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On the USAF side access to mental health care without retribution should be SOP for our service, especially for those in combat operations. I won't go into all the details but I fought an EPIC battle with Big Blue years ago to keep CLEARED Ops Psychs available to our aviators in the AFSOC world. I am obviously not an RPA operator but the RPA community in particular needs this service. I spent a lot of time commanding and working in their world and my battle resulted in me having to brief the Under Secretary of the Air Force when the Manpower people tried to take them away our cleared Ops Psychs. I used the following argument to successfully keep access to this critical care capability: "Sir, a lot of people underestimate and overlook RPA operators believing they are fighting the war from a box and they get to go home every night, someone insinuating that is an easy way to fight a war and it reduces the risk to their mental health. In fact, our RPA operators wage a far more personal form of combat than most and I believe it defiantly impacts mental health, especially in the long-term. I would ask you to consider this small vignette. Many of our RPA operators will observe the same house, watching the same person for a month or more at a time. As they develop a pattern of life they observe the target kiss his kids each day then send them off to school, they watch him interact with his wife, they watch him pray. The interaction while one way becomes very personal. One morning our RPA operator wakes up, has breakfast with his wife and kids, kisses his kids and walks them to the bus stop then heads off to the GCU. He sits down and five minutes later the phone rings telling him or her to kill the target. Our RPA operator professionally runs the approvals and traps and a short time later launches a missile or two that turns the target into pink mist, but it doesn't end there. Our RPA operator stays over the objective and watches the body in high definition for hours to see who responds. He or she can sees the kids face and grief when they discover their father was shredded into a lifeless mass of meat, they see his wife try to put the pieces back together and they watch as the body is eventually carried off by other friends and family. At the end of his or her shift they drive home and sit down at the dinner table where the family asks "how was your day?" How does our RPA operator possibly answer that question to his family. This form of combat is different than our other platforms that deploy. While on deployment manned operators have a separation that provides a buffer to process everything that happens, the live, sleep and eat with the camaraderie of others who are experiencing the same effects of combat, they have the time it takes to get home from a deployment to decompress and adjust, and they have time at home away from combat when their deployment is over. Our RPA operators have none of that, in fact they are so critically manned that they often can't take leave, the only get one day off per week and they do this in an endless cycle that can last for years on end. Make no mistake the person he or she killed was a bad person and they deserved to die, but we never want our warriors to lose their humanity in the process." Ultimately this argument worked and we were able to keep a TS cleared Ops Psych that was with our RPA folks everyday. I will laugh when someone plays Dos Gringos Predator Euology but I will never disparage our folks in this community, they carry a different burden than most and they do it without an end in sight. And, @Danger41 , they may be the SEALs of the Sky, but I hold the Draco's on the same regard. Most don't know the impact a little PC-12 has had on the battlefield or the commitment and cost to your community.

How come being a “Trans” isn’t a red flag to gun ownership. Documented history of that being a mental illness and having a much much much higher instance of suicide and attempted suicide which screams red flag.

@Pooter Ok, so the root cause is a specific type of inanimate object that is a motionless paperweight until a human with free will decides to be a POS and picks it up? Shitty diets, fast food, etc. kills WAY more people than firearms. Vehicle accidents kill double the people that guns do (I’m not counting suicides, many of those gun-related deaths are legal and justified, and many are criminal-on-criminal related, meaning no “innocent” people were killed). Where’s everyone calling for the ban of these inanimate objects that require human free will to use? The point of the above: it’s an illogical argument that inanimate objects are a RC of anything. Humans with free will are the RC of things based on the decisions they make (decide to kill someone, drive like a jackass, eat the 69th Big Mac even thought they have 3 different heart diseases). - In 2020 we were still at a lower murder w/ gun rate than 1974, and 2020 was a bad year in general. Murder w/ gun rates was fairly stable from 2000-2015, and then made a sharp rise from there, despite increasing gun sales over that entire time period. In fact, gun sales have risen steadily while murders have sharply declined over decades until that significant rise in 2015. There’s literally a negative correlation between the two. Guns didn’t change, so what else did? - # households with a gun has been DECLINING since the 60s, as increasing gun sales go to people with multiple (e.g. hunters and shooting hobbyists). Murderers using guns haven’t typically been the guy who has a large collection at home, it’s the deranged idiot who bought a gun last week/owns a couple or the gang banger/criminal who illegally acquired a gun and used it in nefarious activities (e.g. drug related). - It was common place not that long ago to see school parking lots filled with guns. It was not that long ago when kids brought rifles into school and stuffed them in their locker for use later that day in a school-sanctioned shooting event or hunting after school. No school shootings happened during this time. So, objectively and subjectively firearms do not have the correlation to un-justified murder that some people/gov members and the media want to claim. They are less involved in death than many other things in our country. They are a convenient boogeyman, but the facts do not support that “boogeyman status.” So now we’re back to the start of this discussion - what has changed this century (roughly starting from Columbine) compared to the 20th century? Well, generally positive morals and values were far more important and cohesive family units were more prevalent in the past. People were far more likely to understand the value of human life, even if they didn’t like someone. People were more apt to care about a stranger than they are today. So yeah, society has changed for the worse and is ultimately driving worse behavior. Perhaps we’ve opened Pandora’s box and we can’t put it back in. But, I do believe concrete solutions involve mental health services and campaigns/grass roots to minimize things that lead to mental health issues (#1: be a good parent, #2: community involvement to teach caring about others/reduce selfishness). We need to look hard into tying mental health to firearm access; I’m undecided on the best way to do that, but clearly something needs to be done. I agree with your immediate solution of hardening schools. My kid’s school has many concealed carrying people in it - every school should do this. Every school should have locked doors with controlled access. Combine those two things and you have a significant deterrent/significantly better chance of stopping a shooting/minimizing damage. Bottom line: I’m just as frustrated as others with how things are going in our country regarding murder, especially of children. I don’t want anyone’s kids to be in these situations. But, I want to actually solve the problem, and those who grasp at guns don’t give a fuck about solving the problem, as they are incapable or unwilling to identify the root cause and work towards solving that. It’s a difficult problem and I’m not arguing there’s an easy solution, but it’s disingenuous to say you care when all you do is yell #noguns in the face of the facts, with no effort put towards real solutions.

