Tag: Military Spending

How Do We Feel About War?

With the announcement of a plan to send US troops back into Afghanistan I thought I would take a look at the attitudes toward war.

When I read blogs and the comments I get the feeling that Americans as a whole are a war mongering lot…..they seem to be all for spending trillions on war materials and cheer-lead conflicts around the world.

But is my perception accurate?

A couple of people give their thoughts on our endless wars….

When I was in Congress, the least popular, least respected members were the biggest publicity seekers – the ones who were the first and quickest to run to the cameras. They were not regarded as serious legislators. Thus, I have not been a big fan of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. However, several days ago, she wrote some words on her X account which I think express the feelings and frustrations of the overwhelming majority of Americans. The following are her words:

“I’m 51 years old. I’m GenX.

“I’ve watched our country go to war in foreign lands for foreign causes on behalf of foreign interests for as long as I can remember. I was in 10th grade when Desert Storm started and my father before me was sent to Vietnam, another senseless foreign war.

“America is $37 TRILLION in debt and all of these foreign wars have cost Americans TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars that never benefited any American.

“American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits.

“I’m sick of it.

…

Rep. Greene is right. We should never fight another country’s war. President Reagan said we should fight only for a “cause that is vital to our national interest.”

He also said that “our troops should be committed to combat abroad only as a last resort, when no other choice is available.”

Sen. Robert Taft, sometimes referred to as Mr. Republican in the 1940s and 50s, was so respected that he was one of only six senators featured in John F. Kennedy’s book “Profiles In Courage.”

Taft said: “No foreign policy can be justified except a policy devoted without reservation or diversion to the protection of liberty of the American people, with war only as the last resort and only to preserve that liberty.”

Both Reagan and Taft used the words “last resort.” We were not anywhere even close to that point when we bombed Iran on June 24.

https://original.antiwar.com/rep-john-j-duncan-jr./2025/07/09/the-way-most-americans-feel-about-foreign-wars/

I am surprised that I agree with Greene on this issue….the rest of her babbling is out in right field that makes no sense whatsoever…..at least to me.

You want to lessen our deficit then stop fighting everyone’s wars for them and stop trying to be the world’s only arms dealer.

It is not rocket science…..a little commonsense goes a long way.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Long And Winding Road

For decades the rhetoric around China has been swirling and the ‘intel’ says that they are gearing up for something big…..why else would they want to build a base in the South China Sea?

In the past decade the rhetoric has gotten more intense and the money has been flying out of the treasury and into the hands of the defense industry so that the US can thwart any attempts by China to do the damage we have been warned about.

This back and forth has been brewing since about 2001….at that time each saw themselves as peace loving and the other as aggressor.

SecDef, Hogsbreath, is ramping up the rhetoric in preparation (it seems)….

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday slammed US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for a “Cold War mentality” in response to his remarks about China at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, which included him warning that the US is ready to “fight and win” a war over Taiwan.

During his speech on Saturday, Hegseth took aim at China over a range of issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. “China seeks to become a hegemonic power in Asia. No doubt. It hopes to dominate and control too many parts of this vibrant and vital region,” he said.

Hegseth accused China of wanting to “fundamentally alter the region’s status quo” and said Beijing’s “behavior towards its neighbors and the world is a wake-up call.”

Regarding Taiwan, Hegseth claimed that it was “public” that Chinese President Xi Jinping had ordered his forces to be prepared for an invasion by 2027. However, that claim is based on comments from US officials and has never been confirmed by Beijing.

Hegseth Says US Ready to ‘Fight and Win’ a War With China Over Taiwan

China wants to be the hegemonic power in Asia?   Is that not what the US is doing?

So fast forward to today and the mash-up over Formosa (Taiwan to the youngsters out there)….the US is pouring money into the island nation by the truckload…..

The late journalist and documentarian John Pilger in 2016 commented on evolving U.S. strategies:

“When the United States, the world’s biggest military power, decided that China, the second largest economic power, was a threat to its imperial dominance, two-thirds of US naval forces were transferred to Asia and the Pacific. This was the ‘pivot to Asia’, announced by President Barack Obama in 2011. China, which in the space of a generation had risen from the chaos of Mao Zedong’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ to an economic prosperity that has seen more than 500 million people lifted out of poverty, was suddenly the United States’s new enemy…. [Presently] 400 American bases surround China with ships, missiles and troops.”

