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At some point, you really do have to decide who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and what you’re willing to stand up for. Yes, we live in a “gray” world. Is the United States or Ukraine 100% good or innocent? No. Is Russia 100% awful? No. But the circumstances of this war are pretty clear cut and I can’t, offhand, think of a conflict in my lifetime where it was more apparent who the bad guys are. I find the fact that we are able to have such a major effect without putting actual American human beings and assets at risk to be fucking fantastic & it’s got to be one of the more no-shit effective uses of government money as of late. I’m more than happy to have a few dollars a paycheck go towards turning Putin’s Flankers into beer cans & degrading his ability to threaten more of Europe.

I'm astounded that anyone, who has deployed more than once in the last two decades, would still give them much more than an ounce or two of credibility. Having deployed to the same location, 11 years apart, trip two was truly a demoralizing event, and solidified my decision to get out after current commitments to my boss (whom I truly respect). It was same shit, different pile, made worse by an ROE that said, we have no business being here. But hey, some defense contactors were making big bucks and our young guys got some good airline hours! I look back and laugh at the time/effort (quasi witch hunt) that took place over a trivial missing item (maybe a few $K value), then months later we just say fuck it a leave untold millions (billions) behind. What a fucking waste! Signed, Jaded old fuck 🤣

Just kind of the equivalent of a biological male or female saying that they are the opposite gender or no gender at all. Not triggered. Facts matter. And no matter how hard someone wants facts to be otherwise, they won’t change.

All, I came across a really great property yesterday in an area that we have quietly been eyeing for some time. I didn't anticipate it garnering so much attention and was caught off guard when the sellers agent stated that they would be accepting offers through Monday. After talking with the wife I knew we wanted to give it a shot so I messaged Jon from Trident Home Loans around 2pm PST. He told me to call him and we spoke at length running rough numbers over the phone while we drove home. Just over 12 hours later, with one of his guys working the process at 3am PST on a Sunday, I had the pre approval letter to provide to our realtor along with our upcoming offer. Second time I've worked with Jon and can't recommend him highly enough.

Gawd damn some of y’all are triggered rn 😂 Every comment telling an RPA pilot “yOu’Re NoT a ReAl PiLoT” makes your dick 1 inch shorter, that’s also a fact. Some of you may need to limit your comments to only a couple before you go into negative territory… In other news…what was this thread about again?

Six additional National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) with additional munitions for NASAMS; Up to 245,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition; Up to 65,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition; Up to 24 counter-artillery radars; Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and support equipment for Scan Eagle UAS systems; VAMPIRE Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems; Laser-guided rocket systems; Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment. Source: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3138105/nearly-3-billion-in-additional-security-assistance-for-ukraine/ Bashi don't be so naive to think that we would just hand $3B in cash and say "go have fun." The USAI package absolutely makes sense and is aligned to both our and Ukraine's interests. Even looking at the $40B total aid, that's comparatively about 5% of the annual DoD budget, and easily the most direct bang for our buck at the moment. Throwing a fit over $3B being used how it is...you're the only ignorant one here.

Blue, you’re scoffing the others in this thread for being unintelligent without taking a step back. The USG already gives between $100B/yr to LM (depending on source), which accounts for about 70-80% of their revenue. The rest of their revenue comes from friendly governments (some just funded by ours anyway), with only 1-2% from non-government sources (which is likely cross-pollination with other USG contractors). Overall, the USG gave $682B to contractors in 2020, $482B from the DOD. Considering what we get for that - ancient technology that will always lag behind demand-funded consumer tech while never being actually employed - the bang for the buck against our adversaries approaches zero. The point that others are making in this thread is that - compared to normal spending - spending on Ukraine at the rate of $26B/yr (4% over what we normally spend) is pretty cheap considering the devastating effect it’s getting on an adversary. The weapons sent to Ukraine are actually being employed. As long as it doesn’t end up starting a nuclear war.

Also…do you know what money laundering actually is? Can you explain how military aid sent to Ukraine could possible be structured as a way to churn ill-begotten profits from an illegal enterprise through a legitimate business in order for that money to appear “clean” to tax authorities? Because that’s what money laundering is.

Well this comment aged well...

Call me some Gen Z commie pinko beta cuck but you can call yourself Indiana Jones for all I care if you find and fix targets and then put weapons on target, on time.

Wait… Did you just quote Office Space as a snarky reply? That’s actually funny

Correct. It's sound like a T-38 instead. And it puts out in Mil what a T-38 puts out in Max... 5800 lbs of thrust. it only weights around 9400 lbs with 2 pilots, full wings and tips.

It's fascinating to see otherwise intelligent people look at what's going on in the world, and think it's some screenplay being acted out in real life. The US and Ukraine are the good guys in white hats. Russia is the bad guy in the black hat. Challenges are faced, obstacles overcome, the good guys win, the bad guys retreat, and the credits roll. It's fucking bizarre.

Have you read a single SIGARS report? Lol. I'm completely fine sending these aid packages but not acknowledging that we probably don't have accountability of every dollar that is spent is either academically dishonest or naive, whichever one fits. We have a poor track record of tracking foreign aid money. That isn't going to change just because it's Russia now.

