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The current situation with the CDC is complete lunacy and not connected to science or logic. Recently the U.S. dropped the requirement for foreign visitors to show a negative test, they only have to prove they have been vaccinated. As demonstrated by double vaccinated and double boosted Biden, the vaccine does NOT stop infection. That means someone could have an active infection but as long as they are vaccinated....Come on in man. There is a further disconnect playing out in the press surrounding Novak Djokovic who is not vaccinated. He had COVID in November, his natural immunity is ikely much stronger than most people who were vaccinated when the vaccine first came out. As of today they are not going to let him in the country to play in the U.S. Open. Oddly, this policy doesn't apply to illegals who are not vaccinated. They show up at the border and under the Biden Administration...come on in man. Again, I am not against the vaccine, I got it and the first booster, but we need some common sense here because this administration is flailing.

Because they are on the tail end of the policy whip…. And have no brains themselves. Do you think those people became wing commanders by a proven track record of bold leadership? Or by dogmatic compliance? I expect many of those policies to quietly change, but some will remain. People are not rational beings, pride will factor into this. And then one day a new wing commander will be asked publicly why he still requires masking and he will reply “that’s not my policy” and, just like blues Monday, we will slowly stop doing something everybody hates that has no benefit.

Kids are going back to school, inflation, recession, midterms, low approval ratings, Ukraine, China…..I’m sure the cdc guidelines are completely unrelated.

I'm glad that Donk and Billy Bob's sortie still stays in the forefront-- those two did a hell of a job that day. There's a podcast out there with the two of them talking for a couple hours about the mission and its impacts. I was in the 75th with them at that time, and I'm glad that they all got the recognition they deserved for the job they did that day. A funny story about the mission-- Billy Bob comes up to me and tells me that I need to see one of his passes from the sortie because he almost hit a bird while rolling in for a strafe pass. Seemed a little odd, but we watched the tape a few times, and sure enough, that "bird" had a little orange burst of fire in the center of it... damn airburst right in front of him as he's down the chute. Sobering moment to say the least... I think that coincided with the moment that the adrenaline had finally started to wear off from the mission. There's a painting in the 75th commemorating that mission, but there's a big problem with it-- it's TOO clear. The visibility was absolute dogshit that day-- foggy, hazy, low ceilings... and a good deal of AAA to boot. We watched some of the passes where BB is calling out the ground references that he knew would walk him to the target... and the tanks come out of the haze at damn near min range-- he's still on the trigger as the rounds are impacting almost immediately. They did what they had to do. And the JTAC controlling them that day was one of our pilots serving as a BnALO on the ground for the entire fight. Great story all around. I don't remember the ROE discussion being a huge issue, or maybe that's just for a couple of reasons. First, from the time we arrived in theater, our leadership made it very clear that they had our backs in the fight, so long as we could explain what and why we were doing something. If we decided that we needed to hang it out for the guys on the ground and could explain ourselves, they'd go to the mat for us. So there was that level of mutual support within the squadron that had come to be expected and established. Second, Donk didn't make it a big issue-- he explained what he did and why he did it and he stood up straight willing to accept any decision that was made knowing that he had done what needed to be done in the moment, and they were successful doing it. His combat leadership was unparalleled-- I'll never forget the speech he gave on the C-5 headed over. Every senior officer on base had put in their two cents, and I couldn't tell you what they said just a few hours later. I can still hear Donk's "We are going into harms' way" speech almost 20 years later. I clearly remember our Group Commander, Coach, getting on the bus and sending us off with one word.... "ATTACK!" We were fortunate to have him as our DO, and Bino as our CC for that fight. Under their guidance was when we really coined and instituted the phrase "Shark Standard," which was more an expectation and a guiding challenge than it was a statement. That phrase told you that you had a standard to live up to, not that you were automatically assumed to be the best or even worthy of it-- you had to prove it every day, in everything you did. I like to think that we did, and it was because of leaders like that who not only set that standard, but lived it for all of us to see and try to follow and keep up with. Donk's one of those leaders who if he said we were trekking to the seventh level of Hell, I'd ask what time the brief was. That's the spirit of ATTACK.