Analyst Ben Norton pointed out recently that, “the U.S. military is setting the stage for war on China. … The Pentagon is concentrating its resources in the Asia-Pacific region as it anticipates fighting China in an attempt to exert U.S. control over Taiwan.” Norton was reacting to a leaked Pentagon memo indicating, according to Washington Post, that “potential invasion of Taiwan” would be the “exclusive animating scenario” taking precedence over other potential threats elsewhere, including in Europe.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/13/u-s-war-on-china-a-long-time-coming/

“China is the strongest it’s ever been,” said Brigadier General Doug Wickert, the 412th Test Wing commander in the United States air force. “It has fairly aggressively built a very large force that’s been specifically developed to counter our strengths.”

Today, the PLA boasts almost a million more troops than the United States and over a thousand more tanks. It has built its navy into the largest in the world with approximately 400 warships and stacked its air force with nearly 2,000 fighter jets.

Beijing has also drastically expanded its intelligence capabilities to the point where deputy CIA Director Michael Ellis claimed earlier this week that China has become an “existential threat to American security in a way we really have never confronted before”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/25/china-military-capability-missiles-peoples-liberation-army/

This is war waiting to happen….the rhetoric keeps it in the forefront of conversations….but let us say that some incident pushes the US and Chiona into a real war not just a war of words….

A report to Congress last July examining the risk of simultaneous conflict with Russia, China, North Korea and potentially Iran reached a similar conclusion, warning that the U.S. population was not sufficiently prepared for the disruptions in supplies and services such a conflict might produce, through cyber attacks and interruption of supply chains.
Keeping supplies coming would almost certainly a challenge for both sides. The U.S. Indo Pacific Command has talked repeatedly about using smaller and larger drones, including robot submarines, to create a “Hellscape” in the Taiwan Strait to block Chinese forces.
Still, U.S. commanders acknowledge China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) now has its own hefty ability to target U.S. planes and ships, rendering it vital to forward locate equipment and weapons stocks early in advance – particularly as China’s missile range improves.
This month, head of U.S. Indo Pacific command Admiral Sam Paparo said the “depth and range” of China’s military drills were now increasing fast, including exercises to invade and blockade Taiwan while also striking port and energy facilities.
Beijing is also publicly highlighting its ability to conduct such actions, presenting them as a key part of seizing the island. “If Taiwan loses its maritime supply lines, its domestic resources will quickly be depleted, social order will fall into chaos and people’s livelihoods will be severely impacted,” said a Chinese military official in one video released by the PLA.
“I remain confident in our deterrence posture, but the trajectory must change,” Paparo told congressional officials in April, warning that while his forces currently retained enough superiority to deter a Taiwan invasion, that advantage was being rapidly eroded as China built up forces.
I believe the whole scenario of money and rhetoric is not making us safer….no matter who ‘wins or loses’ any actions of conflict there will be no winner…..just a planet that suffered from too much arrogance and stupidity.
This is not a fight that we should be forcing onto the world.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”

Finally A Cut In War Spending?

I have been bitching about the money thrown at the War5 Dept for decades….there should be less of it and more spent helping the Average family….

Finally that amateur SecDef has stated that there will be some cuts to his budget…

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered Pentagon leaders to develop plans to make sweeping cuts to the Defense Department’s budget, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

According to a memo obtained by the Post, Hegseth’s order calls for an 8% cut to the Pentagon budget each year for five years. The Pentagon budget for 2025 is about $850 billion, and an 8% cut for five years would bring it down to roughly $560 billion, a reduction of $290 billion.

Hegseth wants the proposed cuts to be drawn up by February 24, and the memo included a list of 17 categories that would be exempt from the spending cuts.

The Post report said the exemptions include operations at the southern border, modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, and acquisition of submarines, one-way attack drones, and other munitions

(antiwar.com)

When I read the news I was impressed but that did not last very long….

Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert G. Salesses said in a statement on Wednesday night that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of Pentagon spending to realign spending to fund priorities of the Trump administration.

The statement from Salesses came after a report from The Washington Post said that Hegseth ordered a plan to cut Pentagon spending by 8% each year over the next five years. But according to the statement from Salesses, the idea is to redirect spending and not actually make cuts to the budget.

“Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” Salesses said.

“The Department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the Department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at 8% of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” he added.

On Thursday, Hegseth said that the Trump administration would be taking $50 billion away from “woke Biden-era non-lethal programs and instead spend that money on President Trump’s America First, peace through strength priorities.”

…

Salesses said spending priorities from the Trump administration include the “Iron Dome for America,” referring to an order from the president to establish a major new missile defense system, a project that would be a boon for the weapons makers and likely start a new arms race. Trump has also backed a budget plan drawn up by House Republicans that would increase military spending by $100 billion.

