U.S. Vice President Mike Pence strapped on his most earnest "serious face" on Thursday as he made the argument about why the U.S. military must come to dominate outer space with its military – an idea that has been panned with a stream of derisive adjectives that could quite possibly stretch to Mars and back.

"What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial," said Pence of space during his speech at the Pentagon.

"And as President Trump has said, in his words," he continued, "it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space. And so we will."

Watch:

But was Pence's a convincing case? Not really.

As Common Dreams has previously reported—in a piece overtly titled Poverty Rampant, Puerto Rico Destroyed, Single Payer "Too Expensive," and Flint Still Doesn't Have Clean Water. But You Can Have Space Force!—the idea that more Pentagon spending should be devoted to further militarizing and dominating outer space—when so many pressing problems remain under-funded and unsolved—is laughable on its face.

Maybe, just maybe, we should make sure our people are not dying because they lack health insurance before we start spending billions to militarize outer space. #SpaceForce — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 9, 2018

And as columnist Belén Fernández articulated in June of this year, the idea of increasing military infrastructure in space, let alone creating a so-called Space Force, is "astronomically misguided."

Meanwhile, the ridicule and ire directed at Pence's speech on Thursday mounted quickly online.

What follows is a (small) sample.

"Idiotic":

I would MUCH rather have my hard-earned tax dollars go to: - Healthcare

- Drinkable water for Flint

- Restoring power to #PuertoRico

- Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure

- Reuniting kids separated at border

- ELECTION SECURITY than this idiotic Space Force idea. — BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) August 9, 2018 The president has no friends at all because no one has taken him aside and told him, look dude, Space Force sounds fucking idiotic. — roxane gay (@rgay) August 9, 2018 This will go down in history as the most idiotic, hairbrained scheme in the history of the #UnitedStates. Truly Trumpian. #SpaceFarce

#Pence launches #SpaceForce, says U.S. needs to prepare for 'next battlefield' https://t.co/QTfB3jmi6z SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.





— Citizen_SpaceForce (@ThePhotowagon) August 9, 2018

"Wasteful":

What a joke. The same right wingers that hyperventilate over "big government" suddenly have no problem with the creation of a wasteful, redundant "Space Force." A new bureaucratic monstrosity. The same fucks that say we're too broke to help the sick or feed impoverished kids. — Aiden Wolfe (@AidenWolfe) August 9, 2018 Ex-NASA astronaut Mark Kelly on the Space Force: "The only person that I've heard say this is a fantastic idea is the Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. Everybody else says it's redundant, it's wasteful. We don't have the need out there right now." @MSNBC — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 9, 2018 Republicans: “Cut wasteful government spending!” also Republicans: “Space Force!” pic.twitter.com/d700rcE5WG — Korynn (@Korynn_W) August 9, 2018 On the one hand, Space Force is a foolish idea that solves no actual problems, but on the other hand, it's a great way to transfer taxpayer money to defense contractors — Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) August 9, 2018 WHAT THE FUCK IS A SPACE FORCE JUST GIVE PEOPLE HEALTH CARE https://t.co/1O2qY8MQu2 — Ike Barinholtz (@ikebarinholtz) August 9, 2018

"Ridiculous":