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"anonymous sources" isn't as nefarious as it sounds, and no credible journalist would risk their career quoting a shady anonymous source. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the process of using anonymous sources. Trump et al like to think anyone and everyone can be an anonymous source for anything, but that's not how it works. Also this administration torpedoes anyone who isn't gushingly supportive of Trump, so it's no wonder they don't raise their hand as all you drones will follow your leader into hating him....see McCain who went from your 2012 2008 presidential hopeful to a "RINO" in a matter of years despite him having little to no shift in ideals or positions. Trump rolled in hot on Kelly during an interview recently, so I think Trump knows it was him, and is annoyed he can't single him out or he verifies the story. If you've been paying attention this is just the latest in a long line of slights towards the military, so it's hardly a surprise to anyone. Democrats don't need to "dig" to find stuff on Trump, shit just floats to the surface. There's always a "greatest hits" list floating around reddit... If even 10% of this is truth, it's reprehensible and you would be howling if the shoe was on the other foot. EDIT: forgot it was 2008, not 2012

Dear god. This guy really could shoot someone on the street in broad daylight and his supporters would claim fake news. The Atlantic article is completely in character with things he’s said publicly and has been confirmed by multiple sources. Anonymous sources make major contributions to stories all the time.

We are literally de-evolving intellectually as a species. The entire point of The Enlightenment was the idea that humans could use logic and reason to transcend what had previously been tribal barriers to knowledge and understanding of other humans. That the human experience was common to all humans, and that personal experience (e.g. "my truth") could be understood and empathized with by other humans. People are now being taught from a young age -- not just through formal education, but through social cues and other informal learning, and in a wide variety of social and cultural groups -- that one's identity group is the most important characteristic of their existence, which is the diametric opposite concept. This is a road that has a bad end for human civilization.

I think W and Laura had a pretty good reputation regarding interaction with and compassion for military members. I didn’t agree much with the foreign policy decisions that got us involved in forever wars but W and the First Lady did plenty of visits to wounded troops, their families, and troops in the field. From what I hear, they were very humble and generous with their time. I think he truly understood the gravity of the fact he was sending many Americans to their deaths. Biden had a military son and has a better understanding than most of the sacrifices we ask our service members to make on a daily basis. Trump thinks you are there to put on nice parades and buy him the patriotic vote. It’s fair enough to believe that he’ll preserve and increase the defense budget over a Democratic rival, but he’s also more likely to bumble his way into an avoidable conflict (re the near war with Iran not so long ago). Personally, I think prior service ought to be a requirement for the Presidency. It’s a shame so few of the current crop seem to have it, but I’m encouraged to see that many of our newest members of Congress on both sides of the aisle do.

You guys have any experience with this training? At my org (group level), we went around the room and, if you were white, you basically had to admit how you have been privileged and how you have internal biases. Super not awkward and fake, let me tell you. And this wasn’t optional. Literally every person had to talk. If you were black, you had to go around and tell the room about your experiences being oppressed based on your skin color. One of the TSgts didn’t know what to say and started rambling about how she’s never had a bad experience or felt scared until the last week when a rent a cop pulled her over on base for speeding. She went on to say that the cop was super nice and did nothing wrong, but that she felt like she should be scared so she was. We are creating victims and people with victim complexes. It also amplifies any sort of racial divide that existed before. The whole training takes away from the fact that there really are race bias problems out there, and that is what we should be focusing on.

Wokeness training is cancelled. Signed - POTUS. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf

I just saw a Biden commercial. Is he trying to get people to vote for Trump?!?

soooo....the majority of the voting populace? Optics are a huge thing during elections, and Trump seems to be determined to win on "hard mode". So many of the verifiably true things are softball pitches he watched fly by that build the overarching narrative that he hates troops. Again it's politics...many of the narratives surrounding Benghazi were devoid of understanding how the military and government works, but that doesn't stop politics from bending the narrative. Overall I don't think he hates us, but I do think he has no concept of understanding of who we are or what we do, and I can entirely see him making these statements and him not seeing them as offensive. If I grew up shitting in gold toilets my entire life I would wonder why people would volunteer to go to third world countries, eating shit food and being shot at for a living. It's not his fault, but he could work a little harder un-entrenching himself from his worldview.

