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Ironic, CH starts a thread about disinformation, and suddenly we have two new members arguing he's wrong about it...

Talk is cheap, so I threw 500 in, least I can do & trusting you it'll go to good use. I CFI near the coast guard academy and have a couple cadets learning to fly. Flew with a cadet the other day who said one of his buddies attending the academy is from Ukraine. Guess he's heading back home after this week to go fight. Sobering to say the least.

More Russian ships got promoted to submarine yesterday.

Yeah, this is my face watching her "act" during that scene!

This ruling will be...well an abortion. To overturn a ruling that is Stare Decisis merely for political reasons is absurd. Stand by to re-adjudicate every milestone decision each time one party take control and gets more justices on the court. Prepare for an onslaught from the left to pack the court and go after every conservative ruling. Really? So many battleground states that will sway by very small majorities and you are telling them to just get out because of a very draconian ruling based on religion. News flash, they won't move, abortions WILL continue even when a state says not in my backyard. I feel sad for a lot of women who will go underground and resort to abortion in the shadows, some will pay with their lives...but hey as long as the bible bangers are happy. This will also be the demise of the GOP who was poised to sweep the mid-terms, you just lost a LOT of independents. All of the recent appointees refused to answer pointed questions about Roe V Wade but they each sat there and mentioned Stare Decisis and its importance, then they turned around and voted to overturn, disgusting. Now the court has gone the way of the political parties. Truly sad.

I refer you to the FBI's deliberate misuse of the FISA legal system. Not just against people in Trump's orbit, but just American citizens. I refer you to several NSA programs that look at US citizens communications that deliberately circumvented the "legal review" system in place. I refer you to the IRS' targeting of Tea Party entities in the early 2000s. I refer you to the CIA's spying on Americans in the 1950s/60s/70s. I refer you to the DoD's program to monitor the social media of service members today. I can go from today back to the John Adams Administration and the Sedition Act of 1800 with such examples of the government not being trustworthy and stifling wrong think. But sure, you rail against the enemy of "white, Christian, conservative men" and trust the government. A) Let me know how that works for ya and B) that is a great gig if you can be the one deciding.

Wait, so are you trying to tell us that arguing on the internet doesn’t change peoples minds?

The lady that will be leading this board labeled the Hunter Biden Laptop Russian Disinformation and by your rule set it would have ceased to exist. If you can't grip the importance of that one fact, then yes it is a massive waste of time for you to be here.

You are correct, I highly recommend other hobbies!

Also don't discount the "slow and steady" wins the race strategy. Let's say they got all of Ukraine in a hypothetical, they won't immediately go into the neighboring countries, they'll wait 10-15 years, and then go start an info war to try and erode the neighboring countries from the inside out/get them to stray from NATO. The Russians aren't playing insert large number-D chess, but I do think they were trying to play the long game and use patience/deception as primary weapon in a world with really short attention spans. Looks like they may have f*cked it up tho by over estimating their military's capabilities/morale, corruption tends to have that effect.

Hey gents, thanks for keeping this one alive. I retired, got a contract job, got blackballed, filed a FWA complaint and am now 100% doing they cybers on the outside. Somehow lost the password to here and didn't really have time to get it going again (writing a book, starting a business, beekeeping, etc.). Nice to be back and I do have some thoughts on what was posted. I'll write those out and give an update on the commercial side and what the bros are still saying in. PS - edibles are great.

Not dealing with pax and flight attendants is a godsend. Reason number one is that I can get up, take a leak, and stretch whenever I damn well please. Reason 2: I change into sweats at TOC. Reason 3: I’ve never had to divert because of a sick or unruly box. Reason 4: flight attendants, while potentially fun, know where you work, live, and how much money you make. The list goes on & I’m sure there are lots of good reasons to work for Delta but I wouldn’t trade.

Uh confirm you’re a Guard guy that WANTS to go to ACSC in res? The office space quote of, “Lawrence: (long pause) No.... No, man...Shit, no man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying somethin like that, man” comes to mind. Insert GIF someone.

