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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/world/asia/trump-milley-afghanistan.html I get that no one wants to be in the seat when the fall of Kabul happens and seeing the last helicopter get the hell out with the last group as the inevitable happens but the CJCS has got to realize this is going to happen, America is no longer interested in continuing this operation and that we are leaving come hell or high water. He doesn't have to like it but don't drag your feet.

Why are you willing to pay more before the govt does a substantial budget overhaul and some massive reallocation efforts? We spend trillions on things that are way lower priority than the big problems. Why have we given billions to those fuckstick Pakis while not funding things we need at home? Why have we spent billions on cellphones for people (newsflash, a cellphone is not a required, basic need, even in 2020)before we’ve improved education? We don’t need more revenue, we need to stop spending shitloads of money on things that are not as important as American health care, education, public safety, etc.

I get what you are saying, but I think things are much simpler than a grand conspiracy of people orchestrating the compliance of the executive branch, and half of the legislative and the judiciary. It's all about money, and yes corporations and organizations are wildly spending money to influence our government and drown out our voices as the individual level in favor for these other agendas. Some people are bought and paid for, some less so, and I'm sure on occasion there are those who aren't at all. There's money to be made on pretty much either side of the political coin. It sucks, but that's the system we have until we come together and set some campaign finance laws limiting how much money can be showered onto our politicians. Imagine if most of the money that went into elections went to something good.

It is perfectly clear what it does, it's all right there in the article: "Its container-centric management environment orchestrates computing, networking, and storage on behalf of user workloads and allows for the deployment of complex microservice based applications with complete automation." To me, this sounds like it was written by the greatest OPR-bullshit artist of all time to describe the mail sorting room at Initech.

If someone submitted a plan that required Congress to hold spending (including debt payment) to what the treasury takes in and could hold Congress to that agreement, I'd would be onboard at taking a look at raising taxes to get the fiscal house in order. Unfortunately, the power to tax/borrow and spend, i.e. the power to reward donors/voters and punish those that your donors/voters don't like, is a power Congress is unlikely to give up.

I really don't get the subdued spice brown patches, nametapes, etc. It's on velcro; if you truly need to be camo'ed, just take them off, like we do with the flight suit.

No I think they know it is wishful thinking at best but no one wants to be there and then get the blame and scorn of history put on them, unfairly I might add but those are the breaks. I also think there is a reluctance on the CJCS as he is an Army GO and the withdrawal from the Stan will lead to a loss of funding for the Army and to some degree operational prestige as the large scale ground operations in the ME are wrapped up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By that logic, one should argue Trump and conservatives were forced to move further right by their antagonists (liberals). The movement of the country to one idealism or the other is the result of the collective individual political opinions of it's citizens. So how do most individual US citizens form their political ideology? It certainly isn't in a vacuum through deep introspective consideration of Trump's actual policies, actions, and results. It's media.

I’ve just continued to wear the sand ones. Not a word has been said.

https://apple.news/A1vFDoROfTw67ktJ6TCgOhw I get it, NBC is horribly biased, and I’d even agree with you on that, but read the words, the direct quote from this GOP senator. This is the danger of a Trump presidency. Trump is the guy, over the last 4 years, who has driven this country further left. Supporting this narcissist’s behavior, I fear, will ultimately play a huge part in the downfall of this country if we don’t figure a way to come back to center on many issues. Totally agree with above posts about the economy and its mismanagement needing to remain the focal point of discussion. Problem is, Trump has been so incredibly polarizing that it’s impossible to do that. He bares most of the blame for that because he can’t stay focused for longer than 2” on anything substantial. He has allowed elements of the left to take the discussion away from where it belongs because he does/says stupid things. Dude literally retweeted the Bee (think Onion type satire) because it supports his narrative... Come on! My fear is that all of you who have thrown your support behind this guy for so long are just contributing to a growing divide. Instead of standing up to the crazy crap he says/does while supporting the policies you like, this country has enabled him to keep distracting from the important issues. Don’t get me wrong, I feel the left holds a lot of the responsibility for this as well, but he’s the big kid in the room, people are gonna follow his lead... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sit down at your office computer, open Excel, and type $1,000,000 in cell A1. How would you convince someone that it's real, has value, and can given to them? Maybe you tell them they can also spend it and you'll accept a portion of it back in the future as a required tax payment. Perhaps you decide to spend your money on Healthcare, cellphones for the needy, or donate it to a school. Can this money you just created be wasted? Now change it to $2,000,000. Repeat. In 2020, our government and the Federal Reserve has added approx $3.5 Trillion US Dollars to our money supply by simply snapping their fingers, and is expected to add at least another $1.5 Trillion in the next stimulus. The early estimate of our 2020 GDP, declined by almost 40% in the second quarter, and likely over 5% during the year. The 2019 total US Federal Tax Revenue was about $3.7 Trillion. We are now creating more US dollars than exist in the total US Budget ($4.79 Trillion). Unelected people in power are arbitrarily creating unimaginable sums of money to maintain the illusion the system is working. If we print approximately 150% more dollars than we collect in tax revenue this year, why are we paying taxes at all? If you make $150K, you don't get a stimulus check. Your neighbor gets a $1200 non-taxable check. If you want $1200, you pick up a $1200 airline trip and contribute to the US GDP and pay taxes on that income. The numbers are going parabolic, and we're nearing the end of the currency system. The numbers are now based on abstract concepts. If you're on the left and believe social issues will determine the path of the US, you're a pawn. If you're on the right and believe the current social issues are a deciding factor in the election, you're naive. Why isn't the economy and US debt among the topics discussed every campaign debate, town hall, and news report as they were in previous elections? Because it's an unanswerable question for everyone in public office. They're brokering deals, amassing wealth for themselves and business partners in preparation for what comes next, and they're telling us, whether we're democrats or republicans, we need to pay for it.