You generally don't make it very far in conversations where you've already decided someone else's motives, but this is an easy one. Because the people claiming climate change is a threat to humanity aren't acting like climate change is a threat to humanity. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Or evidence that kids were at risk.

I got the lovely joy of a go-around at Tarin Kot one bright evening in AFG. Turns out that firing range off the departure end was no joke. Got to watch multiple items riciochet flying off the (whatever the i'msureitwasn'taBMP) target on either side of us...and 2 items THROUGH our aircraft. Yeah...they never talk about what happens AFTER all that led lands on target. Big sky theory... MX wasn't happy about it...but we brought all 8 of those tails home with combat patches and hail damage waivers. Thank you Mr Lockheed for the 2.5 safety factor. Writeup: Missed approach followed by 'merica penetrating our aircraft. NSTR fun fact: This happened 2 days after my profile picture was taken.

Scooter - This was the first study that came out of Sweden (https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/44/3/73). I believe there is a more current one but I am on the road and don't have the link with me. I have a good friend who is a govt employee and refused the vaccine, she has an ongoing court case and has sent me several of the studies her lawyers are using in her case. The study above got a lot of attention and was immediately labeled misinformation, not because it is not true but because the study was conducted in the lab (with actual human liver cells), but not in actual humans, I think actual humans is the next phase. Regardless, in the lab with human cells there was a VERY concerning change as expressed in these lines form the abstract: We detected high levels of BNT162b2 in Huh7 cells and changes in gene expression of long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1), which is an endogenous reverse transcriptase. Immunohistochemistry using antibody binding to LINE-1 open reading frame-1 RNA-binding protein (ORFp1) on Huh7 cells treated with BNT162b2 indicated increased nucleus distribution of LINE-1. PCR on genomic DNA of Huh7 cells exposed to BNT162b2 amplified the DNA sequence unique to BNT162b2. Our results indicate a fast up-take of BNT162b2 into human liver cell line Huh7, leading to changes in LINE-1 expression and distribution. We also show that BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA in as fast as 6 h upon BNT162b2 exposure. "Furthermore, a recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the genome of human cells." This was NOT supposed to happen, we were repeatedly assured that the MRNA simply stimulated an immune response and would not be integrated into our cells. At least in the lab that has been shown to be untrue. I am not anti-vaccine and nitwits like Captain Morgan are free to ignore science but I find this very troubling. I understand a global pandemic may be a reason to take risk and rush through a vaccine, but are just now getting to longer-term studies that show long-term impacts. Again, there is still debate about this study, some even called it modeling and while some protein experts in particular say this is taken out of context or not possible, I do find it interesting that the CDC quietly removed some vaccine information off their website related to how long the material stays in your body. Maybe it is just me but having the government move the goal post is very concerning. Archived CDC website https://web.archive.org/web/20220721092000/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html Latest version of CDC website https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html?fbclid=IwAR0XSR1myc07zPdaCg1EMBoLEmxHzaP244hj4jq7MQcdOM3rM80wZIt7lKs

That sounds like whataboutism, I thought you were against that

Amazing how members on this board call out commanders for favoritism given to shiny pennies or unequally enforced actions leading to lack of credibility and can't see those same issues applied to the federal government.

We did all that deconfliction stuff in regard to artillery doing CAS in the Hawg. Then I ended up sentenced to be an ALO with an armor battalion. Watching a night live fire exercise and seeing the high altitude ricochets from 120mm main gun rounds, 30mm chain guns, TOW missiles, and God knows what else high speed metal, I came to the conclusion deconfliction was a nice idea but wishful thinking for those of us that operated in the weeds.

