{"id":43840,"date":"2014-07-25T09:36:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T15:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/25\/the-money-pit-f-35-edition.html"},"modified":"2014-07-29T13:26:43","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T19:26:43","slug":"the-money-pit-f-35-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/25\/the-money-pit-f-35-edition.html","title":{"rendered":"The Money Pit (F-35 Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"
I'd really prefer not to think that the executives of Lockheed-Martin, or our Congresscritters, are willingly leaving this country vulnerable through this botched-up never-ending black hole of spending (and local employment). I'd like to think that they all believe that eventually, if enough additional money (and local employment) is thrown at it, the F-35's problems will all go away and we'll have a happy military (plus big bonuses and employed constituents).<\/p>\n

Really, I'd like to think that.<\/p>\n

As a side note, I wonder how all those Congresscritters who were aghast, aghast,<\/i> at the horrifyingly socialist concept federal money being spent in TARP to "stimulate the economy" reconcile that with "Well, we gotta keep throwing billions at the F-35 because the contractor(s) employ a bunch of folks in my district." I'd also like to think that that just don't recognize the inconsistency.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +George Wiman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Especially read this if you saw the 60 Minutes fluff-piece on the F-35. This jet is just the latest series of movements in a long dance, where the government insists on paying for the latest military boondoggle, and liberals like me say; "With that money we could have [educated kids, fed hungry, fixed infrastructure, whatever]!" But in scale<\/i> it's around 10x the size of the Strategic Defense Initiative. And like the SDI, it doesn't even effing work.<\/p>\n

In the movie Robocop, the evil corporate exec admonishes one of his juniors about the potential defense contracts; "Who cares if it worked or not?!"\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

When Lockheed Gives You Lemons<\/a>
\n On paper, the F-35 is an impressive plane. The fifth-generation, multirole, single-seat, single-engine Joint Strike Fighter is built primarily by Lockheed Martin, along with some help from a few other defense manufacturers. It\u2019s the first \u2026\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'd really prefer not to think that the executives of Lockheed-Martin, or our Congresscritters, are willingly leaving this country vulnerable through this botched-up never-ending black hole of spending (and local employment). I'd like to think that they all believe that eventually, if enough additional money (and local employment) is thrown at it, the F-35's problems … Continue reading “The Money Pit (F-35 Edition)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,20,349,374,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-hi-tech","category-military","category-money-politics","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41947,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/10\/throwing-good-money-after-bad-missile-defense-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":0},"title":"Throwing good money after bad (Missile Defense Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-May-14 11:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To my mind, the only question about these non-functional anti-missile systems is why they are still being funded (not just for research, but deployment).1. Is it because they are manufactured in the districts of powerful congresscritters who want the DoD dollars to flow to their constituents?2. Is it because the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132174,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/07\/maybe-we-can-start-by-cutting-military-waste-to-pay-for-increasing-military-spending.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":1},"title":"Maybe we can start by cutting military waste to pay for increasing military spending","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Dec-16 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump ran on a platform of cutting government waste and, at the same time, increasing military spending. Here's how he could get $125B over the next five years, per a report that the Defense Business Board produced in 2015, and the Pentagon quashed so as not to admit that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128051,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/18\/preambling.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":2},"title":"Preambling","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Sep-15 5:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a generation of kids who were watching TV in the mid-70s who cannot hear \"We the People\" without thinking of this cartoon.There are far worse ways to remember the Preamble to the US Constitution.I'd love to see the kids today watching this. Heck, I'd like the Congresscritters and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41178,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/24\/reducing-the-us-military-budget-inconceivable.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":3},"title":"Reducing the US military budget? Inconceivable!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Feb-14 9:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, what would happen if next fifteen largest military spenders in the world all ganged up on us and we weren't still spending more than all of them combined!? MADNESS!I'm not particularly here of making some of the budget cuts in terms of pay tightening and reduced benefits to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/07\/we-must-cut-spending-except-on-military-stuff-built-in-my-district.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":4},"title":"We must cut spending! Except on military stuff built in my district!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Jul-16 12:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"When naval officers who are vested in a new program combine with defense contractors who are vested in their bottom line and congresscritters who are vested in campaign donations and bringing home the pork, the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense are apparently helpless to stop them.'The extra ship, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13254,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/05\/playing_for_points.html","url_meta":{"origin":43840,"position":5},"title":"Playing for points","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Feb-09 10:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"The GOP Congresscritters have clearly decided that they are more interested in scoring points than in helping people. It's not just a matter of fiddling while Rome burns --...","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/economy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/republican.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43965,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43840\/revisions\/43965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}