You're that dude that holds everyone up for 30 minutes so you can use a coupon that expired last week at the grocery store too arent you?

Soooo....I'm sure there are other thrifty folks out there.... I used this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UL9GRJI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 to dye my stash of fancy XGO $50 ultrathin fire retardantshirts from sand to "chocolate coyote brown". Roughly 6 shirts per bottle. More to follow on how well it holds up, but good enough for government work!

This is an important difference between the D’s and R’s right now. Dems know better than to nominate a candidate who is far outside the mainstream. Republicans, meanwhile, are clamoring to board the crazy train and leave their party’s traditional values behind. And I’ve got to agree with Drewpy here. While Joe and Kamala certainly espouse liberal values, they are both well within the mainstream. The idea that they are radical socialists (or controlled by radical elements) is simply untrue and is an obvious conservative trope attempting to scare people away.

I hate to break this to you, but Bernie isn't a democrat. If you knew any of the history you'd know how tenuous his relationship is with the DNC, and how he isn't pulling any strings with anyone, quite the contrary. Just because you view anything to the left of authoritarianism as being democratic, that doesn't make it so. The DNC enjoys Bernie's success because he pushes for many of the same issues and drums up support outside of the mainstream centrist democratic party, but ultimately he funnels his voters towards the Democratic nominee. And as far as Harris being "radical"...ok sure. Move the goalposts all you want, but understand that she was by far the safe choice. There were plenty of options that would have been "Radical", but someone who was an attorney and then a senator is too spicy for you. Perhaps she should have been a reality TV star first to get more approval from the Republican party. Overall it shouldn't matter if you have 3 separate but equal branches of government with functional checks and balances. The problem is you've consolidated all the power to the executive and the legislative branch has entirely abdicated their responsibilities. Fortunately it's shown us all the holes in our government we relied on good faith to not be exploited, but the real test will be if our democracy can adapt and strengthen itself or continue to be torn apart.

If you will recall the Democrat primary, Crazy Bernie was leading the pack. Knowing that most of American would not accept his radical ideas, pressure was applied to lesser candidates to drop out and throw their support behind the person deemed not as crazy, a.k.a. Sleepy Joe. Getting Obama and Crazy Bernie's support required Sleepy Joe to bring in Harris as VP, another radical, to garner their endorsement. The radicals are still there and using Biden as a hand puppet and place holder until he dies or is deemed mentally incompetent which might occur on or about February 2021.

I am officially a has-been. My fini flight was this morning, retirement ceremony this afternoon. Bittersweet to say the least. Getting out of that jet for the last time was a bigger deal than I was expecting. It's been a good ride - 21 years in and 18.5 of the last 19 flying the Mighty-Mighty (quick MC-12 stint in AFG back in '11). I haven't been posting much, but it's about to get a lot less. Thanks to all the warriors out there; keep fighting the good fight. Now I'm one of those guys that thank you for your service. I probably won't buy you lunch though - I'm still a cheap-ass airline pilot. Do your best to keep this place following it's roots - helping people in the fight (or trying to get there). Hasta-la-bye-bye. Evil

Kind of weird that the CJCS would straight up reject the policy of the President re: Afghanistan redeployment. Then again, it's kind of weird that Trump announces defense policy on Twitter.

We need a reset button. By no means advocating revolution, it would just be awesome to fire every single elected official at the federal level, so people understand their job security isn't so secure, and then elect people that understand what their job is: make the country work well. That's not so much to ask, right? Haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@jazzdude Oh I get it, but my overall point is tax increase shouldn’t be a consideration until trimming all the bullshit. I’m not increasing my kid’s allowance because “he doesn’t have enough for gas” while he simultaneously continues to spend $30/week at the arcade. You can either not drive kid, or you can, while forgoing the nice-to-have arcade time. Simple fiscal responsibility, that’s all many Americans are asking for, and not receiving from all corners of the government. We’re not against better healthcare, but we are against “dial up taxes to 11” as the means to achieve it.