Let's not forget the context. Comey had rushed to close the investigation out with no charges against Hillary before yet more evidence of wrongdoing was discovered. So he had to reopen the investigation to save face. This didn't start with Trump. Lois Lerner was the canary in the coal mine. Trump just triggered the rest of them to mount their resistance. And yes, of course Trump is a piece of shit. There may be a few people here who disagree, but overwhelmingly the Republicans I know will all concede that point. However, as we have learned painfully over the past one or two decades, it is not a good-faith conversation, and in an unfair conversation, the targeted side will become reluctant to concede anything at all, knowing it will be used merely as a pretext to ignore whatever legitimate points follow in the conversation.

The government is a joke. Especially, at the federal level. Everything is politicized and used in the next election. What do you expect from our leadership? Guidance that makes sense. Come on man. I'm more worried about what pronoun to use on myself than covid. Lol

I’m not being facetious. If there’s data out there, it’s worth taking a look at. We all made decisions based on what we knew and believed at the time. Delta was the prevalent variant up my way last winter. A lot of people got vax/boosted up here (myself included) because the hospital data showed the majority of those in critical care were unvaxxed. That wasn’t the case in other parts of the country. The news has been COVID quiet. No more money in it and it’s a new administration so no more gloom and doom. People are burned out and it’s not a threat anymore. It would be interesting to see what happens moving forward now that “COVID’s over”…which I believe to be true. People said that if you got the vax you’d be dead in 6 months. I’m still here. Some people said it would affect birth rates. Hasn’t yet around here and we are a highly vaccinated area. If the protein or the mRNA is persistent in the body, that’s disconcerting and ID like to read more about it. Time will tell I guess.

Meanwhile people have, and are still, rushing to get their small children vaccinated. Unbelievable lack of logic and critical thought. I hope those kids are OK longterm.

Good luck with that. Hong Kong was handed to them, is connected to the mainland, and was never really self governing to begin with. Taiwan is an island, has a capable military, has governed itself for 70 plus years and has been a thriving democracy for a couple decades. The model the Chinese used in HK would only work with the express cooperation of the Taiwanese people and government and Xi’s aggression has all but assured that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Many of my Taiwanese acquaintances do believe there is only one China. A China that turns its back on the CCP and accepts Taiwanese style democracy and prosperity.

I would not be surprised if this is true.

The fact that the AGR bonus is higher than the DSG bonus for a year of orders is whack. Your AGRs are usually in it to win it and already committed, where your DSGs are usually a bit more open to what comes down the pipe. If they wanted to move aviators from the fence line to being committed, it’d be exactly the reverse.

I wonder how many here think that Trump actually knew about these documents, and their content? He is a great delegator, and likely someone on his staff just thought they were doing the appropriate thing (whatever that was). I just cannot picture Trump handling these things, and putting them under his coat on the way out the door, or saying, "Let's keep those extremely sensitive documents in the closet down in Florida." Are some giving him too much credit for his role in this? And yes, it sounds like this was his responsibility, but some of us know how custodial security works. So much more to this story.

This gem from Harris: "And any so-called leader who engages in rhetoric that in any way suggests that law enforcement should be exposed to that kind of danger is irresponsible and results in dangerous activities. You know, our law enforcement. Professionals. And in this case, we're talking about our federal law enforcement agencies. They do very important work. And from the moment they walk out the door of their home, until they go back in, their families, pray for their safety and well-being. And I think it's just highly irresponsible of anyone who calls themselves a leader and certainly anyone who represents the United States of America to engage in rhetoric for the sake of some political objective that can result in harm to law enforcement officers and agents," Vice President Harris said. —————- Well apparently the left cares about law enforcement again. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/08/13/kamala-harris-offers-her-take-on-doj-after-raid-and-now-she-thinks-its-bad-to-doubt-law-enforcement-1272905/ This is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off. Shit on law enforcement for all of 2020 (and beyond), but as soon as federal agents are investigating something or someone that might be beneficial to your side, “They deserve our full support.” And this has nothing to do with defending Trump or not defending Trump. It’s just an utter disgrace how stupid these people think we are when they go back and forth on crap like this. Tell me Kamala, where is your support for Border Patrol and CBP agents trying to protect a border you’re in charge of that you’ve completely ignored? Because I seem to remember you jumping to vilify agents just doing their job as “whipping migrants”. What a sad time we live in.