Teachers=democrats. Democrats+guns=bad. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If our leaders led like you, I would not have retired. 🇺🇸

Not sure where you’re getting that from. I freely admit Joe Biden is far from perfect. But he’s the result of the democratic process. I wish we had a Klobuchar or a Gabbard instead, but we don’t. I didn’t vote for Joe in the primary but that’s who we got anyway. At the end of the day, he still represents my values better than Trump did and probably better than DeSantis. (Remember; I’m a guy who thinks government has a bigger role to play than conservatives do. Why would I vote for someone who opposes my values?) At the end of the day, Biden’s likely where my vote is going even if he isn’t perfect. Does that mean I think DeSantis can’t govern? Of course not. If he’s elected, he will be my president and he’ll probably even do some things I agree with. I just don’t understand why some here don’t understand why someone who leans D would be reluctant to vote R. I’ve had the exact same conversation with liberal friends over the last few years who couldn’t understand why anyone could vote for Trump. Lifelong Republicans sure as shit weren’t going to vote for Hillary and they were smart enough not to give her the election by throwing their votes away to a third party. This concept shouldn’t be that hard to grasp.

I mentioned to my wife I'd volunteer one day a month to guard my daughters school and she countered "but would you trust the other dads who would want to volunteer as well? They don't have the experience you do." Maybe some training would be required for most, but I'd fucking stand guard.

I think most of us have zero desire to vote for him again. At least he got the silent treatment from the crowd when he mocked Desantis like a child at his last rally. Hopefully that’s an indicator of what’s to come. The RNC is absolutely fucking retarded if they nominate him again, as he’s probably the one guy who can actually lose to Biden.

Homelessness has nothing to do with homebuilding and everything to do with drug use. You'd accomplish precisely nothing by putting addicts in the suburbs, except for maybe freaking out a lot of soccer moms.

My wife is a teacher & lethal shot. She is 100% willing & capable of CC in school as a last resort to protect her students. She should be allowed to do so. I'll also note that despite objections from democrats the FFDO program has been wildly safe & successful. More guns held by law abiding competent citizens= more safety for society. The underlying tenet of democrat gun control is simply false.

You missed a few: 1. Afghanistan and 13 dead Americans, seriously the cowardice of every liberal that glosses over this event and who bares the blame. Yesterday SECDEF said he has "No Regrets" about the chaotic Afghanistan and Biden didn't immediately fire him. F anyone of you who shares that sentiment. Again, 13 dead Americans, their memory brushed away into the wind. 2. Inflation has reached its highest level in 40 years. I love your phrase "probably contributed some to the high inflation"...Ya think? FFS. 3. An increase in the cost of everyday goods and services disproportionately hurts lower-income families. Real average hourly earnings have decreased by 1.7 percent because of inflation. 4. Border chaos - 2.76 million illegal immigrants crossed the border in 2022 including 600,000 getaways. In Feb of 2023 16 people on the Terror Watch List were detained trying to cross meaning 3-4 made it across each month...great policy you got there. 5. Chinese Balloons - Do whatever you want China. 6. Classified documents EVERYWHERE. Anything to retain power...he can't even read a teleprompter without reading the instructions out loud. Buttigieg...for reals...did you not hear about the issue at the ports (maybe you were following his maternity leave posts instead of the news about the supply chain crisis. The airline meltdown over the holiday...where was this boob? Trains derailing and destroying towns. The only person worse than this clown is Mayorkas. Even the Dems are saying this is nonsense, dressing up a misdemeanor (with expired statue of limitations), in yet another witch hunt. They are creating a martyr.