I don't think that at all. I think you're a very intelligent, self-driven idealist. And I've noticed that there's a huge and growing divide between the professional class and the plebes. The ability to isolate amongst similarly-situated and like minded families, both online and in communities, is abnormally high in the modern era. Look no further than people like yourself who regularly talk about how great everything is in the modern world while completely failing to see a huge part of the country who have lives that are materially worse than their parents' lives were. You might call it Trump country, but based on your commentary you have little experience with the people in that demographic. The gap between the haves and the have nots is growing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, the only people who are focused on this issue, probably you, but definitely the hyper progressive activists/politicians in the Democratic party, have a twofold problem. - They hate half of the people in the have-not group. The Trumpers, if you will. - Their prescriptions to help the half they like are violative of human nature and are doomed to failure. You can't see past the teams. That's not on you, the political class figured out how to polarize the electorate almost identically to how sports teams polarize their fans. It's generally harmless in football, but politically it's tearing the country apart. The real game isn't democrat vs Republican, it's the new aristocracy vs everyone else. Just look at the percentage of wealth of the 1% and look at how it changed during the pandemic. The least vulnerable people increased their share of the pie by a huge amount, and they did it with monetary and political trick-fuckery. No, the problem at hand is the continued erosion of faith, shared equally by Democrats and Republicans, in the institutions and elections of our country. In 2016 most Democrats thought the election was rigged. Same for Republicans in 2020. Some boxes of secrets in Trump's basement or emails in Hillary's bathroom are irrelevant. The differing treatment of these offenses by the law enforcement institutions is everything. That is what you fail to grasp.

DCL: Dick chewing lips. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While Bernie Bros and AOC types whine and rant about Big Oil, Big Pharma, and whatever other Big, Big College has far exceeded all others in the rate of increase in price. But the biggest supporter of the Leftist Libs are College educated white women so FJB is paying off his base.

The government gave $200k to some green haired person to pay for a degree in intersectional drum circles with a gender queer emphasis at some Ivy league SJW indoctrination school so now taxpayers have to pick up the tab because, surprisingly, you only qualify for a minimum wage job as a Starbucks barista with such an education.

I’m torn on this one because it won’t make any real long lasting difference until the college-industrial complex gets completely revamped. And a massive “2” on predatory student loans needing to get axed.

that's all well and good....IF people hadn't been forced to close their businesses, IF people hadn't been forced to take an experimental drug or get fired, IF kids hadn't (and in some states STILL) been forced to wear masks in schools, IF big tech hadn't censored only ONE side of the argument AT THE FUCKING DIRECTION OF THE US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AKA CDC hell NYC and LAX STILL "require" MASKS in the airport. thankfully people with a brain don't wear one. but hell man it's not fucking over. IF all those things hadn't happened i'd tend to agree with you...no problem. But all that shit did happen. and the decision makers were wrong. hundreds of thousands/millions of lives were fucked up. there needs to be accountability.

Lotta unnecessary dick talk in there, very odd. Clearly there is a correlation between getting multiple shots and contracting COVID. It is plain as day that public health authorities have misled the public: Lockdowns did not work, masking hurt kids, virus was man-made from a Chinese bio-lab, NIH conducted illegal gain-of-function research, the shots do not stop the spread… all trending towards true despite the best effort of big tech and government to censor it. Unbelievable, never something I thought I would see in my lifetime. Next “conspiracy” that will be proven true is the harmful effects of these disgusting experimental shots that were forced on us all. I want accountability.

I know you’re probably sad about Fauci, how will you ever know when to wear your mask again so you can always be a good little complicit citizen!?

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I spit my bourbon out, dammit Danger!

I may know why that FCIF dropped..... So there I was, walking into caddy shack to fly my daily suckfest sortie out of the Deid. Looked at my flight orders and saw I had one Col Patrick Rhatigan flying with me on that fine day. Didn't know the dude, so whatever. Everything was going fine until he noticed I was wearing my Alma Mater's ball cap during my preflight. He asked me if I was going to take it off before we departed. Getting the hint, I said yessir. He then asked me "if you didn't take off your cap, how would you quick don your oxygen?" I thought to myself "The same way I don it every time I test it during the preflight..." Fast forward a a few minutes, and then he asked me if I was going to unroll my flight suit sleeves. Because "what if we caught on fire and your arms got burned?" I figured if we were on fire, and my arms were at risk, we had much bigger problems. Don't remember much of the sortie, probably because no one did much talking, as we didn't want the Colonel to chime in. After we landed, I was on my way into MX debrief, and for some reason he followed along. Once we entered the outer door, he asked me why I didn't call the area to attention. I wish I remember how I responded. I probably just stared back at him with a confused look on my face. The next day....... So there I was, walking into caddy shack to fly my daily suckfest sortie out of the Deid. As I was scrolling through my seemingly endless FCIFs, I noticed one labeled "Approved Headgear." From Col Rat basically stating that ball caps were not authorized, and then went on to list all of the headgear that IS authorized. That FCIF was because of me. I was so proud of it.