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The Worst US Defense Program of All

spoilsofwar.substack.com

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Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#11

Post by BlueTankEngine »

Narretz wrote: post #5
BlueTankEngine wrote: post #2

This article is a malicious misrepresentation of the facts. https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/boeing-delivers-14-k... Is this tanker program 7 years late in delivery? Yes. But Boeing has eaten the entire $5 Billion dollars of cost overruns, as the contract for these planes is fixed price. In addition, the reason the plane is 7 years late is absolutely not due to the boom control mechanism, but more so the fueli…

I think you are misrepresenting the article. Its main argument is that the remote visual guidance system for the boom initially didn't work as intended and the fix is still in progess. Are you implying that is wrong?

I would say the main argument of the article is that the US Military Industrial Complex is corrupt and that the taxpayer is getting scammed by corrupt procurement officials into paying for things they don't need. I feel like this is pretty clearly a persuasive piece.

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#12

Post by keewee7 »

BlueTankEngine wrote: post #2

This article is a malicious misrepresentation of the facts. https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/boeing-delivers-14-k... Is this tanker program 7 years late in delivery? Yes. But Boeing has eaten the entire $5 Billion dollars of cost overruns, as the contract for these planes is fixed price. In addition, the reason the plane is 7 years late is absolutely not due to the boom control mechanism, but more so the fueli…

The "author" started the blog one day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the theme in many of the articles is the usual triad of arguments from Russian bots:

- The West is to blame, Russia is innocent!

- Russia is strong! Western sanctions can't hurt Russia!

- Western sanctions are provoking Russia and will lead to nuclear WW3!

As an European with many Polish and Ukrainian friends I'm happy that isolationist American techno-libertarians are confined to Hacker News and r/Conspiracy. It would be a terrifying world if American libertarians had a say in foreign policy and defense policy.

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#13

Post by vsskanth »

hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #4

tldr: There are a number of US defense programs that are boondoggles and are a waste of taxpayer dollars. What can be done to fix it and make it more efficient? Well, the big problem is that congress loves boondoggles like this. The politicians are also delighted to take the money to help fund their campaigns. Now they owe some favors. As a bonus, they also get to brag to their constituents about how many jobs they'r…

Term limits and limiting lobbying won’t help.

US Military is a massive jobs program and supports a huge section of the population if you include all it’s vendors. This is especially true in the heartland. Unless the amount of non-defense jobs all over US expand to such a level that people aren’t as dependent, they will always have people’s support and politicians will keep funding these.

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#14

Post by tfigment »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #6
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #4

tldr: There are a number of US defense programs that are boondoggles and are a waste of taxpayer dollars. What can be done to fix it and make it more efficient? Well, the big problem is that congress loves boondoggles like this. The politicians are also delighted to take the money to help fund their campaigns. Now they owe some favors. As a bonus, they also get to brag to their constituents about how many jobs they'r…

I'd love to see more choices come elections besides the lesser of two evils.

Most people dont vote in primaries. That is only time choice is really an option for same party candidates. Since CU basically makes bribery legal its that much harder to remove bad incumbants since they have more campaign funds.

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#16

Post by [deleted] »

vsskanth wrote: post #13
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #4

tldr: There are a number of US defense programs that are boondoggles and are a waste of taxpayer dollars. What can be done to fix it and make it more efficient? Well, the big problem is that congress loves boondoggles like this. The politicians are also delighted to take the money to help fund their campaigns. Now they owe some favors. As a bonus, they also get to brag to their constituents about how many jobs they'r…

Term limits and limiting lobbying won’t help. US Military is a massive jobs program and supports a huge section of the population if you include all it’s vendors. This is especially true in the heartland. Unless the amount of non-defense jobs all over US expand to such a level that people aren’t as dependent, they will always have people’s support and politicians will keep funding these.

[deleted]

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#17

Post by acdha »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #6
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #4

tldr: There are a number of US defense programs that are boondoggles and are a waste of taxpayer dollars. What can be done to fix it and make it more efficient? Well, the big problem is that congress loves boondoggles like this. The politicians are also delighted to take the money to help fund their campaigns. Now they owe some favors. As a bonus, they also get to brag to their constituents about how many jobs they'r…

I'd love to see more choices come elections besides the lesser of two evils.

I wish we had a way to channel a lot of the electoral anger into electoral reform — e.g. how many people complain about Joe Manchin but never mention the odds of someone more to their taste getting elected in WV? — but it's hard to see that getting off the ground at the moment when we're fighting a rearguard campaign simply to preserve the existing level of access to voting. It's hard to convince people that the answer to disliking the available choices is to get more involved with things like local elections, propositions, etc. but we really need to figure out how to make that happen.

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#18

Post by ss108 »

tfigment wrote: post #14
encryptluks2 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see more choices come elections besides the lesser of two evils.

Most people dont vote in primaries. That is only time choice is really an option for same party candidates. Since CU basically makes bribery legal its that much harder to remove bad incumbants since they have more campaign funds.

CU?

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#19

Post by acdha »

hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #4

tldr: There are a number of US defense programs that are boondoggles and are a waste of taxpayer dollars. What can be done to fix it and make it more efficient? Well, the big problem is that congress loves boondoggles like this. The politicians are also delighted to take the money to help fund their campaigns. Now they owe some favors. As a bonus, they also get to brag to their constituents about how many jobs they'r…

Term limits are a deceptive idea: they sound good but part of why they get so much support as the go-to electoral reform idea from industry-backed groups is that they're either long enough not have much effect or shift more power to the lobbyists. If you are regularly forcing your most experienced people out, you're going to need more new candidates and those groups run programs which help identify and coach candidates, give them drafts of legislation to propose, and their media teams can make sure everyone hears about those proposals (not to mention punishing someone if they get too independent).

Re: The Worst US Defense Program of All

#20

Post by selimthegrim »

ss108 wrote: post #18
tfigment wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people dont vote in primaries. That is only time choice is really an option for same party candidates. Since CU basically makes bribery legal its that much harder to remove bad incumbants since they have more campaign funds.

CU?

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