Nuclear power is great and we should build way, way more! Never should have stopped building. Put a small modular reactor on every mil base and near every major city. Also if/when we figure out fusion it’s game over for everything else and we can usher in a future of incredible energy abundance. In the meantime, and because the HOA prohibits nuclear reactors on neighborhood lots, have solar on my roof and it’s awesome!

Just ask your cc if it’s cool if you disappear for 20 days. Go straight to the man and cut out shoe clerks. That’s your answer.

Finding common ground is hard to do. Especially when, in this situation, ppl like Prozac and NSA refuse to acknowledge the drastic shortcomings of politicians they support/voted to elect. Is it pride that refuses to acknowledge the less than stellar performance pointed out by your brothers in arms on the other side of the aisle? As if, by admitting that your pick isn’t JFK reincarnate, your worldview is somehow threatened. Admitting these politicians have made any serious mistakes is showing weakness, which is not allowed. It’s not surprising, because this is the same mindset that every POS commander I’ve dealt with in the AF has. Deny, deny, deny, counter accuse. ”Everyone is going to have to compromise” but also I refuse to even entertain the notion that the current president has made any significant errors. You’re disingenuous. Along with everyone on the right that thinks trump is our lord and savior. The ppl that refuse to converse/debate in good faith are directly responsible for the breakdown in cooperation in both society and government. The more you double down the more the forever trumpers are going to double down, and the more the moderate right is going to move further right, and the moderate left is going to move further left. I hope you’re ready when the pendulum swings back the other direction.

Son, reading comprehension has failed. I asked clear questions which you refuse to answer. I made no implication on who to vote for, yet you say I did. I have made no attempt to sway your opinion, I've simply posed questions asking you to elaborate your beliefs. Instead you displayed ignorant arrogance. You have no clue who I am, nor what I believe, yet you pumped all your missiles into the "all thrust, no vector" fire ball. You're a no-step U for loss of SA before even getting out of the brief. I was really hoping for better. Disappointing. We're done here.

Nice try China! Try your trickery elsewhere.

I like yours and VMFA’s thoughts and I know some states have thought of this too, but what about arming willing teachers??!! I can’t take the screaming you get when mentioning this novel idea. Is it any crazier than pilots being FFDO’s? Of course not. Set up a training program, and teacher’s can go and then carry a gun to work instead of just sitting there waiting to soak up bullets. Maybe it’ll give some of these pieces of shit something to think about, prior to walking unchallenged into a school and shooting the place up.

Don't forget adding Jan 6 to your list 😎😬

Using any means necessary (lie, steal, cheat) as long as your team wins. Because it's (D)ifferent.

@nsplayryou know I’m not comparing this to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The media frenzy, Trump behind the mic, the trial… You know what I’m talking about.

I mean…disagree. One former president and his legal troubles shall pass, and we’ll all move on. Actual shit-shows and national tragedies depicted for reference.

Inflation seemed to have peaked in June 2022 at 9.1%, the IRA was passed in August 2022, now the latest data from February 2023 it’s at 6% and continuing to trend down. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf 😂 This is all said in jest. The IRA had little to do with inflation and was named by San. Joe Manchin. In exchange for his vote, I would have let him name or whatever he wanted! It is a clean energy and healthcare costs law, and a good one at that IMHO.

Quit making sense dude! Here's an Idea. The gun haters can turn all of their guns in and go back to their homelands. This country, as with most countries, was helped tremendously by guns. We took it by killing and relocating the Natives. Show me how woke you are by giving your stolen land back to the Natives. Until then, you are as guilty as the rest of us for all of the atrocities committed to form the boundaries that make up the U.S. Don't buy a gun if you don't like them. Don't sell guns to retards. Make mass shootings illegal lol. Kill the shooter on site. If they surrender. Make the trial fast, torture the piece of shit in public and let the victims' families finish him (it,he,she,me, you, pooh, ....pronouns and words) off.

So your number one accomplishment listed didn’t actually do anything to reduce inflation? Strange accomplishment.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/health/adhd-stimulant-prescriptions-increasing/index.html Could it be because of drug abuse? No way, because Adderall is legal so it's ok! I have a close friend who hasn't talked to his children in over 7 months. He got addicted to Adderall several years ago and stays inside his home and tweaks out of his mind. He now has discovered that he's a Trans as well. I can't do anything about it except check up on him periodically and make sure he's still breathing. He's a combat vet. Don't be fooled. Adderall is legal meth.