<snip> ...and for preventing extremist policies (both far-left and far-right) to permeate American society. WHY SHOULD WE PREVENT THIS TYPE OF FREE SPEECH? You are right, government overreach into the lives of private citizens is absolutely an issue that needs to be reigned in, but there are some (limited) situations where the government should be able to operate to safeguard US interests. No system will ever be perfect and the government likes to push and exceed its legal authorities, so I appreciate people like you who are willing to call the government out when it misuses its power. APPRECIATES PEOPLE LIKE BH! Word! YOU'RE SOFT-PEDDALING, BY THE WAY. I just think absolute government distrust is a step too far, especially if you serve in the military. I MISSED IT DAMN IT, WHERE WAS THE ABSOLUTE PART? WHY DO I ALWAYS MISS THE BEST PARTS?

Yeah, that doesn't look good 🤣 . Sadly however, I think those "helper' folks are there for everyone who stops by to get photographed - so they all got the masked help treatment. Don't ask me how I know this sort of shit.

I disagree and think an objective mind would look at the emails, the pictures, the money and the testimony from folks who were there and at the very lease arrive at the conclusion that this needs to be investigated, not suppressed. I think a non-partisan investigation MUST happen. I 100% agree but we have seen the press become completely bifurcated along partisan lines. The press (on both sides of the aisle), rather than act as the 4th estate has turned into a cheerleader for each political candidate. Honestly I expect political parties to act stupid, but I never thought the press would be such a failure, we REALLY need them acting as a check on power to keep our system viable. I agree here as well, I voted for Trump both times, VERY reluctantly the second time. He is a narcissistic ass clown but many (not all), of his policies were working and I was very concerned about the uber-liberal wing of the DNC controlled power and driving decisions like they are able to do with Biden. I hope Trump doesn't run again, I fear he will and he is doing great damage to the GOP and ruining a chance for them to be a moderate party more in the middle. This Roe V Wade fiasco isn't going to help matters either. Of course, that is the foundation of our country, we can discuss dissenting view, sometime very passionately. We may yell at each other and vehemently disagree but I am not going to commission a hit man to kill you and your family to eliminate your opinion. Can you imagine some of these discussions in Russia or China? An interesting generalization. Numerous studies have shown a decline in adherence to religion in our country and I think that translates to the military as well, likely because we hold a range of beliefs that don't nest exclusively in party. I consider myself a Republican, but many in the party would disown me because I believe in abortion (51% vote in favor in my pear brain mainly because of women's rights, it is abhorrent but I have ZERO right telling a woman what to do with her body), I am in favor of gay rights and gay marriage (I could care less what you do in your own home and I truly want EVERYONE to be happy). I agree. It is probably obvious the laptop absolutely enrages me. There is so much circumstantial evidence but NO ONE on the left (including you and other more liberal folks on this forum), can take a minute to honestly say yeah that doesn't smell right, we need the truth.

Progress: https://thekingofstocks.com/2022/05/03/maskless-hillary-clinton-walks-red-carpet-at-met-gala-as-masked-servant-tends-to-her-custom-gown-video/

