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No surprise that this conversation is trying to be steered away from the main issue. No one cares or is debating what Elon should be spending his time or money doing or what his best skills are. The issue is the blatant hypocrisy of the left and the fact that they now want to sack an individual they used to love because he doesn’t toe their leftist line. The Biden administration wants to investigate Musk as a potential national security threat now due to this Twitter purchase. They of course claim this is “standard procedure”, despite Elon and his companies having in been involved in national security related activities for years now. All this is, is proof that the current admin and the leftists supporting it are threatened by anyone and everything that doesn’t support the approved narrative and will stop at nothing to try and shut it down and regain control over their own set of approved “facts”.

Oh how quickly we've forgotten.....

Is freedom of speech less important than rockets or EVs?

Is this the origin of the mysterious framed poopy underwear in the Bagram TOC? I left a sticky note requesting the Taliban reach out with answers if they figure it out; nothing heard yet.

Ohhhh, the boom’s dissing the nav! Somebody get me my box lunch while I watch! 😂🤣 (Stated with love and ‘all due’ respect boys)

His number 1 priority is to remove child-porn from tweeter. It's amazing how left view that as a bad thing.

A little bit of devils advocate here.. It's very difficult to measure something that never happened i.e. the community spread that never occurred as a result of precautions. So saying "zero point zero" of this had any effect is just nonsense. We all logically know that precautions have an effect and the more strictly you adhere to them, the more effective they are. If you went full bubble boy and had no contact with anyone for the past two years, you likely would not have caught covid. We know respirators are better than n95s which are better than surgical masks which are better than cloth masks etc... So quality and level of adherence to precautions absolutely has an effect. But that isn't the takeaway here. And "precautions didn't do shit" is probably the dumbest takeaway possible. Maybe the takeaway here is precautions come with a cost which should be weighed against the risk. And since everyone weighs risks and costs differently it should *generally* be left up to the individual.

Doesn't take a billionaire investor galaxy brain to tell that things aren't going swimmingly over at twitter right now. But you keep telling yourself Elon is playing 4D chess as he posts pictures of handguns on his nightstand as twitter valuation tanks, they roll-out and then immediately retract features, and 14 of the top 50 largest advertisers on the platform pull chocks.

It's funny watching them get bent out of shape over this. Abortion, guns, trans and Twitter. That's essentially what they care about. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is decaying, there are more homeless people in CA than there are citizens living WY, and I'm a bad guy because I'm Irish/American or otherwise white (everyone else is proud of their pre American heritage so why can't I be?). Clowns.

Then you're a Nav.

Yea it's all cost-benefit analysis and that can be hard to do in real time, at massive national scale, when there's no centralized power to act, etc. Every Monday morning QB who thinks they could have done so much better and also convinced ~330m people to actually do what they recommended is almost certainly kidding themselves. Policy is hard and we should have an effective debrief so we can do better next sortie. Shit, ask China how their zero-COVID policy is going right now, and their government already exerts WAY more control of their population than ours! All the hyperbolic responses of both the extremely, weirdly cautions public health folks and the hardcore anti-vax, anti-government folks are missing the mark IMHO. Implementing smart, risk-aware precautions is pretty much always a good idea and both individuals and governments at all levels should absolutely be empowered to do that. At this point though, few anti-COVID measures make sense beyond whatever people want to do voluntarily and encouraging folks to get the vaccines, both against COVID, the flu, RSV, all the things. Each of those is a total bitch...RSV recently worked its way methodically through my entire household and it really sucked for my new baby even though it was fairly mild for the rest of us. Again, China is super heavy handed on their lockdowns but weirdly only like 25% of their elderly folks are vaccinated against COVID...that's a really stupid policy and the exact opposite of what they should be doing, and people there are starting to get pissed. I'm excited about work that's being done on a pan-flu vaccine building on some of the advances we learned making the COVID vaccines, it will be great to have more weapons against all the respiratory viruses out there. Despite what a lot of folks here believe, the COVID vaccines were developed super fast and were very effective at preventing COVID deaths, which is great! Hats off to Warp Speed and the people behind those vaccines. The takeaway from this pandemic absolutely should not be that "precautions didn't make a difference" because like @Pooter said, measuring the counterfactual of "what if we did absolutely nothing" is really hard. There will likely be more pandemics in my lifetime, and I plan on doing the best cost-benefit analysis I can in order to balance staying safe, alive and disease-free with living a free and fun life that's a big part of why being an American is awesome.

Fair enough and well put. My hyperbolic post is the result of some pent up hostility, some Blanton's single barrel, and access to the internet. Won't be the last. Zero point zero effect is like you said nonsense, but I'm still not convinced it had all that much of an effect. Anecdotal - I got covid about a month after my second vaccine dose, after having skated past it for about 2 years and yes I was one of those people on the beaches every holiday. Your last sentence is the most important.

