Watch the CPAC Crowd Go Wild When Mike Pence Mentions 'Space Force'

Though a "U.S.A." chant didn't really seem to catch on.

The packed crowd watching Vice President Mike Pence's speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today really seemed to like the idea of the Space Force.

The Space Force, of course, is President Donald Trump's proposed sixth branch of the military. As the name suggests, it's meant to project U.S. dominance into, well, space.

"We're modernizing our nuclear arsenal, updating missile defense, and before the year is out, President Trump will launch the sixth branch of our armed forces: The United States Space Force," Pence said. That statement got big cheers from the crowd, with many even giving it a standing ovation. It sounds like someone tried to start a "U.S.A." chant, though that didn't really catch on:

"SPACE FORCE" gets a standing ovation from CPAC when Mike Pence mentions it pic.twitter.com/xonsdwpli5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 1, 2019

"Under this commander in chief, we'll make sure that American is as dominant in space as it is on air and land and sea," the vice president added.

Lest one think attendees only cared about the Space Force, there were also wild cheers when Pence called for a wall on the U.S.–Mexico border. (This time, a "Build the Wall" chant did catch on.) On the brighter side, the crowd also clapped when Pence said Trump was bringing American troops home, though the reaction to that statement was lukewarm compared to the other remarks.

Pence mentioned the Space Force one day after Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan sent the Penatgon's official proposal for the new military branch to Congress. Under this plan, the Space Force will start as the U.S. Space Command, and it will technically be part of the Air Force, likely in a similar manner to how the Marine Corps is technically part of the Navy.

Despite the CPAC crowd's enthusiasm, the Space Force is a bad idea for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that the U.S. military already has plenty of entities that deal with space, making you wonder if we really need to add to the alphabet soup of government agencies. But hey, at least we're getting a Steve Carrell show out of it.

Comments

[Just Say'n]

"On the brighter side, the crowd also clapped when Pence said Trump was bringing American troops home, though the reaction to that statement was lukewarm compared to the other remarks."

Really enjoyed the Gillespie puff interview with Stephen Hayes.

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[Just Say'n]

"The 80's called and they want their body hair back"

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[JFree]

Amazing how fast CPAC has turned from a venue hijacked by the Ron Paul crowd to the empire that wants to conquer the galaxy by force

[Just Say'n]

Deep Space (201)9

[Rich]

"Under this commander in chief, we'll make sure that American is as dominant in space as it is on air and land and sea," the vice president added.

"Except, of course, in space on the far side of the moon."

[Mongo]

Tweeter Aaron Rupar used to be the social media moderator for the local alt-weekly. We hassled him mercilessly.

[Just Say'n]

But now he works for Vox so his Tweets are the paper of record for some writers

[Tony]

I've long believed sincerely that the Trumps are aliens in bad human suits, so as a citizen of earth I would consider this endeavor with caution.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

They're shapeshifters who, like the Changelings on DS9, can't quite get human right.

[Tony]

And also infiltrate the highest levels of Earth government to sow paranoia and discord. Checks out.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Maybe someone should, I don't know, say something?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

I'll probably be long gone, but I wonder how many branches of armed force the US empire will have when the fall comes around. My guess, XIII.

[Ken Shultz]

"As far as I'm concerned, SLS and Orion are doing their jobs of providing work for NASA centers and contractors and giving the US a sense of national pride to have a major goal to work toward," Forczyk said. "They are not meant to be quick, cost efficient, or sustainable. They are symbolic grand acts of a grand nation."

----Ars Technica

"After nearly $50 billion, NASA's deep-space plans remain grounded"

http://arstechnica.com/science.....l-distant/

As bad an idea as Space Force is, it makes more sense to spend that money with an eye toward defense--something that is the government's legitimate responsibility rather than space exploration.

SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin, not to mention Boeing and Lockheed, will beat NASA into space exploration and colonization by a long shot. I'm not sure we got anything worthwhile in return for that $50 billion we squandered on NASA. If it goes to defense at the expense of NASA, that might be an improvement.

[rbike]

SLS paid my salary for a while. No end to spending in sight and nothing but empty promises. But quite impressive equipment. One comment from NASA rep during a meeting I attended with them: " we have room for a lot of equipment, there is already a lot of it gathering dust. Yours may end up there (abandoned in storage) too." Then they ordered a second $3 million unit.....

[JFree]

I'm not sure we got anything worthwhile in return for that $50 billion we squandered on NASA.

Are you fucking joking??

[Eric]

The Space Force would at least push the MIC towards R&D in cool and innovative technologies that could benefit us all. Velcro and memory foam just aren't that new anymore.