Some people here have an extreme issue with reading comprehension.

You’re missing the forest for the trees. It’s not about the territory. It’s ALL about the idea that there are rules in the modern world and one of those rules is respecting sovereignty. If we throw that out the window, we go back to the biggest, baddest dude on the block takes whatever he wants. If we go back to that, things like global trade and financial systems collapse. That would be devastating for countries like S. Korea, Japan, and Italy and would literally plunge much of the world into poverty and despair. But even if you say “fuck’em, why should I care?” you’d be in for some rude surprises. Think energy prices are high now? That’s cute. Imagine what happens when somebody closes the Straights of Hormuz just because they can. Or: How do you feel about paying $300 for a pair of sneakers once production collapses in S.E. Asia? Or: What happens to your 401K when the European and Asian markets collapse (hint: your money is not insulated from those markets)? So, sure, you could say most Americans couldn’t find Crimea on a map and couldn’t care less about the plight of everyday Ukrainians until six months ago, and, callous and cynical as it is, you’d be mostly right. But it absolutely, positively IS in every American’s best interest to maintain and defend the global order that allows us (and much of the world) to enjoy the highest standard of living we’ve ever known along with the most peaceful era probably in history.

This fleet management is gonna be a nightmare. Ops Sup giving a step brief at KBAD circa 2029- “OK, DOOM91, you are an old engine new radar jet. DOOM92, you are new engines new radar jet. Your spare is a legacy old engines old radar jet. I know this is your new radar checkout ride, but if you have to go to the spare, you still need to fly duration. Questions?”

When’s the last time a president left office literally carrying boxes of classified out of the Oval Office? For that matter, when was the last time a sitting president fomented a riot/insurrection at the Capitol. When was the last time a sitting president threw his Vice to wolves who literally wanted him hanged? When was the last time a former president took the fifth (more than 400 times) in a deposition? (Oh yeah, since this is the hypocrisy thread remember when DJT said: “The mob takes the fifth.” And: “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the fifth?”?) Unprecedented you say? Trump is a master of unprecedented. If unprecedented things are happening to him, it’s because he set a whole bunch of unprecedented shit in motion with his own actions. Why people continue to defend this scumbag is beyond me. Somehow, there are Americans who believe we will better off with more of his buffoonery. Do (royal) you really believe that this country will be better off with another Trump presidency? If I’m a republican, I throw the book at this jack hole and make him disappear forever. He’s made a joke out of the party. If the Republicans continue to double down on Trumpworld, they’ll forever be known as the party of Rudy Giuliani standing in front of a dildo store with cheap hair dye dripping down his face. Pathetic. Him acting like a spectacularly dumb criminal is a gift. It’s like God and Mike Pence (I assume they know each other) are handing the party a way out. TAKE IT!

“Just like they stopped with South Ossetia / Georgia and Crimea, amirite? After having secured that territory surely Putin wouldn’t attack other parts of Ukraine, especially not Kiev!” -Bashi, a very smart man, circa anytime between summer 2008 and February 2022 Man, this has to be one of the clearest “who is bad & the aggressor vs who is good and defending their homeland” situations in my lifetime. If for some reason this war’s waters are muddled at all, you are in a much different place than I am. Fuck Putin, fuck a new Russian Empire, slava Ukraini, and welcome to NATO Sweden and Finland. Mil aid to Ukraine has been the most efficient DoD money spent in forever in terms of units of “US security objectives achieved” per dollar. Ukraine, when you need a reload on HIMARS rounds, holla, we gotcha.

Considering the last 8 years of assistance and training, this whole thing should go down as the most effective FID mission ever. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Giving $5B to Ukraine has been the most cost-effective use of military money in recent history. Our military uses $800B/yr to essentially LARP.

