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In my opinion, it extended much further down than just the top level GO/FO leadership. Long but interesting anecdotal story. When I was a young staff officer I was assigned to be my command's GSOS lead (Global Special Operations Synchronization, it's how SOCOM is supposed to prioritize where it puts SOF, feeds into the GFM process). BLUF is its a multi-phase process with a lot of data collection/processing and in person PPTs to a board. During my second year doing doing this, SOJTF-A J35 was presenting their Campaign Plan for the conference (presented to a board of 6 O-6s from SOCOM), SOJTF-A team was made up of an O-6 and several O-5s and civilians. The SOJTF-A team VTCs in and has this very bright, optimistic "this is the year we turn it all around, X years to stem the tide, XX years to seize the initiative, we're gonna take it to them with this new strategy, etc, etc, etc). I think they even used the word "defeat" in some of their presentation. The O-6 board receives the presentation, asks a few minor questions, then says great job, go get'em, we really appreciate you", or something to that effect and starts to move on. That would've been the end of it except for 1 O-5 Army Strategist (extremely intelligent guy who was about as cynical as they come) in the audience. He stands up in this room full of 50 people with god knows how many others in VTC land and politely asks what's different about this year compared to all the other years in the Stan (this conference was in early 2018). When SOJTF-A says they don't understand his question, he expands by saying what they've presented looks remarkably similar to his 2005 experience, which also mirrored the time he was there in 2009, while not differing all that much from the strategic plan in 2011, seemed shockingly similar to his deployment in 2013, and he didn't see all that much change from 2015-2017. He then asked how on god's green earth they were going to seriously degrade or possibly defeat the enemy with a fraction of the resources previously available and an ANA that wasn't that much more capable and suffering a record high number of casualties. The crazy/really eye opening moment to this whole thing was that the SOJTF-A guys just sat there dumbstruck, like they couldn't believe anyone wouldn't believe in or would dare question their plan. They literally had no answer. I seriously think several of them honestly believed the nonsense they were presenting. The O-6 board quietly ruffled through their notes or stared at their hands. The O-5 strategist shook his head and sat down. Will always be one those random moments in my career I'll never forget and the moment I knew we could've been in the Stan for another 20 years and it wouldn't have changed the ultimate outcome one bit.

I have the same quals but only mid-30’s.

I think it's been said here before, but this certainly illustrates the point. We weren't in Afghanistan 20 years. We were in Afghanistan one year, repeated 20 times.

It is not surprising in the least that we deluded ourselves regarding the ANA's capabilities. The modern US military is driven by shoe clerks with slide shows and the most important thing in the world is that the slides are green. Generals' and Colonels' next promotions depend on slides being green, not honesty or lethality. We are just as delusional about our own capabilities, if not more so.

The satisfaction of leaving on my terms. I already formally retired last year and am drawing a retirement check for a 12 year GS career. Although I liked the folks I was working with, including management, which is a rarity, doing government work was just not for me anymore.

Soooo, the Chinese flu literally almost killed me earlier this summer. I didn't think I was especially at risk as, although I'm in my late 50s, I wasn't overweight, didn't have any known complicating factors, etc., etc. Was not vaccinated because A) I remember the anthrax fiasco from before and B) wanted a fully approved FDA vaccine in place before getting the shot(s). Although I retired last year, I actually started work again as a GS again because I was bored and a buddy asked me to apply. Was only in the saddle for a month when I got sick after going TDY. Two weeks of hospitalization included two periods of the question on whether I would continue to breathe or not. Turns out that the pneumonia I had 25 years ago doesn't go away, it just nurses its' drink in the corner of my lungs until the friendly Chinese hooker named Covid shows up and wants to party and things got out of control... I never understood the part when terminally ill patients just give up - we are trained in the "will to survive" thing at SERE and as part of being alive. Now I do. I have never been that utterly exhausted/tired/just wanted it to stop and hope to never again. I was fine if the light turned out permanently. 13L/min of O2. Essentially pressure breathing in order for enough oxygen to get in me to keep me alive. I recount the melodrama above because after I got out of the hospital, ol' Joe decides he's king and says I got to get vaccinated. Even though the vaccine doesn't prevent the virus, has noted/documented side-effects, and, this is the important part, I ALREADY HAD THE VIRUS AND RECOVERED. My body is swimming in antibodies. My lung specialist says not to get said vaccine for at least a year as I am likely to have a severe reaction and my lungs, already now f'd because of this, wouldn't take kindly to another CCP orgy. But that's not good enough. So I thoroughly enjoyed quitting. F' the Man. Fortunately, I'm in a position to do so. Please note that nothing written has been put out by the President so legal challenges are difficult, although some are underway. Federal departments, like DoD, have put out their own directives. Those also are under challenges. But the sneaky part is Biden having corporate America do his bidding without said Presidential direction. Get a jab or lose your job. Seems a bit Stalinist-like to me. Not to mention, the President does not have that power under our system of government. No law has been passed. Yet many people are happy, even eager to comply. Want the vaccine? Great, go get it. Don't want it? Don't especially since the virus shrugs off the vaccine anyway. It's all fun and games until the President and the bureaucracy decide what the limits of your freedom are. Without you getting a say so. Comply or else. For your own good, of course. It's great to be the one deciding, ain't it?

