I wonder which terrible story they’re trying to distract from. Maybe the fact that Trump made all the gateways bad and, contrary to his claims, it is not Obama’s fault?
I hear Anakin Skywalker is looking for a new gig. Maybe he could lead this new “space force.”
Why not just fully fund NASA? Are there Star Wars going on up there that we’re not aware of? Christ these people are dumb.
Are they trying to make Pence look presidential ? To ease the transition ? He hardly believes in gravity …
“Vice President Mike Pence has announced plans for a new, separate U.S. Space Force as sixth military service by 2020.”
We already have volunteers for Commander Bone Spurs new Space Force:
Distractions-R-Us! Oooh, shiny!! Come look over here! Squirrel!
As a retired LTC I see this as just another boondoggle. A way to justify Congress authorization of additional Officers and Senior Enlisted. Payback for keeping your mouth shut or if you must speak, speaking highly of the current administration. Next we will need a Space Marines force…etc, etc, etc, etc. Firms like Boeing are salivating at the money prospects.
Why not? All the design work by the White House Science Advisor is finished already;
Needing billions and billions of new tax dollars.
The Republicans are coming for the rest of your money, middle class. Of course, they’ll borrow it so people think they won’t have to actually pay for it… until they have to.
With interest.
Among other priorities, Putin expressed interest in extending an Obama-era nuclear-reduction treaty and ensuring “non-placement of weapons in space.”
"Militarization of outer space is the path to disaster,” Victor Bondarev, head of the Russian Parliament’s Upper House Committee on Defense and Security, told state media Tuesday.
”Let’s hope the American political elite still have the remnants of reason and common sense,” Bondarev said. “But if the United States withdraws from the 1967 treaty banning nuclear weapons in outer space, then, of course, not only ours, but also other states, will follow with a tough response aimed at ensuring world security.”
It appears there is already an Airhead Force that follows around Executive Branch officials with a high-pressure compressor and hose.
The Space Force headquarters will be located next to president bush’s Mars colony (remember that one?)
“Any proposal to create a new service would require congressional action.”
Oh I am sure congress is going to jump right in and reorganize all the other military branches to take things away from them and then make a entirely new branch and fund it. And this is a congress which likely will be Dem controlled in the house shortly.
Pence is, of course, enough of an idiot to easily knock James Danforth Quayle into second place for “Vice Presidents in living memory who were actually dumber than the bucket of warm spit that the job has famously been compared to.”
But this:
Pence says it’s needed to ensure America’s dominance in space amid heightened completion and threats from China and Russia. He says that while space was once peaceful and uncontested, it is now crowded and adversarial.
Is so wrong, it might actually break the word wrong. Space flight has always been heavily militarized. Most of the “space race” was conducted at the tip of more-or-less modified ballistic missiles. The overwhelming majority of astronauts and cosmonauts have been active duty military officers. Military satellites have been up there for many decades. Peaceful and uncontested, not so much.
OK, I get it ! Now we know what Newt Gingrich has been working on, in the Vatican (boring place for the ambassadors husband !)
This caused two separate thoughts to hit my brain. First, any SF fan old enough (like me) to remember space cop Lucky Starr, protagonist of a '50s juvenile space opera series written (under a pseudonym) by Isaac Asimov? If there’s any Air Force general with a similar surname, he can nickname himself “Lucky” and (like Mad Dog Mattis) Der Drumpfenfuehrer will probably name him Space Ranger in Chief.
Second, maybe the Goniff-in-Chief will model the new uniforms himself. Think of a '50s TV spacesuit complete with fishbowl helmet (one that Lucy Ricardo might have worn for one of her schemes) but add huge comic opera epaulettes and a red gold-trimmed sash. No one will ever poke fun at Dukakis in a tank again.
I forget, who did Chuck Yeager work for?