looking for new worlds, not to conquer, but to trade with.

Of course I know the rights holders of Star Trek will never agree to it. So now I'm trying to figure out how to change some race and character names and play it out independently of the Star Trek franchise. That would also let me fix some serious reality problems.

I think the reason is that until a few years ago, we didn't have the connectivity that we do now. Had we had the phone/camera and internet back in the 60s, this world would be even more liberal than it is now. That's why we have the problems that we have now because they like to use two weapons: shaming and "social justice".

Better to live right here- free and in plain sight- staying below the radar of the statists What they dont know about, they have a hard time taking.

You nicely explained why I live in Florida instead of Alaska, Canada, Russia, or Scandinavia.

No objection to any such first step. just think real settlers on Mars trumps (no pun intended) any BS UN claim that it is not to be governed by a country.

With enough solar power, growing edible vegetation should be possible. To tap into bleeding edge technology, laboratory grown meats could solve the protein requirement. Water and raw material supply is the challenge, as shipping costs to LEO will be expensive. Eventually, as stations on the Moon and asteroids become productive, supply will become more affordable.

Both the UN and the League were simply naive attempts to nail down forever the result of the world wars that preceded each one's formation, and prevent it ever changing. So was the Congress of Vienna after Waterloo. I see no reason to believe that any such attempt either can or ought to succeed. Backing one only shows naivete.