Free Republic

Will no one rid us of this troublesome A-10 ‘Warthog’? The United States Air Force (USAF) has spent almost two-thirds of its existence as an independent service trying to get rid of the A-10, one of its most well-known aircraft. But has the Air Force finally given up? It is odd to think that a fifty-year-old aircraft might have more job security now than at any time in its long history, but it does seem that the Warthog now has a relatively secure space in the USAF fleet.

“A default could potentially — but not necessarily — delay the payment of Social Security benefits, which reach about 65 million Americans in some form,” the Times said. “It could also delay payments to government contractors, including hospitals that accept patients who use Medicare and Medicaid benefits.” A default would also have effects that trickle down further, including to state-run programs, as well as the expanded child tax credit. The next scheduled payment from that is October 15, which is before the possible default date, although another payment is due November 15.

Over the past five years, the Pentagon had reduced the American presence to under 10,000 troops. The presence was a deterrent and led to few American casualties. Indeed, over that period, far fewer Americans have died in Afghanistan than residents of Baltimore have died in automobile accidents. Past efforts to nation-building were an expensive and misguided mistake, but not the American military presence which had evolved into a mission set not dissimilar from what the Pentagon maintains in Korea.

Normally August and early September are when sport shooters and hunters head to the range to prepare for the upcoming season, but this year that could be a problem. Firearms sales have remained strong this summer, dipping only slightly from last year’s record-breaking sales, but the problem is that ammunition has continued to remain in short supply. “Everything is difficult right now,” Dave Larsen, manager of Doug’s Shoot’n Sports of Taylorsville, Utah, told local news channel KUTV.

The ships, which soon earned the nickname “Stalin’s Republics,” at 65,000 tons would have been 13,000 tons larger than Germany’s Bismarck, and more on the scale of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato class and the U.S. Navy’s planned but canceled Montana-class, yet it has been noted that the Soviet ships may have been less heavily armed with just nine 406mm (16-inch) main guns. That was compared to the nine 460mm (18.1-inch) guns of the Japanese warships and the dozen 16-inch guns on the proposed U.S. vessels.