Merry Christmas from Donald Trump

[Unregistered]

Trump knows it pulls at heart strings. Trump also claimed we need our military now more than ever. *** does that mean? More than WWII? Come on. Any impact of a short term shut down on the military would be minimal and we can easily blow any force out to the water at a moments notice. It's a scare tactic pure and simple. Now I actually just listened to a report that there is "some" truth to the claim that it's damaging to the military but purely from a planning standpoint. Agencies, the military etc need long term plans, not fits and starts of all the stop gaps measures.

Both sides are playing hardball; who wins is another story.

Our military budget is bigger than the next ten largest militaries combined, including Russia and China, both. While we might be able to allocate that money more wisely, the military certainly is not wanting or in need of rebuilding. More lies from Trump.

[Unregistered]

He doesn't need to focus on independents till about March 2019. That group is very fungible easily swung.

Most are singing the line from the Who - "We won't get fooled again. He also won because of the electoral college in three states (less than 100,000 votes) and lost the popular vote by a huge margin. The biggest issue facing the Dems is who they run and if they can get their act together.

Signed - an independent voter who agrees with a some of his policy ideas but can't stand him as a human being

[Unregistered]

Are you old enough to remember that election ? Ask yourself what it would resemble today with the 24/7 news cycle and the MSM cable news environment ?

Perhaps Reagan's deal with Iran to keep our people hostage longer, so Reagan could win the election, would have been brought to light with more news and a bigger news cycle?

A reminder that "party before America" is not a new Republican trend.

[Unregistered]

Our military budget is bigger than the next ten largest militaries combined, including Russia and China, both. While we might be able to allocate that money more wisely, the military certainly is not wanting or in need of rebuilding. More lies from Trump.

Of course. But it plays to his base well. I do support his supposed push to spend more on vets. What we give them is a joke. But equipment etc? Completely unnecessary and the entire defense contracting business is a scam.

[Unregistered]

Perhaps Reagan's deal with Iran to keep our people hostage longer, so Reagan could win the election, would have been brought to light with more news and a bigger news cycle?

A reminder that "party before America" is not a new Republican trend.

Are you old enough to remember? Did you vote ? 1980 & 1984 ?

[Unregistered]

Perhaps Reagan's deal with Iran to keep our people hostage longer, so Reagan could win the election, would have been brought to light with more news and a bigger news cycle?

A reminder that "party before America" is not a new Republican trend.

You mean like Benghazi?

[Unregistered]

Of course. But it plays to his base well. I do support his supposed push to spend more on vets. What we give them is a joke. But equipment etc? Completely unnecessary and the entire defense contracting business is a scam.

Contacted by email, Carl Rhodes, director of Force Modernization and Employment Program at RAND Project AIR FORCE, a federally funded research and development center that provides analytical support to the Air Force, told us "some are over 60 years old like the B-52" while "others are brand new, like the F-22 and F-35."

At a Feb. 9, 2016, news conference, Major General James F. Martin Jr., the Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget, said the average age of its aircraft is over 27.

The Air Force Posture Statement for fiscal year 2017, released on February 10, 2016, states that makes the current fleet the oldest ever: "While our Airmen remain heavily engaged around the world, the average age of our aircraft is at an all-time high, and the size of our force and state of our full-spectrum readiness are at or near all-time lows."

So, Trump has a point about the U.S. Air Force relying on older planes.

To our inquiry, Rhodes also confirmed that Air Force maintenance workers pull parts from warehoused planes, directing us to a Jan. 30, 2013 news feature story in AIRMAN, published by the Air Force Office of Public Affairs. According to the story, reclamation teams with the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group save time and money by pulling parts that are still functional from shelved planes, sparing the Air Force from waiting longer for new parts to be made.

According to a fact sheet we spotted on the Air Force’s website, since 1964, U.S. military aircraft have been stored and disposed of by Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Davis-Monthan was first established as an aircraft storage facility following World War II. According to a February 4, 2003 PBS story, the practice of removing parts from the junked planes dates to the 1950s.

So, must the government go to "graveyards" to get parts?

"Probably not," Rhodes told us, "but it can save quite a bit of money versus buying all new parts and keeping a sufficient stockpile."

How much money, exactly? Col. Robert Lepper, Commander of the 309th AMARG, told an Arizona news service in 2014 that the group returns about a half billion dollars worth of parts into service each year.

Rhodes also offered an example that supports Trump’s claim that in some cases, the U.S. sells planes more advanced than the ones they themselves are using. "We are selling F-16s to the UAE which are more advanced than our USAF F-16s," he said.

Rhodes pointed us to a January 2014 news post on Defense Industry Daily, a trade publication focused on defense acquisition, stating the United Arab Emirates invested $3 billion in research to develop the planes, which are made by Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin, the number one US government contractor overall and within the Air Force sub-sector in fiscal year 2015, reported about 20% of their annual sales revenue came from sales to foreign entities, according to their SEC filings from 2010. Their filings report aircraft sales to countries including Israel, Kuwait, South Korea, and Tunisia. Over 25 countries purchased Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Fighting Falcon, and 15 have purchased the C-130J Super Hercules.