We are saying the same thing. As most know USAF bet the enterprise on 5th gen (for good reason), in the middle of a war with dudes running around Afghanistan with AK-47s and IEDs. The real damage occurred during the fight between Gates v Moseley/Wynne. At that point ATF had been a program of record for 20 years and they wanted to see it through because they saw the long-term threat and the absolute need for 5th gen if we were going to fight/deter China and Russia. Gates was focused on the now (again for good reason), young men and women were being blown up everyday and Gates wanted drastic action and response to stop the damage. Forcing USAF to field 100+ orbits of RPA manned at 9:1 gutted the Air Force in both personnel and treasure. We never got credit (or resourcing), for using up 20+ years of a modern Air Force flying two No-Fly zones over Iraq. In the environment the Air Force made some tough (often Sofie's Choice), type resourcing decisions that ultimately cost CSAF and SECAF their jobs. As such we kicked the AWACS can down the road, we kicked the JSTARS can down the road, we kicked the CSAR can down the road, we kicked the nuclear enterprise can down the road and we kicked the tanker can down the road. Now all the cans are rusted and need to be replaced in what would have been a decreasing fiscal environment (if not for Ukraine), and at a time when were are trying to field large numbers of the most expensive procurement program in the history of DoD. All of that being said, just because we have to make tough decisions doesn't give permission to make hasty faulty decisions. Does Wedgetail takeoff and land more often that the E-3, yup but not as often as it should and more importantly not as often as other options. I say again, the Aussies are having a TERRIBLE time with Wedgetail, as are the South Koreans...to the point South Korea is going to buy something else! Is anyone paying attention? Air Force seniors reference commercial fleet reliability rates when they talk about Wedgetail "90+% reliability rate" when the Aussies and Koreans are seeing 60% on their Wedgetails, some issues so severe they only fly at night. There are options that fly faster, higher, further with a MUCH better radar that could be on the ramp in about the same time as Wedgetail but we are so myopic we can't take an honest look. The Air Force is acting like an 18 year old who spent years struggling to catch a glimpse of side boob through the neighbors window. Miraculously he got laid by the fat chick down the street and now he is in love, he can't see anything else and wants to get married because it never felt so good. Forget the fact that he got into the University of Alabama with some of the dumbest yet hottest nymphomaniac blondes in the nation. I hope something changes, I hope they use the decision space to make a choice that solves the immediate problem while providing for the future. And yes, the maintainers are magicians, unsung heroes who have made us all look good for many many years.

I think his point is..... Take cavalry vs tanks in WW1. Cavalry charged into tanks and died, and a lot of leaders recognized the era for cavalry was over. But the AF sat on their swivel chair and said "nah..... Out cavalry just aren't fast enough to reach the tanks before they get shot, we need faster cavalry!" And so they spend millions of dollars investing in breeding and stock selection and breed 10% faster cavalry. Send them to battle, and they still get slaughtered. So then the AF said "well clearly they still aren't fast enough! Let's make a new generation that's even faster!" And they invested more millions into equine genetic research and genome mapping and cloned some cavalry that were 5% faster. Then sent them into battle and they all got slaughtered. And rather than realize the age of cavalry was over, the AF said, "ok industry, we are serious, faster cavalry is a requirement, what do you have out there?" But at the end of the day.... It was never about the horses speed, it was about recognizing that tanks offset the playing field and we needed something new to replace the cavalry, not just better cavalry. That's sort of what I see happening with the E-7. The AF is convinced it just needs a better or newer AWACS. It may not recognize that with modern fighter sensors, the entire concept of the AWACS may not be needed, and may be a liability. There is potentially something else that provides C2 functions but in a different manner than airborne crews and surveillance.

60% of the time it works every time... Facts; especially after the Welsh RIF cut most of the experience. You had SMSgts and A1Cs to figure it all out.

And just to add, if you're 1APZ your year group is now the one you promoted with, not the one you commissioned with

So, was the wrap placement accidental or intentional?!? My money is on the latter... 😲😲😲

Here’s my issue with Kinzinger: I don’t have a problem if you’re anti-Trump, even if you’re a Republican. I also don’t have a problem if you believe that 6 Jan was an “insurrection to overturn the election” (lamest insurrection ever if it actually was one lol, so I do question your philosophical bias in that case). My issue is that when Pelosi/Dem leaders set up the “bipartisan” 6 Jan committee but then wouldn’t allow the Republican leadership to choose their members, then it was obvious that this was anything but “bipartisan” and all it was ever going to be is just be a witch-hunt against Trump/his supporters in the House, etc. And when Adam then joined their committee, only because the Dems knew he was against Trump, then he joined the witch-hunt/political theater. If he would have then left the Republican Party to be an independent I would have said he followed his conscience, but he didn’t. The question now is this: Does he know he’s being used by Pelosi? If so, then what does he get out of it? Surely Adam can’t actually believe that the committee is anything but political theater?