Just so there are no spoilers for those who haven't watched the race yet, let me just say: THAT was interesting and fun to watch.

YGBSM.... This sounds like someone who needs to be outed. What sq?

Holy shit, this is brilliant! 🤣🤣 🤣

Really? If anyone isn't suspicious as to the timing of this "news," they are blindly naïve! If such a statement was made, especially in front of John Kelly, it would have been newsworthy two years ago. I call BS. And if anything believes the Democrats are going to treat the military any better, you need professional help!

I looked at the Navy before being picked up at a guard unit and was told that I was too old at 28. I can't remember the age reqs but check there and make sure your good. Life traveling the world is what you want to do, aim for an AF heavies unit. KC-135, C-17, or KC-10/46. We get to go to some incredible places. Good luck and hope this helps!

Ref. Deep Throat

Again, "anonymous sources" claim it. Multiple on-the-record folks say it's false. From outlets that have beclowned themselves repeatedly. Including Fox News which only corroborated, they say, part of the story. Not to mention the timing of the Democrat ads using the Atlantic article - hours after the article, boom, there are the well-polished ads. Complete with veterans against Trump letters. That's efficiency... Let those anonymous sources go on the record. Wonder why they didn't/won't?

Winning combo right there

Atlantic publishes "anonymously sourced" article last night. On the record sources, including infamous John Bolton, say it's false. Well-produced and scripted Democrat attack ads released using the story today, within 8 hours of the release. Same for the anti-Trump veterans letters being distributed citing the piece as evidence. Same outlet, among others, was 24/7 "Russia, Russia, Russia." Color me squint-eyed and a little cynical about another type of collusion. Not to mention, nary a word anywhere about a FOIA lawsuit filed this week against Secret Service for admittedly destroying records regarding Biden feeling up the wife of an agent at a photo op. Agent had to be physically restrained from decking "Fingers." Nothing to see here. Move along...

I’ve had this experience. And the some of the worst parts of it were being also called racist by not only blacks but white people too just because of the color of my skin. I didn’t say anything during the meeting. Several people threatened to quit after and the person running said do whatever they thought was right but that this wouldn’t stop as it was coming down from the highest levels. Meaning the former CSAF and our exceptionally racist, biased, and bigoted former CMSAF.

I think it’s fair to say I’m on the side of “COVID-19 is being overblown.” However, it pains me when people throw out the 6% number based on a reading of death certificates. My girlfriend had COVID and it really messed her up. Today, (nearly 6 months later) she can’t walk up more than a few flights of stairs because her lungs just won’t get the O2 needed. The doc has her on all kinds of things to try and help, and I think eventually she’ll regain her ability to breathe like before. I mention that because if she died today, say from just going too hard in a workout or straining herself, what would the coroner put down? Probably something pulmonary-related, but there’s a decent chance he/she would see COVID in her medical records and add that too. And you know what? They wouldn’t be wrong. COVID started the problems. For a parallel that might help, people don’t die only from HIV. That virus simply opens their bodies up to death from other things, such as infection. Should a coroner not note HIV alongside death by sepsis? Put simply, there’s far too much variability in what a coroner can put down on that paper to read too deeply into it. I think the death toll is significantly less than the 180,000 number, but it sure isn’t 0.