A guy I work with (a retired USN helo driver) had the same happen to him. Inadvertently left a LCP in his luggage and TSA shit themselves over it. Eventually it came down to paying a fine but no record, ban list, etc. I get TSA's weekly report which includes such incidents. I estimate about 95% it is accidental with no nefarious intent. It's ridiculous that such a big deal is made out of it, but that's TSA in a nutshell, isn't it? A bunch of show but no real deterrence. I am always amused when I get travel advice from their "experts" who don't look like they've roamed more than 150 miles from where they grew up. Sorry to hear your wife had to go through such an ordeal!

If he was just a simple man who messed up and owned up to it, my opinion would be different. As it is, he seems incapable of admission of fault or owning his comments not being correct. And he pushes his narrative instead of owning mistakes and adjusting. He seems to have no integrity and is solely focused on himself and his legacy. Along with Disney.

Yeah dude.. it's called the paparazzi and it's the absolute dumpster basement of the journalism world. So maybe it should give you pause if you're trying to do serious political reporting and behaving like the paparazzi.

Ahh yes. Definitely no ambush. Because that's how normal people conduct interviews.. by sneaking up on someone walking with headphones on their own personal time. Yeah.. come to think of it that's where most tv interviews I see take place.. on quiet neighborhood sidewalks... As super interesting as it is to debate public/personal boundaries with you, turns out there's a difference between the limits of what is legal, and what is professionally acceptable. I'm not all that surprised you think this is okay because, again, it's a person you don't like being subjected to indecent behavior. Reference my above comment about partisan hackery. And the fact you think she's running away because "tHe pEoPle" are catching on and not because a crew of strange dudes with cameras are accosting her in her private life, is the icing on the stupid cake.

I don’t disagree—unfortunately we’re at a point where if a person doesn’t agree with someone else then said person is a fascist, racist, communist, anti-science, libtard, bigot, blah blah blah. And when you label someone one of these, all forms of decency towards each other goes out the window. This is what people resort to when they can’t just argue with their ideas. Don’t worry…we’re soon going to learn that economics doesn’t care about name calling.

Dig out your checkbooks, guys! 🤪🤪🤪 https://www.springfield-armory.com/sa-35-series-handguns/sa-35-handguns/

Mine was scheduled in 2020...so might be a bit better now. But it was about a month to hear, then a three month wait to go.

I can say that mine took just over a month to be scheduled. Then, like you said, I got about 3 weeks notice.

While I probably wouldn't enjoy being "ambushed" at my home, I don't know if I'd sprint (scurry or waddle) down the street into my house if I was completely innocent either.