Propagation is improving our worldwide coverage. Recent patches include Iraq, England, North Africa and South Korea. We recently created a video describing the basics of doing an Official and Morale phone patch including setting up the radio. Hope you find it useful. https://youtu.be/s_67j_VP8NA

Not applicable in this case...True AGILE is simply a programing method not an acquisition process. I won't list them here, if you are on a .mil net simply contact PEO-FW and they will share their AGILE programs. I can assure you there are numerous highly successful, once of them running for over 15 years. I will share an example of the benefits of AGILE. From the LAE one of the programs was restricted to TPS grads only because the plane had not been certified by the Air Force. There was an O-6 TPS grad who was a GRP/CC who flew that airplane and gave an input to the team about the HOTAS arrangement (I think a sensor or weapons slaving input). He came back for a second flight a week later and the team informed him the change had been made in MMS for HOTAS. At first he didn't believe it. That change was now in the OFP which includes STC approval because it can communicate with he autopilot. The company was able the change overnight, sent it to the SIL for regression testing, then to the OEM for two test flights, all completed within 7 days thanks to AGILE and without breaking the STC. The same change in the F-16 OFP using waterfall would have taken 6 months or more. Shack! There are other more capable radars that are TRL-9 as well as platforms out there. The risk and delivery schedule is the same and at a lower cost point. The problem is USAF has to take more than a cursory look. Again, I refer you to the problems Wedgetail is currently having.

Wouldn't than mean we should censor Jen Psaki who from the White House Podium has shared these truth bombs: "Hunter Biden Story is Russian Disinfo" "Putin Price Hike on gas" "Inflation is transitory" "It is irresponsible to say Americans are stranded in Afghanistan, they are not" "Psaki denies transporting illegal immigrants at 0230 AM is the middle of the night, calls it early flight"

I can’t even believe we’re having a discussion to justify the first amendment. If you favor censorship or think there’s anything reasonable about homeland security developing a misinformation department led by a woman deeply steeped in partisan misinformation—- GFY

The further we get from 1984, the closer we get. With the recent history of government agencies involved in sketchy behavior with a noticable political bent, what could possibly go wrong?

this administration is a total disaster and i think (come november) the american electorate is going to severely punish the democrats for going far left.

com'on CH man, you know dems can't be totalitarian.... relax it's no big deal.

Very different situations. We are now looking at a developed country that is democratizing and courting the free world that has been straight up invaded and is asking for help. This is worlds away from an I’ll advised war against an already shaky dictatorship or popping into someone else’s civil war hoping you can prevent more bloodshed. I agree that in all honesty, we probably don’t care all that much about Ukraine per-se. But we do care about the idea of sovereignty. Very much in fact. We also care about Eastern Europe and Europe as a whole. If you don’t think this is Putin’s litmus test for Poland, Lithuania, Romania, etc, you’re being naive. And while we’re being honest, yes, this is a chance to affect Russia’s abilities to threaten its neighbors and hold Europe hostage over energy, which have been major concerns of ours for years now. To recap, our interests in the region are: the survival of a democratic nation and its people, protecting the very idea of sovereignty, hardening the NATO alliance (and finally getting Europe to pay its fair share & take defense seriously), weaning Europe off Russian energy, and sending the Russians something with a little more kick than the strongly worded letters they’ve been receiving from the UN the last several years. And the icing on the cake is that our strategy does not involve any direct military confrontation with Russia. Sure there are pundits out there who argue we should act more aggressively, but I have not heard one voice from the current administration make that argument. The Russians say we risk nuclear escalation by supplying weapons and support to Ukraine because of course they do. What other cards do they hold? None. Their conventional forces were apparently worse off than we thought and have been severely degraded from there. They’re quickly losing their biggest bargaining chip in Europe, energy, and it’ll likely be gone permanently. They thought they were good at information warfare, and maybe they were but they’re losing this one (at least abroad). So the one card they have left is waiving around their nukes. But Putin likes living. He likes his mansions and his boats and his girls. While he’s no 4D chess player, he’s smart enough to know that all turns to glass if he actually pulls the trigger.