(antiwar.com)

This is becoming all too familiar Donny makes a statement or one of his lackeys and then someone has to ‘clarify’ what was meant.

This is a perfect example of why you should not take news reports at face value there is always something hiding in the meat of the discussion.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ever Hear Of The Truman Committee?

Basically it was a good idea to draw in the massive defense spending….to make it more accountable and responsible….

I have been railing about the amount of money that is thrown at the Pentagon….the massive profits of a few huge industry with a few players.

Then I recall something from our distant past that makes good sense.

On February 10, 1941, a relatively unknown senator, Democrat Harry S. Truman of Missouri, rose on the Senate floor to deliver a speech that would forever change his destiny. Though the United States officially remained “neutral” to the war raging in Europe, the German invasion and occupation of France and the Low Countries in 1940 prompted action by the U.S. government. President Franklin Roosevelt requested, and Congress hastily appropriated, more than $10.5 billion to bolster national defense buildup. A former small business owner, Truman cautioned against awarding defense contracts in a way that “make[s] the big men bigger and let[s] the little men go out of business or starve to death.” He advised against distributing contracts “on the basis of friendship or political affiliation.” Championing legislative oversight, Truman proposed an “investigation of the national defense program and the handling of contracts.”

This became known as the ‘Truman Committee’….

I bring this up because someone in Congress has floated the idea of a ‘Truman Committee’ to be reestablished….

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has a novel way to stop military-industrial complex profiteers from “bilking the American people”—and it’s actually over 80 years old.

In an article published Tuesday in The Atlantic, Sanders (I-Vt.) called for a revived Truman Committee—a World War II-era bipartisan congressional panel “designed to rein in defense contractors, closely oversee military contracts, and take back excessive payments.”

“America’s national priorities are badly misplaced,” the senator asserted. “Our country spends, with almost no debate, nearly $1 trillion a year on the military while at the same time ignoring massive problems at home. We apparently have unlimited amounts of money for nuclear weapons, fighter planes, bombs, and tanks. But somehow we can’t summon the resources to provide healthcare for all, childcare, affordable housing, and other basic needs.

“The United States remains the world’s dominant military power,” the senator continued. “Alone, we account for roughly 40% of global military spending; the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. Last year, we spent more than three times what China spent on its military.”

Sanders noted that nearly half of the approximately $900 billion the U.S. will allocate for military spending this year “will go to a handful of huge defense contractors enjoying immense profits,” with many weapons companies profiting handsomely off sales to Ukraine, which is struggling to repel a two-year Russian invasion.

In what Sanders called a “particularly egregious example” of war profiteering, RTX Corporation—formerly Raytheon—has increased the price of its Stinger shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles by 600% to $400,000 since the early 1990s.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-military-spending-2667378533

It amazes me that Americans will ignore this  situation but will fly off the handle when some woman in Bumfuk, Indiana gets $300 extra in her EBT card.

I think Bernie has a helluva idea….these parasites need to be investigated and punished…

But the industry has hundreds of lobbyists to spread the cash around to see that any oversight is squashed.

While Bernie has a good idea….money will decide the idea’s fate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

To Infinity And Beyond

I have not written much about the Space Force lately….the US Space Force our 5th branch of the military…..

I was never a fan of this idea….not when Obama was pushing for it and then Trump came into power and it became a reality…..I still think it is a waste of money because we have the Air Force which has a space commend within its structure.

In case you are not too damn sure just what the Hell the Space Force is or does….then I can help.

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/space-force-ahead-its-time-or-dreadfully-premature#space-force-multilateral-space-governance

I agree with the conclusion…there may come a time for a Space Force but that time is not now.

After about 3 or 4 years of sucking on the budget and we have little to show for the cash spent.

The US Space Force is apparently anything but, according to a think tank report that concludes the newest American military branch is woefully unprepared to defend space operations from Chinese or Russian aggression.

Instead of being primed to counter threats to US space operations, the USSF is a sitting duck, while both China and Russia have performed public tests of weapons capable of destroying satellites, the report states.

In response, the analysis argues, the USSF needs extra funds to train more people and “develop a suite of defensive and offensive counterspace systems” to compete with countries that the report’s author seems to believe are running laps around American space defense power.

It’s not just any old policy wonk who wrote this report, either: it was authored by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies senior fellow Charles Galbreath, who spent 27 years in the US Air Force before a two-year stint in the Space Force as its deputy chief technology and innovation officer. 