[Overt]

Despite the CPAC crowd's enthusiasm, the Space Force is a bad idea for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that the U.S. military already has plenty of entities that deal with space,

This is the most idiotic of reasons why this is a bad idea. The whole point of the Space Force is to remove those various entities from direct control of other branches, and to put them in the control of a single force dedicated to space defense.

Whether we like it or not, space is quickly becoming a battle space in its own right, rather than a place of brief transit to another battle space. The same thing happened in the air- where the capabilities of air assets made it such that you needed to think of it as its own domain that needed to be defended, attacked and overall provided its own doctrine.

History is full of examples where leaders (private and public) have decided that a function is so critical that a "Center of Excellence" is necessary to bring the necessary function and attention. The Air Force is one, but in the private world, there are examples of companies centralizing their attention on mobile, or on focusing on specific vehicle platforms. And history is full of examples where this worked or failed.

[Overt]

If this is a bad idea, it isn't because "there are already agencies doing this". It will be because centralizing this capability has higher costs than our expected benefits. Rather than actually trying to make this reasoning, Seyton just takes it as a given that centralizing this function is bad because centralizing is always bad.

[Ken Shultz]

"Rather than actually trying to make this reasoning, Seyton just takes it as a given that centralizing this function is bad because centralizing is always bad."

I think they're just going for another "I can see Russia from my kitchen window" type Palin moment. They're knocking on Space Force because they think it's an easy way to make Trump look stupid.

[loveconstitution1789]

The Space Force, of course, is President Donald Trump's proposed sixth branch of the military

Trump Signs Order to Begin Creation of Space Force

Jesus Joe, did you not check twitter before you posted something that shows you have zero idea what is going on?

[Fancylad]

There's a real worry about North Korean weather satellites that have the military nervous.
Kwangmyongsongs are supposedly weather satellites. However, they orbit at a height of around 450 kilometers which is strange for a weather satellite. Weather satellites are often placed at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers to allow for a geostationary orbit.
They also don't deploy solar panels for power and they have no complex sensors that one would expect on earth observation satellites. To transmit information, a satellite needs a high-gain antennae that has to be pointed in the right direction. Kwangmyongsongs only appear to have low-gain antennas. These are not suitable for transmission of complicated data, but they can receive a simple message.
Another unusual feature of the North Korean satellites is that they orbit from south to north. Normally, weather satellites go from north to south to help obtain a sun-synchronous orbit?to observe conditions on earth under regular sun conditions?which can be desirable for earth observation satellites. The south-to-north trajectory has military applications though, as it evades America's early warning radars and national missile defenses.
There's reasonable suspicion that these satellites are "dirty" bombs or EMPs.

But Space force hurr durr" - t. Setyon

[Ordinary Person]

Are you sure they weren't chanting "Build the Deficit"?

[JFree]

On the brighter side, the crowd also clapped when Pence said Trump was bringing American troops home, though the reaction to that statement was lukewarm compared to the other remarks.

My guess is that neither Pence nor the crowd contemplated some of the stuff we did to 'beat ISIS'. Eg - We let a ton of armed ISIS fighters leave Raqqa under our protection. Hey presto - we now can claim that we conquered a now empty town - while ISIS is now free to do whatever they want elsewhere. What could possibly go wrong?

[Just Say'n]

Still a big improvement from literally funding ISIS

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vide.....syria.html

[JFree]

We are still funding them. We have a base at al-Tanf in Syria where we will remain. And it's not in the Kurdish areas (who are at least reliably opposed to ISIS), so any 'vetting' of those fighters we fund is going to be based on our own proven decades-long incompetence at vetting anybody who speaks a foreign language. The formula as always will be:

We will train those who are interested in fighting.

Whoever speaks English will do the actual vetting.

Those who are interested in fighting are mostly interested in fighting us sooner or later. What they lack is training.

Americans here are too stupid to know the difference or grasp the problem. And don't care as long as it can be explained in terms of domestic electoral politics here in the US.

[Just Say'n]

You were literally just criticizing leaving Syria.

[Eddy]

I hope Trump doesn't endorse bathing...Democrats would, in defiance, never take baths or showers again.

[Curly4]

One would not be able to tell the difference with most of them.

[Curly4]

Space Force, love it or hate hate it it is going to be a needed force that the USA had better have (first and best) if the US is to survive. With the current growth of space technology there will be men (rather people) out in space. There is no reason to think that people will do better in the future than they have done in the past. So as humanity moves to space they will also take with them the idea of obtaining certain areas exclusive for their own use. So the idea of nationalism will soon be there also. Any nation who controls the area volume of space near to the earth will also control the earth. I don't know about you I hope and pray that will be the USA instead on one of the other nations that might be able to get there firstists with the mostists. I don't know how other nations will do but I do have some idea of what the US will.

[loveconstitution1789]

Trump already signed the creation of space force under the US Air Force.