As you likely know, a lot of engineering is focused on compensating for said stupidity. At one time, I developed control programs (DOS !) for HVAC systems. I would pick some random person from the maintenance team, hand them the controller, and see how they did. The best I did on a first-run was getting to the penultimate step in the process. That was a good feeling.

Point is, there is nothing that can’t be screwed up.

Cuts remove the engineers on payroll who are not given anything to do. It is so much better for them to find productive employment from private companies that will put them to good use. Thus, cuts make a bad situation better.

“Musk’s IPO is anti-DOGE thinking. I can’t prove this of course, but my guess is that the public option is a result of Starship delays, otherwise I don’t see it happening.”

Anti-DOGE does not compute. An IPO would put innovation in the hands of a private company, which wants the revenue sooner rather than later.

Starship delays make it more likely that Starlink can fund the new projects, not less likely. Starlink is making more and more money each year, so it is in a better position to do the funding of the projects that it was intended to finance. If Starlink brings in enough revenue soon enough, then an IPO would be unnecessary.

Oh yeah, big-time. I see where Palantir is going to be installing AI software at shipyards that build submarines, then branching out to all of the subcontractors, in an effort to speed that process up. If it works, the USN’s surface fleet is supposed to be the next target.

My own opinion is that the USN needs to revise its entire philosophy of ship design and acquisition and go for an all-nuke, all-SWATH fleet. Better software may help build the wrong ships faster, but the key problem is that the ships are wrong, not that we can’t build more mistakes faster. Artificial intelligence will never be more than a band-aid unless human stupidity is rooted out first.

It remains to be seen, of course, just how well it’s going to do that job.

Hopefully, better than the U.S. Navy develops new surface warships!

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade

The “they” in that “stand and wait” thing are those who serve God, not those who get government paychecks.

From now and going forward, one can expect that a great many things attempted by government will be based on getting around DOGE.

MSFC, in particular, was given quite a bit to do between Shuttle and SLS-Orion. It failed to successfully do any of it. Given the decidedly checkered history of Shuttle, and that SLS now stands a decent chance of being cancelled after two missions without ever actually carrying a crew, I think a good case can be made that the last – and only – thing MSFC ever did well was Saturn V. That’s a loooooong dry spell. That horse can’t run. Time to put ‘er down.

Musk’s potential SpaceX IPO is not a government project so how DOGE enters the frame is, to say the least, mysterious – to all except you, apparently.

Musk has been quite forthcoming about what he needs an epic pile of cash for on fairly short notice – and it’s AI data centers in space, a project whose later phases will also include major industrialization of the Moon. Starship “delays” have nothing to do with it.

It would behoove you to rely on sources of information beyond merely your own fevered brain. Musk’s motive for a possible SpaceX IPO is not a secret. Search engines are your friends.

If the bright people in question are content to be layabouts on the government payroll then pipe them all down the road say I.

The ability to project force is what kept “our country’s battles” – as the Marines’ Hymn says – in far-away places like “the Halls of Montezuma” and “the shores of Tripoli” and not in “the streets of Cucamonga” or “the shores of New Jer-sey.” It’s something hard to whistle up from scratch on short notice and so requires maintenance even when not in immediate heavy use. With the notable exception of 9-11, the capability to project force has kept wars against foreign opponents off of the US mainland since the War of 1812.

There seems to be no shortage of people a lot closer than Europe who don’t appreciate what America has done for them. Ingratitude is, sadly, a very common aspect of the human condition. See Dearborn and Somalisota for relevant examples.

It’s certainly true that most of Europe hasn’t been any great shakes when it comes to “facing Ivan” until quite recently. But they seem to be getting with the program now that their noses are being rubbed in a bracing pile of cold reality. The rest of NATO seems to be more up for the “face Ivan” project than we are at the moment. The Ukrainians, with some help from their neighbors to westward, and less-than-it-should-be help from ourselves, have pretty clearly demonstrated that the Russian bear is a moth-eaten and creaky animal these days. Facing Ivan is all well and good, but bayonetting Ivan until he stops twitching is an even better idea. And I’d a whole lot prefer that be done on his ground than on ours.

If you want to kick in or rattle a cup for MSFC, feel free. But the vast majority of we Americans who do not live in Huntsville would just as soon that “your neighbors” either start earning their keep – if they can – or find someone else to pay them.

Musk’s IPO is anti-DOGE thinking. I can’t prove this of course, but my guess is that the public option is a result of Starship delays, otherwise I don’t see it happening.

I want to keep bright people in the game. The deadwood is in the logistical nightmare that is force projection. There are those in Europe who don’t appreciate what America has done for them., so I’d rather my neighbors in Marshall stay afloat and leave that other bunch to face Ivan themselves.

The proposals in question would certainly fund a lot of new DC desk-sitters, and maybe even a few faux “researchers,” but I’m dubious any of that would ever fund any useful research. On that basis, Argentina looks like a much better investment.

USSF has an actual job to do. It remains to be seen, of course, just how well it’s going to do that job. How it manages the implementation of Golden Dome will be an early indication of its competence as a war-fighting service. But the early returns look generally favorable. The fact that USSF is doing significant deals with NewSpace companies and not simply following the well-worn paths to the legacy cost-plus usual suspects does not make that spending “pork,” it makes it superior stewardship of the taxpayers’ money.

Pork is money going to institutions year after year, decade after decade, that produce nothing but filled parking lots that are pleasing to certain Congresscritters, but nothing of real value to the nation or to taxpayers in general in return for that largesse. MSFC would be one of the paradigmatic examples.

Besides, USSF is just NewSpace pork anyway.