1633

Well this is going to be interesting. Trump has threatened to veto this bill if it doesn’t repeal Section 230, which this does not. But there is a safe margin for overriding a veto in both the House and Senate, so Trump either rolls over or gets rolled.

1634

I’m not seeing a downside for Trump here. He loves conflict and playing the victim and creating drama. He cares more about attention than section 230, I can guarantee you that. So I’d say his most likely play is to veto, get overridden, and then make a public show of martyrdom while moaning about the treacherous Republican Senators that backstabbed him.

1635

Yeah, I think that’s an astute prediction. It’s a win/win/win for him, I guess.

1636

Which means he’ll find a way to screw it up.

1637

Odd.

1638

Just what a porno hitman would do.

1639

The Dread Pirate Crenshaw is bad.

1640
1641

Surprising no one:

1642

Yeah, the AF basically signaled that when it got on board the idea of the F-15EX. Build hundreds of brand-new F-15s to supplement the fleet. The existing fleet is at the end of their lifespans. This new fleet would be able to fly for decades, and they’re all digital. Our allies subsidized their R&D over the past 20 years for their own F-15s.

1643

Those F-35s fly over where I am several times a week, as we have a unit of them based here. They are wicked cool looking, no doubt about it, and boy are they LOUD. Sadly, cool-looking and loud are not exactly the parameters the tax payers ponied up millions for.

1644
1645

Clearly we didn’t spend enough money - time to slash those entitlements!

1646

Yep, there’s a wing of them here at Hill AFB as well. Very cool planes but not at all what they set out to make. The danger of losing conceptual integrity in a project, IMO. Not to mention the idea was kind of doomed from the start. I thought they already went through the “One plane that fits all sizes/needs!” with the F-111.

1647

I dunno, but I think you’re off by a few orders of magnitude there.

1648

Of course it failed. Trump promised us it was an invisible plane, but you can clearly see it!

1649

All these planes are going to be replaced by unmanned drones and drone swarms in the next 10 years anyway, I suspect.

1650

It’ll be longer than 10 years.

1651

They do a lot of the pilot training here in Phoenix at Luke AFB.

At least what went into service was a pretty bad ass plane :)

1652

As is the -35. It’s utterly badass. It’s also not cheap, not lightweight and not attritable. It’s not the F-16 replacement they wanted. In fact in history it compares more to a F-105 or even a F-111. It bombs real good. Not a lot mind you, but real good.

A lot of what makes the panther great could be leveraged in a cheaper and almost as good design. Take the engine and the digital wizzardry (sensor fusion, networking) and put it on something fast and simple, not hampered by having to fit on a CVN or LHD. It’s gonna rock. Not gonna be lightweight either.