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A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

arstechnica.com

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Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#81

Post by physicalecon »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #47
jocaal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how people complain about federal debt, when the people complaining benefitted the most from the system. It is your children who will be paying the interest, while the older folk enjoyed a heated economy with high government spending. Economics is just as fundemental as physics. There are conservation laws that cannot be violated. However you can make other people hold the bag.

> There are conservation laws that cannot be violated. Modern Monetary Theory on line 2 for you! There is no possible sense in which "economics is just as fundamental as physics": the latter concerns the behavior of the physical world with or without humans in it; the former describes the dynamics of a human created system featuring humans interacting with each other and the physical world.

[dead]

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#82

Post by verve_rat »

brainwad wrote: post #79
rcarr wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a Ken Livingstone quote from the foreword of "Drama Games: For Those Who Like To Say No": > In the early 1980s, when the GLC (Greater London Council) was trying to save and create jobs to mitigate the impact of Thatcher's recession, we discovered that the most labour-intensive form of public spending was the arts, and so during the five years from 1981 to 1986 we increased spending on arts and recreation from…

This only works if you can force every state to do it, lest naive states be defenseless against those that don't disarm. But any such compulsion would be self-terminating, and thus unstable. Why not just do it all? Fund the military and the arts and the sciences.

Do you think the US needs all of its current military capacity to just deter outside aggression?

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#83

Post by WarmWash »

dh2022 wrote: post #75
brookst wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to see that as an indictment of military capability when it is so overwhelmingly a reflection of political incompetence.

Hmmm, the US is not able to control the Hormuz strait. Iran decides who goes through it. Yesterday Iran shot at a vessel [0]. We can argue the semantics of “control” but I think this whole debacle showed the limits of US military power. [0] https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5871963/un-agency-pause...

There is a difference between military might and political will.

Going all out on Iran would free up the straight, but also be political suicide for the right.

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#84

Post by perilunar »

luckylion wrote: post #53
cg5280 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2024, the average American spent about $17,000 on taxes. Nearly $4000 of that went to the DoD, about $3500 went to interest on federal debt. I think it’s fun to think about it in this way. I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war.

> I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war. Or, put another way, you spend hundreds of dollars a month on not having to learn russian and live as putin's peasant. Seems like a good deal to me.

The Russians can't even take Ukraine — what makes you think they have a hope in hell of taking the US?

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#85

Post by brookst »

dh2022 wrote: post #75
brookst wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to see that as an indictment of military capability when it is so overwhelmingly a reflection of political incompetence.

Hmmm, the US is not able to control the Hormuz strait. Iran decides who goes through it. Yesterday Iran shot at a vessel [0]. We can argue the semantics of “control” but I think this whole debacle showed the limits of US military power. [0] https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5871963/un-agency-pause...

Do you really think the US military was given orders to control the strait, and couldn’t?

It showed limits for sure. But the limits were bluster without the will to follow through (and accept the consequences).

It’s a political and diplomatic catastrophe for an empire in decline. But if control of the strait had been an actual priority, it would have been very achievable. That was never the goal though. The goal was to look stupid on TV, for some reason.

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#86

Post by dh2022 »

brookst wrote: post #85
dh2022 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm, the US is not able to control the Hormuz strait. Iran decides who goes through it. Yesterday Iran shot at a vessel [0]. We can argue the semantics of “control” but I think this whole debacle showed the limits of US military power. [0] https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5871963/un-agency-pause...

Do you really think the US military was given orders to control the strait, and couldn’t? It showed limits for sure. But the limits were bluster without the will to follow through (and accept the consequences). It’s a political and diplomatic catastrophe for an empire in decline. But if control of the strait had been an actual priority, it would have been very achievable. That was never the goal though. The goal was…

Re: “Do you really think the US military was given orders to control the strait, snd couldn’t?”

Pretty much. I think US military was given the order to make Trump look good, and they couldn’t (Trump looks weak now, which he completely hates)

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#87

Post by brookst »

dh2022 wrote: post #86
brookst wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think the US military was given orders to control the strait, and couldn’t? It showed limits for sure. But the limits were bluster without the will to follow through (and accept the consequences). It’s a political and diplomatic catastrophe for an empire in decline. But if control of the strait had been an actual priority, it would have been very achievable. That was never the goal though. The goal was…

Re: “Do you really think the US military was given orders to control the strait, snd couldn’t?” Pretty much. I think US military was given the order to make Trump look good, and they couldn’t (Trump looks weak now, which he completely hates)

“Make Trump look good” and “control the strait using whatever means necessary” are not compatible.

I agree they can’t make him look good. And I guess we’re agreeing the mission was not actually to control the strait in as a critical military objective .

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#88

Post by manoDev »

laughing_man wrote: post #41
manoDev wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The military budget is how the US enforces Bretton Woods. The jobs part is just a nice side-effect of any govt. spending.

Bretton Woods was formally terminated in 1973.

Only in theory. The US still forces emergent countries to trade in USD under the menace of tariffs, staging coups, and military intervention.

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#89

Post by laughing_man »

manoDev wrote: post #88
laughing_man wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bretton Woods was formally terminated in 1973.

Only in theory. The US still forces emergent countries to trade in USD under the menace of tariffs, staging coups, and military intervention.

We're getting into tinfoil hat territory here.

Re: A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

#90

Post by pc86 »

Retric wrote: post #52
pc86 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK so maybe they're both jobs programs, but .mil is bigger and employs more people (almost certainly at a lower per capita cost).

> OK so maybe they're both jobs programs, but .mil is bigger and employs more people Which is a direct function of its budget not a function of what it does. > (almost certainly at a lower per capita cost). DoD is extremely expensive per job due to the longe term benefits, layers of bureaucracy, and sub contractors.

I think it's more a function of who it employs. If you're able to get a job at NASA you're able to get a job a lot of other places.

This is not necessarily true for large segments of the DOD.

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