STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Lets make our own rockets in U.S. instead of giving $$$ to Putin!

We are now completely dependent on Putin for rockets, giving him Billions of Dollars from our inept Air Force/Pentagon. Why are we incapable of producing our own rockets? What about Lockheed Martin and Boeing?  Don’t we need jobs in the U.S.? Shame on us and on these functionaries and tax subsidized private companies.

Our military /industrial complex is overseen by highly paid generals/admirals/civilians who pay billions of taxpayer dollars to corrupt Russian oligarchs including Putin to send our Top Secret payloads into space. At the very same time, those same US military officials are trying to make a “regime change” in Russia because of their ‘supposed invasion’ of Ukraine [Crimea].

I was shocked to read in the NY Times article on June 3, 2015 by Steven Lee Myers about this incredible paradox in which our senior Pentagon officials and their eventual employers after retirement—Lockheed Martin and Boeing—have had to beg the White House/ Congress to continue the exorbitant payments to the Russians for their rocket boosters.  It was more evidence that DOD has become nothing more than a nursing home of useless military officials who garner all types of ‘fruit salad’ for nothing more than preparing themselves for a highly subsidized tax payer retirement.

The Pentagon has become a bloated and festering tumor due to ignorance, laziness, and greed. The U.S Air Force [descending quietly into oblivion with the advent of drones] has not been able to develop the simple booster rockets required to send our intelligence/satellite payloads into space. As a result of the so-called “peace dividend”,  Americans have the good fortune of paying the Russians for the privilege of using their efficient booster rockets; which we could not and have not been able to manufacture since the 1990’s.

Unbelievable!

We have our very own  dysfunctional “private” corporations,  Lockheed Martin and Boeing,  demanding that despite our sanctions against Russia for their invasion of the Ukraine that Congress should release the necessary funds to buy more Russian booster rockets.

Here are some of the relevant quotes from the NYTimes article:

“Certainly we cannot have Vladimir Putin and his cronies profit from the sale of rocket engines,” Senator McCain said at a news conference.

“Ending the reliance on the RD-180 [rocket booster] is not as simple as it appears,” said David A. Deptula, a retired Air Force General who runs the Mitchell Institute For Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Virginia. He continued, “Underinvestment, lack of clear vision and stifling bureaucracy has slowed innovation of alternative for years.”

Please tell me why no present or past Sec Defs or POTUS’s did not FIRE everyone involved or uninvolved in developing a 21st century American rocket for the new space era?

The reason is simple.
American citizens have tolerated dysfunctional military which has not and cannot win a battle or a war since 1944. They have been coddled by Generals and senior officers whose primary concerns have been their careers and their own wallets. We have allowed our legislators to pork barrel the pentagon budget so that every member of Congress has a totally useless military installation in their district yet serves no segment of national security.  Our so called weapon systems are primarily constructed from elements of electronics developed/manufactured by our potential enemies; China, Russia, and questionable allies; Israel, India, Pakistan.

Def Ashton Carter should kick these lazy celebrity generals in the butt.  In addition, as Congress feeds the old dinosaurs Lockheed and Boeing tax payer handouts in exchange for fat campaign contributions, tell them to dust off the R&D departments and make some space age technology happen.  Or give the money to Elon Musk and Space X, he’s got rockets and the drive to make something happen. 

  Time for the generals and old time corporations that exist on the tax payer dole to take the dirt nap.

Congratulations to Putin! He understood that no matter how tough we might posture in the world, the truth was more pathetic: We need Putin in order to fight Putin.