Man somebody should pay you to curate a list of batshit alt-right obscure no name "news" sites. The links you come up with make newsmax and oan look reputable by comparison. Why didn't Paul Pelosi "run away" from his attacker? Must be some giant conspiracy.. or perhaps.. and hear me out on this one because it's pretty wild.. he didn't scamper away because he's eighty-fucking-two years old

Lots of things are possible, but that doesn’t make them likely. if you end up in fighters, expect to PCS every 3 years +/- 3-6 months … usually on the minus side. You will move more often right after UPT for various training … long TDYs or full PCS’s. AFPC likes to shuffle the manning holes around. if you’re looking to homestead somewhere, consider the guard/reserves

“a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” is a conspiracy theory? Impressive exhibit!

I don’t have any special insight but this is extremely googleable: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/28/musk-says-apple-cutting-twitter-ads-here-are-the-other-companies-rethinking-their-ties/amp/ And FWIW I don’t know how much it matters or really care who advertises where or how (or if) Twitter makes money. If Elon wants to own it as a hobby and pay a much smaller payroll from his personal funds and call it a day, cool, go for it.

Nah, he just left those on the floor for me to high step over like Barry Sanders.

Two more weeks to flatten the curve here

Look I don’t hate Elon or endorse a lot of the online leftist nonsense, but to say that overpaying ~10x for a social media company, becoming the main character of its discourse every single day, and then shitposting your way through it while having to sell other valuable assets just to cover your new loans is winning…ok. I don’t think Twitter is immanently dying but I also don’t think it’s all that important in the lives of everyday people either! I would much rather have Elon focus on SpaceX and Tesla where legit great stuff is happening and where he’s done a lot of good. I mean to each his own but… Jumping face first into the pile of shit that is online social media moderation discourse just doesn’t seem fun or profitable or worth spending your time given the other options on the table for the richest man in the world.

I'm glad I stayed in. Almost punched at 14 years when I got a staff gig I really despised (extremely poor leadership at the beginning). Decided punching for one bad assignment was a little reactionary and ended up staying. I truly think I would've regretted it had I punched but since that's a hypothetical no way to truly know. At the end of the day serving my country is still a really big part of my reason for being. I love the flying and camaraderie. Hit 20 next May and will probably stay another 2-3 years beyond that if I'm still positively contributing. Different strokes.

I had an awesome career that I’m very thankful for: met tons of great people, flew several aircraft, and got to hurt the enemy. Unfortunately it’s a broken organization led predominantly by petty losers and mini-tyrants. Having looked behind the curtain, it is as bad as the line flying captains think. ETA: I’m retiring in a few months after 21 years. Glad I stayed as long as I did, no regrets about leaving now.

Here's the thing though. Elon Musk has $190B. Even if Twitter goes Tits up tomorrow and he loses everything, He's still the second richest person in the world, the richest American, and most importantly, still richer than Jeff, Mark and Bill. And even if that happens, the worst outcome, at the end of the day--Elon would have been successful at dismantling one of the largest liberal disinformation machines on the planet. There isn't a single universe where that all happens and Elon isnt considered winning. That said, I don't think it's going to happen that way. Because in the end, Twitter isn't doing as bad as people think. All of tech is hurting bad right now which is kind of obfuscating how much of an effect Elon on his own is having on Twitter. And lots of people still using Twitter, including liberal celebrities who use it to announce they're trading their Tesla's. Vast majority of people are too lazy to try new social media platforms because "bad space man say mean things." What's really whacko about this is Elon isn't even conservative, he's very neutral. Dude was out supporting Obama, Clinton and Biden over the last 3 elections. But like so many other moderates the progressive wing of democrats totally threw him on the pyre for even insinuating their narrative of Uber wokeism is even possibly incorrect and now the whole party has attempted to follow.

I concur, but to be clear, that means you have the freedom and liberty to do the best cost-benefit analysis. That's where we all get sideways on this. I'm a retiree - hung it up abruptly in 2015 to escape a "very good" deal to the caoc for another year after squadron command. I understand stepping in line to be a part of the institution. But as I got older there were more and more things that the institution demanded that I scratched my head on. Fortunately I didn't have to deal with the woke stuff, my biggest one was the AF position that every male was a rapist (remember that?) and so I had to wade through a few of those ugly cases. I'm sure we're all aware nowadays that not every single female was getting raped, but back then, everyone was. According to the AF. And those weren't experts brother. That was AF leadership. It was the most ed up thing I had ever seen. Be careful about those experts. They'll tell you anything. I was the most expert squadron commander in the CAF, obviously. I got an awful lot wrong. And I saw a lot of experts in charge of me get an awful lot wrong. Humans. Guard that freedom and the right to think critically and at the end of the day say what the ? Hell no, you are wrong. That's gold my friend.