Boeing is the number two Air Space contractor. Some 62% of Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security Revenue comes from the U.S. Department of Defense, according to the company’s 2015 annual report. International customers account for "roughly one-third of revenue and 40 percent of current backlog" for the company. International sales account for a much smaller portion of the sales of the number three company, Northrop Grumman, according to their annual report -- 14 percent of the $23.5 billion total.

[Unregistered]

You mean like Benghazi?

Not really, but you are on the right track in that Republicans defunded the protection of such facilities.

The difficulty with the Benghazi comparison is the millions spent on numerous investigations trying to prove blame, and all investigations found none. Interestingly, notice the number of such investigations over U.S. special forces deaths in Niger as a comparison.

[Unregistered]

Trump knows it pulls at heart strings.

Whoa...hold it now. I'm a liberal and a die-hard anti-Trump, but let's be real here. The entire Democratic party does not now BUT pull at heart-strings. All I read is how the health bill will kill people; tax bill has no benefit at all for anyone besides the 1%.

It's what I cannot stand about my party any longer.

[Unregistered]

Not really, but you are on the right track in that Republicans defunded the protection of such facilities.

The difficulty with the Benghazi comparison is the millions spent on numerous investigations trying to prove blame, and all investigations found none. Interestingly, notice the number of such investigations over U.S. special forces deaths in Niger as a comparison.

A sspecial forces unit ambushed in a war zone gets ambushed while on a mission is a lot different than losing an ambassador with no military protection at a undefended consulate in a destabilized country on the anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack in us history
Also a firefight that lasted 20 minutes is different than a battle that lasted 13 hours
The spec ops got help within a half hour the bengazi guys never got us help

[Unregistered]

A sspecial forces unit ambushed in a war zone gets ambushed while on a mission is a lot different than losing an ambassador with no military protection at a undefended consulate in a destabilized country on the anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack in us history
Also a firefight that lasted 20 minutes is different than a battle that lasted 13 hours
The spec ops got help within a half hour the bengazi guys never got us help

Sure, gloss over the deaths in Niger. I'm sure that's convenient. Why were they there, exposed, on what mission? Help within a half hour, is that what you believe? That's what an investigation would figure out. What political situation prevented us from winning? What role did the Administration play in not giving these guys what they needed to succeed? Why was a guy left behind? Oh, there's lots to investigate.

[Unregistered]

A sspecial forces unit ambushed in a war zone gets ambushed while on a mission is a lot different than losing an ambassador with no military protection at a undefended consulate in a destabilized country on the anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack in us history
Also a firefight that lasted 20 minutes is different than a battle that lasted 13 hours
The spec ops got help within a half hour the bengazi guys never got us help

A consulate that was attacked at a time when Republicans had defunded protection of ... consulates. We know where the blame lies and don't need millions spent to investigate it a dozen times.

[Unregistered]

A consulate that was attacked at a time when Republicans had defunded protection of ... consulates. We know where the blame lies and don't need millions spent to investigate it a dozen times.

Barbara Boxer’s claim that GOP budgets hampered Benghazi security

May 16, 2013: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) suggested there was not enough security in Benghazi because Republicans had cut the budget for embassy security funding. But this claim was not credible and highly partisan. Democrats had also short-changed the State Department budget (compared to presidential requests), but funding for embassy security generally had increased significantly in recent years. Moreover, over the course of many hearings into the matter, State Department officials had told Congress that a lack of funds was not an issue. Instead, security was hampered because of bureaucratic issues and management failures. In other words, given the internal failures, no amount of money for the State Department likely would have made a difference in this tragedy.

[Unregistered]

Barbara Boxer’s claim that GOP budgets hampered Benghazi security

May 16, 2013: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) suggested there was not enough security in Benghazi because Republicans had cut the budget for embassy security funding. But this claim was not credible and highly partisan. Democrats had also short-changed the State Department budget (compared to presidential requests), but funding for embassy security generally had increased significantly in recent years. Moreover, over the course of many hearings into the matter, State Department officials had told Congress that a lack of funds was not an issue. Instead, security was hampered because of bureaucratic issues and management failures. In other words, given the internal failures, no amount of money for the State Department likely would have made a difference in this tragedy.

Cite your sources and defend the statement that more funding would not have helped. You are just making stuff up. For example, if they had 2 billion to spend on defending that particular consulate, then I think things might have been just a little different.

[Unregistered]

Cite your sources and defend the statement that more funding would not have helped. You are just making stuff up. For example, if they had 2 billion to spend on defending that particular consulate, then I think things might have been just a little different.

Washington Post October 21 2015