Confident? Confident in what? That this guy will continue be incompetent if he’s re-elected? Let’s talk about that wall. As of the beginning of August, about 275 miles of wall had been built. Only 30 or so miles of new wall had been built where there were no existing barriers. Exact numbers may vary but I think you’ll agree that Trump has failed to come anywhere near achieving his vision of a big, beautiful wall spanning the length of the southern border. And no, Mexico has not paid for an inch of it. In fact, the military construction budget was pilfered to do it because, like with repealing the ACA, congress knows that a good talking point does not equal good government policy. If you want to call that a promise fulfilled, knock yourself out. The bigger, more tragic picture here is for all the talk about his stupid wall, there has been no meaningful discussion about real, effective, immigration reform. Want to curb illegal immigration? Maybe talk to the farmers and growers whose business model doesn’t work without cheap migrant labor. Back to repealing the ACA: N730 is exactly correct above. Republicans held both houses of Congress and the executive. They could have absolutely gotten that done, but in the decade since ACA was passed, conservatives have been wholely unable to come up with anything better. I would agree that the ACA has serious flaws. Republicans has their chance to fix it and abjectly failed. Trump could only offer the weak excuse: “who knew healthcare was so complicated?”. How about bringing law and order back to the apocalyptic cityscapes Trump so bleakly described in his inaugural speech? He’s been president for nearly four years. The streets that were actually bleak are bleaker and law and order is, in fact breaking down in places where it was previously peaceful. Trumps response has been to fan the flames and encourage his supporters to instigate further unrest. I do not believe for a second that The current or future Trump administration will make our streets remotely safer. The chaos he insists will be the result of a Biden administration is happening now, under his watch. What ever happened to infrastructure? Wasn’t that one of his “promises”? In four years his administration has been unable to get past initial talks with congress regarding an infrastructure bill, the one policy promise of this administration that had robust bipartisan support. The Democrats were willing to help him and he still couldn’t get it done. How about that Iran nuclear deal? Yeah, we pulled out of an imperfect agreement. Has that spurred any meaningful progress with the Iranian government. Is America safer because of it or has the region become even more unstable? Hint: it’s not the former. While we’re on the subject of foreign policy does anyone know what Trump got for spending the first year of his presidency fondling Kim Jong Un’s balls? Doesn’t seem like much has changed in Lil’ Kim’s people’s paradise. So let’s talk about something that’s one of Donnie’s strengths: The economy. It’s true that Wall Street seemed to love the man and his get out of the way policies. In fact, my own 401k swelled as a result of his economic policies. But, prosperity under Trump came in large part due to a tax cut that was extremely generous to big business, but is set to expire on average Joe’s like you and me. The real elephant in the room for those who would call themselves conservatives is that Trump is nothing of the sort when it comes to economic policy. So, at best he gets mixed reviews in this area. In fact, the only promise I can think of that the man unequivocally upheld was the promise to stack the Supreme Court with conservatives. I have to admit, the Republicans have played masterful politics here, basically stealing a nomination from the outgoing administration and putting a candidate in the White House with timing that got them another nomination and likely one more if they can hold the executive. If you’re a Republican, this is legitimate means to celebrate. But let’s face it: Any Republican candidate would have done just fine here. A Rubio, a Cruz, or a Bush would have absolutely put acceptable justices on the court. I fully expect a flurry of excuses from his supporters. Some may even have some validity buried in them somewhere. But one of his signature campaign phrases was “I alone can fix it”. He hasn’t. And all of this incompetence doesn’t even take into account the administration’s pathetic response to Covid-19, which I believe is a dead horse that I’ve already beaten in these forums. So if the ends justify the means for you; if another Supreme Court justice is worth the civil unrest, the decline of science and reason in our country, the abysmal global reputation we are fermenting, the further destabilization of troubled regions around the world, the jaded and cynical worldview one must accept to come to the conclusion that a man with no morals should be the leader of the free world.....if all of those things are worth it to you, then by all means vote to re-elect Donald Trump President of the United States for four more years.

Deny. Deflect. Make counter accusations. SOP for politicians is point blame for their own choices, especially when caught.

Honestly, did anyone really expect Pelosi to follow rules?!? Rules are for peasants...

What is insane is that so many people accept without question the theory that in a truly fair and equitable world, every career field would reflect the US population's statistical spread of (insert immutable human characteristic here). There is lots and lots and lots of sociological data throughout history and spanning many societies that counters that theory. It is very, very sad that supposedly smart people in the Air Force have bought into a worldview that yields tokenism over competence.

We had a Kuwaiti student who washed back so many times, he went back through the same T-38 flight. We had actual grade books back then, and he had Volume I and Volume II. The embassy kept paying, so we kept flying him. He apparently ended up being some kind of Kuwaiti war hero for his efforts in the A-4 when the Iraqis invaded and ran the Kuwaiti Air Force out.

Roughly 1/3 of those hours/sorties are trips to and from OshKosh.