Remember when the left was saying Twitter was a private company and could do whatever they wanted with content on their platform? What happened to that? Oh, that’s right.

I think he was inspired by your previous post about nutsack injuries. 🤣 Looked like it must’ve hurt!

I spent a lot of time as an adviser in Kuwait. I know what makes them tick, its avoiding work and passing off blame to other people when they are clearly responsible. Their "way" is doing as little as possible and wondering why nothing gets done. It also involves treating everyone as servants/slaves that are not their nationality. The original post is standard for the region, but I would bet Kuwait is the worst offender of them all. There were a handful of "good" ones I worked with but they got s*** on by all their leadership because they were trying to make a difference and change things for the better, which meant that the majority (bosses included) of them looked bad by comparison.

And it will only get worse until enough people tell them to GFY in every form of verbal and physical means. A lot of conservatives are pushing for better quality GOP candidates who are more in tune with “the masses;” that’s certainly a real challenge that must be faced cranium on. But holy shit, supporting directly or indirectly the insanity, including widespread censorship and other general fuckery, that the Dems are pushing is throwing gas on a 5 alarm fire.

This question is less rhetorical than it appears. I am very surprised we don't more idiots (I mean people) demanding a total ban on this very harmful, racist, and xxxphobic platform (now that the radical and violent right wing have control of it).

What a collossal bucket of America's response to covid turned out to be. Stores emptied. Stores closed. Goya beans the only thing available on the grocery store shelf. Ammo shortage. Gun prices through the roof. Vaccine touted as "just get on board, it will make this all go away." "Wear your mask. Social distance." I realize a lot of you didn't see it because you can't, but a shitload of people didn't get the vaccine, and those that did well, that didn't really stop the spread. A shitload of people either didn't wear a mask or half assed it. And a shitload of people didn't social distance. If any of you went to the coast during memorial day or the 4th in 2020, 21 and 22 you can attest. So at the end of the day zero point zero of that shit had any effect. Good god there are a shitload of brainwashed idiots in America.

If you can get a fighter (preferable single seat), go there. If you can't go fighters, find the closest ANG squadron to your home town (or wherever you want to live some day) and pick whatever plane they fly.

Pick the mission you want to do and put no more thought into it. Hopefully you’ve gleaned from above that EVERYONE is on the road, has long days, works weekends, and does it all with varying levels of outside-work issues. I have friends who thought heavies would be the jam for reasons you stated, they hated it. Other friends same story, but with fighters. LL for those guys: pick the mission you’ll enjoy, not the one you think will have “better” QOL, time at home, least workload, etc. If you can’t stomach that idea for the next 10 years, then in all seriousness stop now. I hope you don’t though, because I think you’re young and think your problems are more difficult to manage than reality; you’ll be fine and continue to figure life management out as you mature. That’s not meant to shit on you, we’ve all been through it in our young-mid 20s (I took e-leave in UPT also).

Can't speak to all the communities but a lot is luck and timing... And if you're able to make yourself eligible for the right opportunities. In the Viper, you'll be gone a lot for your ops assignment, either tdy or deployments. After that, family life will depend on your assignment and if you have short tour credit. I made it through 10 years in the Viper never being on a short tour, although I did spend 5 months at Kunsan. My last 2 assignments were great for the fam, Luke and Nellis. Life is the guard is great so whatever you pick, make sure it's an airframe that has options in the guard/res in areas you're happy to live. Flying raptors or fat Amy would be cool but have limited options outside AD. Don't plan on getting a TX into another jet, you have no idea what the landscape will look like in 10 years. I take the approach that if I HAVE to get 1 divorce in my life time, the USAF will definitely be the winner of that one. Take care of your family first. When it comes down to it, the big Air Force really doesn't care about you (although hopefully you'll have Commanders that do).

I would stop using free time and make that your full time, govt paid job. That's total BS. I agree, contact your congressman if you're not getting any love from your leadership.

A small part of why I love the Viper...

I'm an ANG technician. GS-13. $114,000 as tech plus 28,000 tech bonus, plus 24,000 DSG, plus 12,000 sitting alert. No commitment, no 365's, no 179's. Come home every night. Don't sign the bonus, go Guard.

UN just said over 100,000K Ukraine soldiers dead. Perhaps I haven't been paying close enough attention, but that number is absolutely staggering. More than all US service member losses since WWII.