Thanks for the analysis. Interesting to get another take. I think what you're missing-- no, missing isn't fair because you got a taste of it from your nurse friend-- what you underestimate is the scale. This wasn't just people having an opinion and disagreeing with you. Or calling you an idiot. This was a coordinated campaign to suppress "wrongthink" by the media-political class. - the efficacy of masks - COVID not being high-risk for healthy adults under 50 - the Wuhan lab-leak theory - the (potential) efficacy of ivermectin and remdesivir - the president of the United States - the (now inescapably true) Hunter Biden story The social media platforms literally declared certain speech verboten. Yeah, they are private companies, but they did it to the cheering of elected Democrats. Now there are hearings where elected Democrats are *outraged* that they aren't blocking more. Democrats, the once-champions of free speech, are now openly (and sometimes violently) against free speech, unless of course you agree with them. And guys like you, without intending to, have fallen right into the trap of well-it-must-be-true-if-the-trumpeters-hate-it. And yes, conservatives have fallen into this trap many times as well. But the pandemic has been overwhelmingly slanted in one direction, with only one side arguing for the *clear* violation of personal liberties while actively misrepresenting the evidence and proudly suppressing opposing (and scientifically supported) views. What's the quote? First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. Everyone seems to have forgotten the ideals behind the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, because they live fat, dumb, and happy little lives free from the horrors of the previous 300,000 years of human existence. Turns out The Matrix was right, and humans can't handle a system where they are (overwhelmingly) free from struggle and misery, so they must create it from nothing. And in our profound lack of persecution we have forgotten what persecution feels like, making us much too comfortable with persecuting those who don't please our delicate sentiments. Of course, the celebrities who have found themselves "cancelled" have become remarkably supportive of free-speech and civil discourse after a career of tarring and feathering conservatives as backwoods, inbred, hateful, racists/sexists/homophobes. Now we have graduated to compelled action *of your children.* The vaccine technology that didn't exist until last year for a disease that primarily kills people hanging on to life by a thread is going to be mandatory for 5 year olds? And you're a domestic terror threat if you go yell at your local school board. You know, like the Boston marathon bombers or Timothy McVeigh. And all this is after being told that the concepts of male and female are actually super complicated and how dare you say otherwise. And actually if you're white you are *necessarily* racist. Under 20 unarmed black men killed by the police represents the greatest threat in America (to say nothing of the 6000/year young black men killed in gang violence). Protests where businesses and literal government buildings are burned to the ground *aren't* riots. The completely wrong predictions of 30 years of global warming models should be ignored because global warming is the single greatest threat to humanity (behind the 20 unarmed black men killed by the police), but don't you dare support nuclear power, which would eliminate carbon emissions entirely from power-generation. And Joe Biden definitely isn't going senile, even though you can look up any video of him from 10 or 20 years ago. And yeah, he definitely got hurt falling in the shower (which is the most old-man shit in the world to do) because he was... wrestling his dog. In the shower. And Hunter Biden, not an artist, but selling paintings for $500k, not a Ukrainian energy executive, but on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, not a Chinese lawyer or lobbyist, but representing a Chinese company, yeah that's all totally kosher but OMG did you see how corrupt the Trump family was? I mean Jared Kushner only negotiated the most meaningful peace agreements in the middle east in decades, and none of the Trump kids were caught doing drugs with (underage?) prostitutes or illegally possessing firearms and throwing them in dumpsters... Oh yeah and that totally fabricated golden showers blackmail tape (literally paid for by the Clinton campaign), and the FBI agents who knowingly lied to the FISA courts, and the House Intelligence Committee representatives and ex-Obama administration pundits who *swore* on TV that there was evidence proving Trump was a Russian catspaw? Oops. Don't forget the border. No crisis there at all. No way the incredible, record-setting surge in illegal crossings had anything to do with the Biden Administration immediately undoing the Trump-era policies and openly advocating for a path to citizenship for any and all illegals. Don't worry about that because there's no inflation! In fact, government deficit spending will actually help *reduce* inflation. What's another 5 trillion? You want to know why your seemingly intelligent conservative friends are losing their minds? Look around.

I have officially come full circle based on data. I not sure if I still support current vaccination efforts. All of this data I found - wasn’t given to me by a biased news source. 1) COVID spread is unimpeded by vaccination within months. Numerous studies show that: You’ll see that for those age 40-80+, vaccinated folks actually were MORE likely to have the virus. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1022238/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_39.pdf Source: UK health surveillance. You can look at last week or the next week as well. This is not cherry picked - the data shows the same numbers multiple weeks in a row. Check out the other weeks, you’ll see similar data. 2nd Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y 2) The rate of hospitalization and death is similar to that of the flu. No shit. And I used to make fun of everyone who said that. COVID hospitalizations: COVID Deaths Source: same as above CDC data on flu hospitalizations/mortality per 100k (couldn’t crop it well on mobile): Source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm So for an average person age 18-49, your risk of hospitalization for COVID is somewhere in the realm of 15-20 per 100000. For 2017-18 flu, the hospitalization rate for that age group was nearly twice as high at 36 per 100000. For death of those 18-49, its maybe twice as bad for Covid, around 2 per 100k, whereas flu was only 0.8. I am starting to lose any motivation to continue vaccination efforts whatsoever for those that are not at risk. It doesn’t and won’t provide herd immunity. And people without risk factors that are normal ages don’t need it. The counterpoint will be that it’s for the old. Well, first of all, that counterpoint is already invalid because getting the COVID vaccine as a 40 year old male does literally nothing to protect the old as it has been demonstrated to have virtually no effect on transmission after a few months. So a mandate for those under 50 I think still makes 0 sense. But let’s look at it for those 50+. Hospitalization rate for COVID for those 50+ is on the order of 80-100 per 100000. For 17-18 flu for those over 50 it was on the order of 500+ per 100000. Wtf. For deaths, COVID is on the order of 80 per 100000. Flu was slightly lower, maybe 50 per 100000. But they are way closer than initially thought. BL: COVID actually has turned into nothing more than a bad flu. And a bad flu that is actually easier on children than the actual bad flu. It’s not even a hyperbole. And we’re discussing additional mandatory boosters for healthy folks age 0-30. Just wanted to say that the data has changed my mind, significantly. It’s actually almost maddening.

If COVID19 were a grave threat to all and the vaccine worked well, you wouldn’t have to mandate it…

Not true. Show some good faith and hold accountable those who have lied, then I’m willing to hear new info. Fire Fauci. That’s a great starting point for transmission of new info. Hold accountable some of the many journalists who have engaged in the “noble lie” and attempts to deceive. When trust is broken, step 1 to restoration is acknowledging the failure. Step 2 is accountability. Without either of those, we can’t move forward.

And usually the actors/ athletes/ musicians do what she did...keep walking and don't engage.