Damn it’s such a shame when you illegally park combat aircraft in another country and your “hosts” can’t even keep up with the fire code standards! I bet Vlad wants to speak to a manager about a refund.

It never fails to impress me how much credit is given to George Soros (and Bill Gates, the Clintons, & a few others). I guess boogeymen can be useful. Question for the believers/“awake”: did George replace the Rothschilds or Colonel Sanders in the Pentaverate?

It's almost as if man-made climate change is nothing but a made-up boogeyman to keep people distracted from the real ills of the world.

You probably could have her little beach house on a contractor's salary when that movie came out. Just like you could buy a house with just dad working at the GM plant back in the 80s.

Is it that amazing though? These are the same guys who quibble in a debrief, or maybe they hold it down a little but definitely whip out the quibbling in the bar. "Sure, I went inside of MAR and took missile to the face, but we got a late dec, and #1 was all over the place, and the RTO didn't even acknowledge #3's shot. Total bullshit!" Those clowns exist in every squadron. The people who are quibbling about Hillary or Hunter Biden, or planted documents, when whole cartons of classified are on the loose? They're all the same person.

Those administrations had their shit in a sock? Or is it: the George Soros infested media didn’t scrutinize those administrations nearly as they did/do Trump? Bush got us into two wars we arguably lost, Obama decimated our military, the effects of which we are still feeling, but the worst…Trump had mean tweets. Got it! These “insider accounts” always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Not saying Trump isn’t without fault, but many of these “insider accounts” are mid level peons just trying to get their 5 mins of fame.

what is happening to former President Trump is an obscenely inappropriate. The FBI & DOJ have lost credibility. Thus far these investigations have amounted to hoax after hoax after hoax followed by blowing out of proportion small procedural issues. Maybe this one has real meat (doubtful), maybe not, but at this juncture that aspect is irrelevant. None of us on this forum knows what was in those boxes or what storage agreements had been negotiated, but we do know there was a legal mechanism to address grievances before executing a high profile armed raid as performed. That operation was 100% designed to intimidate and humiliate a political opponent, and that is clear as day. Indefensible.

Let's assume that Russia doesn't stop at Ukraine, despite the fact they can barely support ongoing operations, much less project power further (IMO). Regardless, for the sake of argument they are a mighty global military power intent on conquering the EU. 😈 Given that, in what way is the distribution of specialization in violence beneficial to the EU and the US? Generally, there is no meaningful military capability in Europe. There are too many languages for successful operations integration, and the financial system of the the Eurozone can't support increases to military spending (the so-called 'debt-brake' restricts EU state deficit spending at 3% of total spending [GDP] in the past year). The EU is trapped within liberal-imposed austerity, by structural design of the EU itself. The only correcting mechanism they have to protect themselves from financial bubbles is a fund of about €350B. Technically, national central bank purchases of state gov debt are illegal according to the Maastricht treaty itself. Instead of fixing these problems, EU member states join NATO and expect the US to provide 100% of defense capabilities. Meanwhile, the US economy becomes over-specialized in war and finance. We produce millions of military personnel and trillions of equipment in USD terms, while our spending on things like childcare, family support, certain forms of healthcare* are marginalized by comparison. The 'middle class' @nsplayr refers to doesn't really exist anymore. When we look at the largest components of wealth in the 'middle class', we see home equity (bubble) and pensions (remember, only 11% of private workers today have a pension, so these are mostly gov worker pensions). The bottom 90% of the wealth distribution is composed mostly of gov worker pensions and a housing bubble. So long as NATO exists, the EU has no incentive to properly integrate and increase their defense provision. Europeans literally ignore foreign policy as a concept, and even now, there is little interest within Europe in the conflict in Ukraine. People think it's the US' problem. I would argue this doesn't make much sense. The Europeans should be providing their own defense capabilities, as equals.

ClearedHot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk