Close them.
And, while we’re at it, cut the pentagon budget in half.
The pentagon could have changed the names of the bases any time in the last umpty years. Let’s not forget that.
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All the unbuffered error messages
Close them.
And, while we’re at it, cut the pentagon budget in half.
The pentagon could have changed the names of the bases any time in the last umpty years. Let’s not forget that.
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LOL you got me. I had my cup of coffee and was all ready for a long read.
The problem with “cut the Pentagon budget in half” is that, deliberately, no one has any accurate idea what that budget is.
@Ketil Tveiten:
You are right!
(Picks up the phone) “Vlad? Quick question for you. Seriously now, what is your military budget? (Pause) Thank you.
(Hangs up the phone)
Gentlemen your new budget is $65.1 billion and one dollars.”
/Gentlemen your new budget is $65.1 billion and one dollars.”
You can’t to that! It won’t even pay for the US military’s golf courses!
… cut the pentagon budget in half.
Even without the coronavirus inconvenience, that would probably plunge the US economy into major recession.
(Unless you spent nearly all the money saved on unemployment compensation for weapons/supply contractors & subcontractors.)
Economically, Military-Industrial Complex R Us.
Pierce R. Butler@#5:
Even without the coronavirus inconvenience, that would probably plunge the US economy into major recession.
I don’t know if I have mentioned this elsewhere, or not – I have avoided doing an “if I were emperor” posting because it’d be too revealing. But, if I were emperor, the defense budget would be zeroized except for the strategic deterrent (which would be cut way back) and instead the money would be spent half on infrastructure and education, half on manhattan project-style efforts to achieve sustainable fusion.
Marcus Ranum @ # 6: … if I were emperor…
Well, you picked the wrong career and the wrong parents for that outcome.
Various pro-peace groups have offered “plowshares” plans to convert the weapons industry to more constructive aims, such as a serious national railway system – and occasional efforts have been made to fulfill small parts of such visions.
Alas, most haven’t worked. Lockheed, iirc, tried to get into the mass-transit hardware business somewhere around the late-W/early Obama period, but just couldn’t compete. The archetypal example of their failure was a (subway carriage?) door which their engineers simply could not design with less than 1,000 components.
@Pierce R. Butler@#7:
The soviets had a similar problem: titanium shovels were what one fabrication line knew how to make, so they kept making them and discovered that nobody wanted them. Demilitarizing an economy isn’t easy; there are plenty of examples of how to do it wrong. But there are also plenty of examples of what happens if you don’t do it at all. A certain amount of it is giving people a chance to re-tool, then – if they fail – you can cut their feet out from underneath them. Mao threw millions of lives on that bonfire. I didn’t say it would be easy – but at a certain point, what do we owe Northrop Grumman? Beria’d made the alternatives real clear, under Stalin: failure is an option but you won’t like it.
US history is full of executive management being brutal to labor. Maybe Northrop Grumman’s boffins don’t understand that. They’d catch on quick; they’re smart, right?
… titanium shovels were what one fabrication line knew how to make, so they kept making them and discovered that nobody wanted them.
How’d they get started with that product line, then? Doesn’t seem quite the sort of thing Nicholas II would order on a whim.
A certain amount of it is giving people a chance to re-tool…
In modern industry, a “chance” means a multi-million-dollar contract, bare minimum.
US history is full of executive management being brutal to labor. Maybe Northrop Grumman’s boffins don’t understand that.
Depends on where “boffin” goes in the org chart.
And now you can get them for $41.
ebay
“This item is out of stock”
Damn. I’d totally like some original soviet titanium entrenchment shovel with camo sheath.
Tangential but hopefully interesting esp the facts noted at the start of this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chLOgj8xjx8
It also kinda answers (#2) Ketil Tveiten regarding accurate idea of what the US military budget is -for Iguess certain approximations of accurate and idea here. $600 billion is a rough figure certainly & from 2017 but still.