Space Balls

Just a reminder that while Pence calls for $8 billion to fund Trump's Space Force idiocy, Senate Republicans just rejected $250 million to bolster election security despite a CURRENT and ONGOING cyberattack by Russia ahead of midterms.

But sure, go get em Buzz Lightyear. - Brian Tyler Cohen

There was a time that intelligent people were signing treaties to keep war out of space.........never think it cannot get worse.

Funny that the very administration hell bent on destroying science and education, want to create a space force. How do they think they’ll get there, thoughts and prayers? - SCROTUS

Floridatexan wrote:

polecat wrote:Funny that the very administration hell bent on destroying science and education, want to create a space force. How do they think they’ll get there, thoughts and prayers? - SCROTUS

SPACE CADET!

Priceless!

For a lot of reasons, it's just a good idea to consolidate the management of all of our government (and particularly, defense) satellite programs under one roof.

What is wrong with loony left liberals that they can't see that?  I suppose the loony left liberals of today would have opposed the creation of the Air Force had it been proposed by a conservative President.    You KNOW they wouldn't be opposing it if it were an Obama or Hillary proposal.   They would be hailing it in fact.

The opposition to this good idea is just yet another manifestation of loony liberal Trump Derangement Syndrome. They hate and want to treasonously depose President Trump so bad they will oppose anything that comes from this administration.

There should be consolidation in the Pentagon. The traditional branches are constantly vying for more revenue and projects which are often a duplication. I would rather see fewer bureaucrats and more streamline. I am not against the Trump proposal, but I have not seen any detail and after seeing a military budget which is creeping up on a Trillion dollars a year, I think I need to see cuts where there is duplication before I would support another competing branch for limited resources which need to be poured into American infrastructure and the private sector.

ConservaLady wrote:For a lot of reasons, it's just a good idea to consolidate the management of all of our government (and particularly, defense) satellite programs under one roof.

What is wrong with loony left liberals that they can't see that?  I suppose the loony left liberals of today would have opposed the creation of the Air Force had it been proposed by a conservative President.    You KNOW they wouldn't be opposing it if it were an Obama or Hillary proposal.   They would be hailing it in fact.

The opposition to this good idea is just yet another manifestation of loony liberal Trump Derangement Syndrome.  They hate and want to treasonously depose President Trump so bad they will oppose anything that comes from this administration.

Please tell us about all the programs Obama proposed that you supported.

2seaoat wrote:There should be consolidation in the Pentagon.  The traditional branches are constantly vying for more revenue and projects which are often a duplication.  I would rather see fewer bureaucrats and more streamline.  I am not against the Trump proposal, but I have not seen any detail and after seeing a military budget which is creeping up on a Trillion dollars a year, I think I need to see cuts where there is duplication before I would support another competing branch for limited resources which need to be poured into American infrastructure and the private sector.

Several years ago I had a letter published in a military journal arguing against the JSF (and the Marine JSF STOVL variant in particular) and that I can no longer see a need for a stand-alone USMC - they ought to be rolled into the Army along with the Air Force. Eliminating duplicate missions, weapons systems, and bases would save billions. History and tradition be dammed - time to face reality.

I can see the value in a stand-alone "space force" dedicated to protecting satellites (without which our tech heavy military would be crippled not to mention extensive commercial interests) and finding ways to counteract current Russian, Chinese, and potentially Iranian offensive operations. Some people screech about Russian and Chinese efforts to undermine elections but think protection of our space assets is foolish. Wow.

I agree that our satellites are vulnerable, even to less developed nations who have the technology to take them out. I know that in Northern Wisconsin they set up this massive grid which was said to be an alternative communications system, but the loss of military and commercial satellites would cripple our defense and economy.

I so agree with the consolidation. I know in the private sector, I have seen horrible investments in the status quo which almost bankrupted companies. I always tell the story of Barber Greene which used to make all the asphalt machines and was a booming company. The innovators and brains of the company were engineers from the 1920s who built the company, but in the seventies they were all gone and there was no consolidation or modernization because everybody was territorial about their area. Well, in one department they kept a lathe going around the clock building parts for a paver. The problem was that paver was discontinued two years earlier, and they continued building that part until somebody realized they had a thousand years of inventory.......so actual dollars were being expended to pile up raw materials and machine time. The company went belly up by the nineties because they failed to adopt their mission.

The complexity becomes base closings. Congress will fight because so many districts will be impacted if they do their job correctly. Where a private company goes bankrupt with a good old boy static attitude, yet in the military you are rewarded with obscene increases in the defense budget. Working smarter to protect America from real threats is going to require some tough minded decision makers who look for duplications, because honestly when spending almost a trillion a year, we cannot afford to be stockpiling parts which do not further our national defense goals.

I like the idea of combining those forces. I've said many times... but i think that the Pentagon could work effectively at a quarter or less of its size. The forces at a third of its size that strictly concentrated on technical/tactical readiness. Close nearly every base unless it's strategically necessary or paid for by the other country.

But that doesn't mean shifting the expense into social programs.

Trump and his childish base just like the sound of "Space Force." Really, the Air Force already covers this stuff. It's nothing really new, they're just giving a different name to it, creating a "branch" that's not really necessary. Which is fine if they want to do it, I don't see it as a huge deal one way or the other, I just think it's goofy.

If they really want a new separate specialized branch of the military, it ought to be a cyber-space-force. Which I know is covered under other departments already, but that's really the main threat we're facing. Russians have already hacked into our power grid, and if they wanna shut that down it's gonna result in a hell of a lot of chaos and death. People are so dependent on modern conveniences that thousands will drop dead in weeks from bad water alone. Cyber warfare's going to end up being one of the main battlefronts from now on... and, right now, Trump's not even really addressing it because Putin "says nice things" about him, and Trump cannot confront anyone who does that. Also, he's too vain to acknowledge meddling because he doesn't want to admit it contributed to his "win."

The "Space Force" is mostly just a silly distraction. It's not going to mean much unless there's money put into it and what it does gets defined more precisely.

It's just another big crock from the crock heavy White House. He'll probably be rolling it when his master takes him for a walk at the next summit.