You couldn't dream this stuff up. Trump's insistence on a new U.S. Space Force is such a stupid idea that, as i wrote yesterday, I turned down the chance to give up Not Fake News to be the new Space Force Secretary. Really.
I thought, well, that's enough of that. But then I saw the logos the Trump campaign has already designed for consideration -- nothing like getting ahead of the game. Why do a logo before you even have Congressional authorization to spend those many billions of dollars on the sixth branch of the military that may never come to fruition?
The logos were designed by the same people who "created" the Trump-Pence 2016 campaign logos, an acknowledgement that this is nothing more than political campaign BS designed to divert attention from the disastrous presidency that we are all witnessing.
In fact, the announcement said his campaign will be selling those logos after people vote and decide which one they like the best. Clearly, this is just another Trump stunt designed to get press attention, much of which is already panning his stupid idea.
Like this story from Fast Company by Jesus Diaz, which points out that astronaut Mark Kelly and numerous other experts -- including many top Defense Department officials -- explain that, uh, Mr. President, the United States already has a Space Command. It’s been around since 1982, in fact.
Space defense is also one of the U.S. Air Force’s core missions, which currently involves monitoring space from natural and third-country threats, protecting military satellites, and foiling any alien conspiracy being cooked up to take over Earth.
But wait, there's more.
As Diaz writes:
The United States, the Soviet Union, and the U.K. signed the Outer Space Treaty, prohibiting any militarization of space, in 1967. Other countries with space programs, including China, are also treaty signees. There’s simply no war in space, period. So there’s really no need for a sixth branch of the U.S. military. And NASA–which works with the Air Force–already takes care of peaceful exploration.
Either Trump is simply unaware of all of this -- which is entirely possible, even likely -- or he just doesn't care because he wants a Space Force no matter what, or he wants to be the first to militarize space -- despite the treaty that we signed decades ago.
So, like all egomaniacs, the first thing he does is order up a logo so he can feel like he's got something. Hopefully, whatever logo is chosen will never have a use other than providing great material for pundits and late night jokesters, or maybe Trump supporters will have "pick the logo" parties where they sit around and fantasize what a wonderful world it will be once Planet Earth is defended by Donald Trump's U.S. Space Force.