National Museum of the United States Air Force™ > Upcoming > KC-135 (af.mil) Looks like the NMUSAF will finally have a KC-135R 60-0329, this jet did a buddy air refueling during Viet Nam May 67 having the drogue hooked up to an A-3 Sky Warrior, (USAF EB-66) who dropped its drogue to air refuel an F-8 Crusader which all receivers had fuel emergencies. The backstory I've read on this event was that in those days SAC had a death grip on all KC-135's and all mission planning had to be approved by SAC HQ Offutt. This mission was done on the fly by aviators in the air working this out. SAC was if there isn't a checklist you don't do it, so nothing is done on the fly. They wanted to crucify the crew, but CINCPAC intervened. As I grow older, I'm reminded of how much water is under the bridge that I have tail #'s in museums that my signatures are all over the 781's forms binder. NMUSAF will now have two tails I've worked personally, VC-137C and now a KC-135R. Awaiting a 3rd when they take ownership of a E-3 Sentry. My question is what gallery does go into, cold war, Viet Nam, Desert Storm and everything in between?

Hey dude, Non-prior here who got picked up for a fighter slot - two comments: 1) enlisting will absolutely give you a leg up, all else being equal (and all else not being equal too), but... 2) there is no requirement that you enlist to get picked up for a slot. You need to have a college degree, though. One pitfall I've seen is people who let enlisting get in the way of them finishing college in a timely manner, then before they know it they're pushing the age limit and are no longer competitive. So, enlist if you want to be a crew chief and you want to serve, but don't enlist solely to try to get a pilot slot. And, make sure you prioritize finishing your degree.

that's great, but in the same way you probably don't base your life on lord of the rings books, a good amount of us consider the bible/any religious text to be complete fiction. 🍻 if you want to life your life based on those principles, have at it.

Something has to be done to combat disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive information made by unreliable sources like Russian and Chinese troll farms. There are too many dumb people in this world who live in their disinformation echo chamber. There are limited exceptions to the First Amendment, and fraud is one of them. While all disinformation couldn't fall under the fraud exception to the First Amendment, there is a subset of disinformation that could. See https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860211 for a better argument than I can give since I am not a lawyer. Your response is extremely emotional, especially with saying something like "the Constitution is Dead." Take a step back and put on an analytical lens. Not everything Biden does is an extremist "end of the Constitution action," and the same held true for Trump during his Presidency.

The Hunter Biden Laptop Russian Disinformation subject is so politically charged that getting to the truth of that situation is as futile as arguing on the internet. I do think it's extremely unfortunate for America that Russian hackers can leak politically sensitive information in a bid to sway US elections. Information that is illegally acquired by an external actor and then presented to the American public to serve purposes that are not in the interest of the United States is disinformation. Now, if the source is an American journalist or organization that legally had access to Hunter Biden's laptop information and leaked it to the press, then that is a different story. If that is the case here (it's basically impossible to find non-partisan information on the Hunter Biden laptop subject), then the information within that laptop is fair game. I don't worship President Biden like some people worship "God-Emperor" Trump, but both of them have done things that I agree with and things that I disagree with. I still find value in at least presenting dissenting viewpoints on a forum like this. We all will be working with, working for, and leading members who may have differing worldviews than the majority conservative Christians within the USAF operations world. Practicing some tolerance and understanding of why a person thinks the way they do can go a long way in connecting with people who hold different beliefs and values, and part of that starts with at least being exposed to different viewpoints. Trying to change people's minds is almost always a waste of time, but getting them to at least consider a different opinion for one millisecond has value. I've been getting downvoted like crazy, but I expect that in an echo chamber of a profession mostly made up of people with similar worldviews.