I agree with this. However, the flip side is exactly true and defines where we are as a country. The left is driven further left by Trump. At the same time, the right is driven further right by the Clintons, Obamas, Sanders, Pelosis and Bidens of the world. They are the reason we ended up with Trump. The Democratic Party owns the vast majority of the bullshit that is going on right now or has gone on in the last few years. They own the violence in major cities, BLM, Antifa, the defund the police movement, the identity politics, The Squad, the Russian Collusion hoax, the impeachment, the Kavanaugh hearings, Epstein, Weinstein, Carlos Danger, the cancel culture, the media and the mishandling of the Virus response/endless lockdowns on the state level.

One begins to understand the street respect Corn Pop paid to Joe...

I wouldn’t. Feel free to donate more money to the government if you want. Don’t steal mine slack line.

You guys do realize that it's not the two numbnuts they put out front who are pulling democrat strings, right? The leftist are pulling all of the strings by using the "face" of the party (who are of course more than willing to do the bidding of whoever props them up). Both current parties are pro "big-government bureaucracy" and love spending tax payer's money which is why we continue to increase our federal debt. The leftist continue to dominate the democrat side and have all but pushed out traditional liberals who at least had respect for individual liberty and responsibility, the rule of law, etc. There really is a push by the emboldened left to reinvent our country but thankfully at the local level in most parts of the country we aren't buying it. Sadly, many people in population centers are being fooled into embracing feces that will come back to impact all of us.

"totally not run over with bullshit."

It has to come from reallocation of spending. The hurt feelings have to suck it up and realize in the prioritization of resources, spending billions for niche bullshit has to end in order to improve things for the greater good. Look at ratios; most people proportionally receive far less benefit than what they pay for. The “one-offs” of the world receive a significantly higher benefit for their contributions and often continue to benefit beyond the scope of the original intent of many of the programs the government funds. No one should be able to solely live off of government “assistance” alone, but people game the system to the point where 40%+ of Americans pay nothing in and receive a large share of the output. Meanwhile, the remainder population is either vilified (like the Top 10% who pay 90% of the tax revenue) or are at the back of the line to receive the benefits they’re expecting the government to fund (like infrastructure improvements).

"the democratic party has been taken over by it's radical wing" lol...ok. The "radicals" were so successful in their "takeover" they voted in the most milquetoast old white dude they had available to them. I get you guys are terrified of the Democrats winning, but you are going a little overboard with the hyperbole. If Sanders was up there...sure you could start howling, but neither of these two candidates are far from mainstream politics. In fact any "radical" ideas they have are likely just to motivate younger voters and are less likely to be fulfilled. Republicans have continually said over the last 4 years that "the president has no effect on 99% of peoples' daily lives" I'm inclined to parrot that back to you. The scary old man might tax the rich, alleviate student debt, and give people healthcare, but hardly anything "radical".

About a week I think? No martial relations for at least that long.

Huh, they can't go into too much detail but it is interesting someone signed off on the use of open-source software to get it done. If those folks could cross over to every other part of the USAF, that would be great.

Hell yes https://warontherocks.com/2020/10/defund-centcom/

Wait until the Space Force realizes we have all the Spice here on the Earth

The spice must flow...

So what are E-9s out doing these days as part of the OCP flightsuit uniform police? I miss getting Chiefed ever since I started wearing the two-piece a couple days a week. With the green bag I used to get talked to for rolling up my sleeves until that became legal again, so then I started leaving both lower cap pockets unzipped, but that didn’t seem to catch any E-9s outside of Maxwell. Somebody please help me out. I don’t know how much longer I can go without being “mentored”. I’m really starting to wonder if they care about me anymore. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The black boots sucked. Sure it looked good at the time, and mine were totally comfortable, but they were a pain in the ass and everyone has this romanticized memory of them. 1. They required even a minimal amount of maintenance (except for the internet badasses who will claim they never did any boot maintenance--sureok) 2. They didn't stand up to even minor abuse of being on the flightline, and the leather would easily damage and gouge out 3. The wax on the boots got all over your shit when you packed them in your bags 4. The boots got fucking hot if you spent any time outside or standing around on a tarmac. 5. It was just another reason for chiefs and shoes to run around being an assholes to the vulnerable airmen and LTs who get separated from the herd 6. They looked like shit unless they were well maintained, which they almost never were 7. for fucks sake you had to wax them...what century is this? Yeah I had several pairs of comfortable black boots, but I've had comfortable sets of green boots. However none of them hold a flame to a nice pair or Lowa or Salomon boots. Shit keeps getting better, and everyone is pining for the good old days of shining black boots like they don't have anything better to do.

At this pace I don't think Hunter Biden is going to win this presidential election thing. Either way I'm going to hold judgement on what the Feds say on the email. Initial look it appears to be fake news, not to mention the story surrounding it being "found". Imagine that.

I can buy some of your first paragraph. Second one sounds like a bunch of Fox News tinfoil hat crap. Thankfully neither the nuts on the left or the nuts on the right truly run the show. One side would have us living in the 1950s era US "back in the good old days" (for white dudes) and the other side would have us referring to everyone as some weird non gender specific pronoun... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Go for it. KKK and "white power groups" support Corrupt Biden. Right-wing ideology support constitution with law and order. All of violence has been by the left. Better yet, put a red MAGA hat and visit your local liberal strong hold.