Galbreath’s warnings of Russian and Chinese orbital shows of force aren’t merely supposition – both Russia and China have blown up their own decommissioned satellites, and China has even launched a satellite with a grappling arm that US military leaders fear could be used to grab spacecraft and toss them out of orbit or otherwise disrupt their operations. 

Both China and Russia have also warned that civilian satellites, such as Starlink internet orbiters operated by SpaceX, could be legitimate targets.

Late last year, the Biden administration’s nominee for chief of USSF space operations said much the same: China is outpacing the US in the latest space race toward military orbital domination.

“The most immediate threat, in my opinion, is the pace with which our strategic challengers – first and foremost the Chinese – are aggressively pursuing capabilities that can disrupt, degrade and ultimately even destroy our satellite capabilities and disrupt our ground infrastructure,” USSF Lieutenant General B Chance Saltzman told the Senate during his confirmation hearing.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/30/us_space_force_report/

Just another example of the Pentagon’s waste of taxpayer cash.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

News From Ukraine

You remember Ukraine right?

With all that is happening I thought you might have forgot the conflict.

Pres. Biden has made it very clear that we will be in Ukraine “as long as it takes”….(that should scare the crap out of Americans)

On the final day of the NATO summit in Madrid, President Biden declared that the US and NATO will support Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’ for Kyiv to win its war against Russia. He also said that his administration will be announcing a new $800 million weapons package for Ukraine in the coming days.

“We are going to stick with Ukraine and all of the Alliance is going to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes to, in fact, make sure that they are not defeated by… Russia,” Biden said at a press conference.

(antiwar.com)

Then the news came out that the US will gladly throw more good money after the bad we have already thrown at Ukraine (and what has it accomplished?)

The Biden administration on Friday announced a new $820 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes National/Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for the first time.

The NASAMS is a joint project between the Norway-based Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and Raytheon, the US weapons maker that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin worked for as a board member before taking his post at the Pentagon.

The NASAMS is an air defense system with a range of over 100 miles and is used to protect the air space around the White House and the Capitol Building. US officials made it known earlier in the week that Washington would be sending the NASAMS to Ukraine.

The new weapons package also includes additional ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), up to 150,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition, and four additional counter-artillery radars. The money for the arms is being pulled from the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that Biden signed in May.

Of the $820 million, $50 million is for the HIMARS ammunition and uses the presidential drawdown authority, which allows Biden to send Ukraine arms directly from the US military’s stockpiles. The remaining $770 million is for the rest of the weapons and comes from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), an authority the president can use to purchase weapons for Kyiv.

(antiwar.com)

Seriously more  money?

Yep and even called for billions more to rebuild the country…..

A two-day conference on Ukraine’s future reconstruction efforts kicked off in Switzerland on Monday, and Ukrainian officials put the price tag for their “recovery plan” at $750 billion.

Addressing the conference virtually, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the reconstruction of Ukraine is a “common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized.”

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the funding would need to come from grants and loans from partner nations, independent organizations, corporations, and Ukraine’s own budget. But he said Ukraine believes the “key source of recovery should be confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs.”

(antiwar.com)

Using frozen assets would be outright stealing

If this is truly about the security of Europe then why is the US spending all our taxpayer money protecting Europe.  If Europe is truly concerned about their security should they not be doing more and wasting more of their money?

Just wondering.

Those sanctions on Russia oil……

As Russia is making more money from oil sales now than it was before the war, the US is looking at ways to hamper Moscow’s profits while not causing another spike in prices. One idea G7 leaders are exploring is placing a price cap on Russian oil, a plan doomed to fail as it would need the cooperation of Vladimir Putin as well as China and India, which have significantly stepped up their imports of Russian crude.

“I suggested a while ago that what we should consider doing is putting a cap on the amount of money that… the world would pay for Russian oil,” Biden told reporters. He said that he delegated a team to “sit down and work out that mechanism” for the price cap. “We think it can be done,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

I did not think sanctions were the answer and so far I was proven right.

The conflict in Ukraine is ripping funds from this country…..funds we need to aid the American people….and yet Ukraine is far more important than you and your family.

And the war goes on….and the American cash flies out the door….

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

War–What’s It Good For?

Remember the question Edwin Starr asked back in the 60’s?

Just a short reminder…..

https://youtu.be/_d8C4AIFgUg
 
I brought this up because of the news that has been reported…not by the MSM….but by others concerned on the spending for our many many wars……

American taxpayers have spent $6.4 trillion on post-9/11 wars and military action in the Middle East and Asia, according to a new study.