I'm not railing against being a white conservative Christian. It's a perfectly valid worldview, but something has to be said for changing demographics and for preventing extremist policies (both far-left and far-right) to permeate American society. You are right, government overreach into the lives of private citizens is absolutely an issue that needs to be reigned in, but there are some (limited) situations where the government should be able to operate to safeguard US interests. No system will ever be perfect and the government likes to push and exceed its legal authorities, so I appreciate people like you who are willing to call the government out when it misuses its power. I just think absolute government distrust is a step too far, especially if you serve in the military.

The states make that decision. Seems like you’re asking my opinion on the subject matter so I will answer. Rape is awful. And pregnancies due to rape, thankfully, are rare. Same with pregnancies that endanger the mother, rare. Tough choices sometimes have to be made. I don’t know what to say about the endangering the mother. It’s a tall order to be able to say that is the case in the first place. And another tall order that says for sure if you don’t kill the baby the mom will die. Tough. So because the mothers decision to not have sex was violated, does that make it ok for the murder of an innocent, a 2 wrongs situation. I don’t believe in letting someone kill another human for all kinds of reasons outside the baby’s control. Life isn’t fair. But we try to make it thus. What’s fair about us as born individuals deciding if it’s ok for someone to be able to kill another individual who has no say in the matter. Pretty odd to codify it as a Woman’s choice. Why wouldn’t she have insurance? I’m not sure I understand your questions on that topic. It’s for the states to decide if the SCOTUS decides that way. Here’s to hoping an honest, open, unemotional discussion about whether it is or isn’t ok to kill a completely unique individual (so says science) without their input. It isn’t.

Yeah the episode I referenced the most during four years of Donald Trump's presidency. Nothing 1984 about those years at all. Oh wait, it started with this guy: Then ended with hair dye dripping down Guliani's face and Four Seasons Total Landscaping. The pearl clutching from the 6-9 baseops/politics regulars in this thread is very entertaining.

So potentially some mothers will die by conducting illegal abortions. But on the whole there will be much less death if abortion is ruled illegal. The ones that have no voice in the process will likely live in higher numbers and percentages. So from a pure numbers of lives lost argument, the deaths will go way down. Edit. And don’t forget. Women will still have the right to choose. The right to choose to have sex or not and to take precautions The right to choose to have a baby or not begins at conception not birth. And they will still be able to choose whether or not to abort the baby. If the law goes away, a decision to abort just becomes illegal is all. Just like theft. You have the right to choose to steal something. It’s your choice. Just so happens if you do, you committed a crime.

I’ve been a long time lurker of these forums. I’ve always wanted to post to provide some different points of view from the white conservative Christian background/worldview that dominates these forums and the USAF pilot community as a whole. However, it seems like it’s an exercise in futility and a massive waste of time. Nobody is going to change their mind on any topic no matter how convincing of an argument one puts forth. Emotional reactions like “it’s the beginning of the end for free speech in America” with zero substance galvanize the majority on this forum with any dissent summarily stamped out. These type of reactions are prevalent in all forms of social media, preventing constructive discourse and garnering reactions like “I can’t believe there are people who support the government deciding what is disinformation or not like in the book 1984 with the Ministry of Truth.” The fact of the matter is that disinformation is a serious problem in all of society and something needs to be done to combat it, especially from external sources who are looking to cause harm in America. If you can verify the source as a Russian or Chinese internet troll, then the information should cease to exist. This is an extremely limited portion of the disinformation that is out there. Free speech stays free speech within America, but countering misuse of our First Amendment Rights by external governments looking to generate chaos in the US is a national priority. I definitely share the concerns shown in this forum about government overreach, but I think a balance can be found with the proper authorities in place and a strong legal review of any actions taken by the organization. I think it’s better than doing nothing and letting malign actors slowly rip the fabric of US society apart.