That total is $2 trillion more than the entire federal government spending during the recently completed 2019 fiscal year. The U.S. government spent $4.4 trillion during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the Treasury Department.

The report, from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, also finds that more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting. Of those, more than 335,000 have been civilians. Another 21 million people have been displaced due to violence.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/us-spent-6point4-trillion-on-middle-east-wars-since-2001-study.html

$6.4 trillion….what could have been accomplished if this had been spent improving the country’s infrastructure…or the education….or health care….or….well you get my drift.

It has cost the American taxpayer $7500+ for these wars……why do Americans allow this to continue….do they care so little for the lives of our troops?

I have about had enough….I will, NEVER vote for a candidate that defends the wars and the reasons for them….that means I will NOT vote for any candidate on the stage for the last debate other than Tulsi…..the MSM is doing all they can to make her voice a silent one….they are pulling NO punches belittling and demeaning some one with principles and I have NO use for MoveOn or MSNBC and their wealth of warmongering toadies as pundits.

Just listen to them…they want a true centrist to be the candidate….that means that their owners, the corporations, will be safe and profitable.

So what is war good for?  PROFITS….period!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Poverty, Climate And Defense Spending

The first Dem debate is in the tank…..I heard very little about poverty, lost of lip service but no new ideas, climate was on the agenda for the MSM and little about out of control defense spending.

But fortunately there was an outlet for the candidates to go on the record without having to depend on the MSM to bring up the issues like they do with the debate.

The Institute on Policy Studies met with most of the candidates and got their views the day before the debate……

2020 candidates were asked about their plans to address poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological devastation. Here’s what they said.

June 25, 2019

Where do the 2020 presidential candidates stand on poverty, climate change, taxes, and military spending?

Over 140 million Americans — or 43 percent of us — are poor or low-income, according to research by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Poor People’s Campaign. That poverty is compounded by the interlocking injustices of racism, militarism, and ecological devastation. It was caused not by poor personal decision making, but by massive public investments in policies that benefit a tiny few at the expense of the rest.

The good news? We have abundant resources to fix it, our Poor People’s Moral Budget report shows. All we have to do is get them out of the military, Wall Street, and the mass incarceration industry and into programs that actually work for the public.

When we launched our Moral Budget with the Poor People’s Campaign, we asked nine 2020 presidential candidates if they had the political will to put those resources to work for the public.

https://ips-dc.org/2020-candidates-poverty-climate-change-military-spending-racism-militarism-ecological-devastation-presidential-debates/

If you are considering voting in 2020 then maybe this post and accompanying article will be helpful….I try to be as much FYI as I possibly can…..hoefully it will be informative.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

The VOTE!

Space Command Or Space Force?

I have been one of the few bloggers that show any concern over the proposal for a 6th branch of military service, the Space Force, as Trump has labelled it.

Then I read about the need for a Space Command…..is this the same as the Space Force or yet more waste of the taxpayer money?

Pentagon leaders wanted U.S. Space Command, a new joint combatant command for space warfighting, up and running by the end of 2018. Two full months into 2019, Congress has yet to repeal a law that is preventing the command’s creation, according to defense and Trump administration officials.

Here’s the problem. In the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers ordered U.S. Space Command to be subordinate to U.S. Strategic Command, the same way U.S. Cyber Command started out under STRATCOM. But the administration wants Space Command to begin its organizational life as an independent unified command.

https://www.defenseone.com/politics/2019/02/legislative-hurdle-delays-us-space-command-stand/155220/

The Space Force proposal has been sent to Capitol Hill……..

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday sent to Capitol Hill a legislative proposal and a “strategic overview” of how the Pentagon plans to organize a U.S. Space Force as a separate military branch. The information was emailed to the staff directors of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, as well as the House and Senate Appropriations defense subcommittees.

The proposal is the culmination eight months of work since President Trump directed the Pentagon to draw up a plan to create a Space Force. Shanahan already had been designated by Congress as the point man for the space reorganization and he has overseen every step of the process.

Now that the proposal has been kicked over to Congress, DoD faces what could be a harder-than-expected job communicating the plan to Congress and the public. One of the challenges for DoD will be to argue that Congress should authorize a Space Force for reasons of national security, not just to satisfy the commander-in-chief’s directive.

https://spacenews.com/space-force-proposal-officially-sent-to-capitol-hill-now-come-the-questions/

As this proposal moves closer to reality….I ask how much of the taxpayers money will be wasted this time?

The Trump administration plans to spend $2 billion over five years to create its Space Force, according to a Defense Department proposal released Friday.

The legislative proposal

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/432235-pentagon-seeks-2b-over-five-years-for-space-force

Once again yet another way to expand the DoD budget while asking the nation’s population to make the sacrifice in services and entitlements…..

To make the case for justification for a Space Force…..National Security……

We quickly learned that America no longer owns space. We operate there along with every other space-capable nation, including adversaries like China and Russia. We learned that they are doing everything in their power to interfere with our operations. We learned that future wars will take place in space.

And we quickly realized the grim truth that we aren’t ready.

China and Russia, in particular, are aggressively pursuing space-based capabilities. China successfully destroyed an old weather satellite in a test in 2007, creating a debris field of more than 3,000 pieces, which could have damaged countless other satellites in orbit. They’ve stayed at it, continuing to work on anti-satellite weapons including lasers, signal jammers, and other ways of blinding our assets in space. In some areas, they are beating us.

https://spacenews.com/op-ed-getting-space-right-is-both-a-national-security-and-an-economic-question/

And this sage will continue….and IST will be watching and writing…..

Learn Stuff!

Turn The Page!

I Love A Parade! (Part2)

Closing Thought–17Aug18

When Our Dear Leader was in France in his first year as leader he was treated to a parade in Paris and he fell in love with all the pomp and ceremony and all the really cool army stuff.

So when he returned to this country he told his military hierarchy that he wanted his own special military parade and they were to make it happen.

https://lobotero.com/2018/02/12/i-love-a-parade/

About $92 million will be the cost of this silly endeavor…..

The Veterans Day military parade President Trump ordered in February has been controversial from the start, with critics wondering if Trump was trolling the nation, the Pentagon saying the tanks Trump wanted couldn’t be involved, and the Office of Management and Budget warning the whole thing could cost millions. And now it turns out it may actually cost even more millions than originally thought: Officials who spoke anonymously to the AP, ABC News, and CNBC say the latest preliminary estimate is $92 million, up from an original estimate of $10 million to $30 million.

The officials say about $50 million of that is Pentagon costs including aircraft, equipment, personnel, and other support and the rest is largely related to security costs. But the estimates have not yet been finalized or released publicly, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has yet to approve parade plans; at least one official warns that, depending on the scope of the plans Mattis signs off on, the cost estimate could change. The defense bill Trump signed this week authorized the November parade.

So should we make our plans and reserve the hotel and buy the popcorn for this Veterans Day and the parade of the century?

I would hold off making your reservations right now…….

President Trump has long sought a military parade, but it won’t be happening in 2018. The Pentagon announced on Thursday that the November parade has been postponed indefinitely, and won’t happen “until at least next year.”

There are reasons to doubt it will happen at all, as estimates of the cost of the parade are soaring, and appears to be drying up a lot of the interest in a gaudy display of America’s military arsenal. Those costs aren’t going to go down, only up.

(antiwar.com)

This is just another in the Dear Leader’s list of idiotic plans that accomplish nothing but to feed his ego and waste money, taxpayer money, that could be better used elsewhere.

If Trump wants to show support for the troops then……

American Legion National Commander Denise Rohan said they appreciate Trump’s desire to show support for the troops, but until “we can celebrate victory in the War on Terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veteran Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible.”

Now that is a much better plan than some silly worthless parade.

Update:  While I was writing this draft more news has come to light…..

The Hill also reports that these weren’t Trump’s only recent tweets on the subject. After Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Thursday called for the money to go toward veterans’ causes (“health care, more jobs & skills, end vet homelessness & suicides”), Trump responded: “How can ‘Senator’ Richard Blumenthal, who went around for twenty years as a Connecticut politician bragging that he was a great Marine war hero in Vietnam (then got caught and sobbingly admitted he was neither a Marine nor ever in Vietnam), pass judgement on anyone? Loser!”

Seriously?  This from a coward that took 4 or 5 deferments to get out of Vietnam…..

Then Kellyanne had to say the most pathetic thing of the day……

Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox & Friends ahead of Trump’s tweets. “We don’t need a parade to celebrate all this president has done for those brave men and women in uniform,”

Someone please tell the clueless Kellyanne…the parade is for Our Dear Leader has nothing to do with honoring our brave troops….it would be an ego trip not anything else.

Let’s hope that  this worthless idea has met its match and we NEVER see a stupid military parade…..

Turn The Page!

Come on let’s start the weekend…try it it will be fun!