For specifics on why I support the Biden admin in general: Passed the Inflation Reduction Act Massive investments into clean energy, including tax credits and point-of-sale rebates on things like EVs, solar & battery systems, induction stoves, heat pumps, etc. Strongly incentivizes clean energy manufacturing and mining to take place in the US or allied nations Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, capping out-of-pocket prescription prices for seniors on Medicare, driving down insulin prices for everyone, strengthening ACA subsidies which make those plans more affordable, etc. Passed the CHIPS & Science Act - bipartisan accomplishment Onshores critical semiconductor manufacturing & greatly boosts R&D and workforce training, strengthening national security and long-term lessening the impact of a China-Taiwan conflict Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act - bipartisan accomplishment Big investments into mental health services and some modest gun safety measures like red flag laws and enhancing background checks to keep guns out of the hands of folks who probably shouldn't have them Supporting Ukraine in their effort to repel the Russian invasion - bipartisan accomplishment Hobbling the conventional military forces of one of our biggest geopolitical foes for pennies on the dollar. Zero american military lives lost (RIP to that one MQ-9 haha) Uniting Europe against Putin and his aggressive, expansionist ambitions, adding new valuable allies to NATO, punishing Russia economically for Putin's bad behavior, and replacing Russia as Europe's biggest source of energy Those are my top 4 on policy at least. Additionally: Appointing a younger liberal SCOTUS justice to replace a retiring liberal was good if you are liberally-minded...we have messed this one up before. The American Rescue Plan was expensive and probably contributed some to the high inflation last summer, but I think it also helped us come out the back end better than anywhere else in the world - we're stronger & have better growth and less inflation than Europe or Japan/ROK/Aus/NZ/etc. TBH also just basic stuff like not tweeting insane shit all the time, not pissing off all of our allies constantly, not doing crimes like trying to overturn an election, etc. - I appreciate that in a President! Biden also led his party to a very strong mid-term showing compared to what happens historically during a President's first midterm. Dems gained a seat in the Senate and only lost a handful of House seats when the norm is getting blasted (see Obama 2010 and Trump 2018 as examples). I appreciate winning so we can do more of the above in the future. I don't worship Biden or think he's perfect. As I've said before, he's about 15-30 years older than I would like, picking Harris as VP was a mistake in hindsight because she is not a viable successor, and I don't agree with everything he's ever said or done (90s crime bill, wanting to partition Iraq, opposing the bin Laden raid, etc.). BUT, he's an effective incumbent who has help sheppard through a lot of things I support, so he's got my vote if he is going to run again in 2024. If there's a Dem primary, I'd love to support someone like Buttigieg, Polis, Klobuchar, Shapiro, Warnock, Whitmer, Beshear, Kelley, Pritzker etc. in roughly that order. I'm not a conservative, but if the GOP ran someone like Larry Hogan or Phil Scott I'd be open to hearing their pitch, and I appreciate the need for a reasonable party in opposition to the one I usually support. States with long-standing one-party rule don't tend to be run as well as those with real political competition IMHO.

Another thought on all this is how media portrays all these events i.e. "in your face" all day long. Compare that (as far as MSM coverage) w/ last nights Blackhawk crash x 2 that's killed more individuals than Nashville....

Usually yes, but my wife isn’t. She’s a damn good shot too.

https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-trumps-lead-grows-in-gop-primary-race-now-over-50-support I think the thing I find most ironic and strange about this whole poll is that the one demographic not swooning over Trump is the demographic that liberals hate the most..... well off white men..... lmao....

No regrets huh? These two “leaders” are clowns. The arrogance and hubris of our upper military leadership is disgusting.

I say Biden/DeSantis ticket for 2024. Dems get what they want as long as Biden stays alive. Republicans get what they want when he dies, and until then they get the Senate back by having DeSantis as the tie breaker (assuming no shift from the current seats). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

FWIW the best near term solution for school shootings is probably hardening schools. Armed guards and secured entrances will help a lot. The problem is that if you put those in place it will likely drive the shootings somewhere else that isn't hardened. It's a bandaid fix for a symptom, not the root cause. One idea that could fix the root cause is if the media all came to a gentlemen's agreement to simply not report on the shooters. Some outlets have already figured this out. I'm convinced the attention and notoriety is a huge part of what drives these things so if they refused to show names, faces, or any identifying information about mass shooters that would remove a lot of the incentive. The same goes for social media where "going viral" is valued over all else, so maybe removing the viral aspect of these tragedies is what needs to happen. You'll never be able to squash notoriety at a local level, but I'm convinced the nation/worldwide infamy you get after committing an atrocity is a big motivator for a disenfranchised mentally sick person looking to go out in a big way.

All the back and forth aside, it’s going to be a very sad time for our country if the 2024 election is Trump vs Biden again. I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do if those are the choices. I voted for Trump twice, and don’t regret either one, but I won’t do it a third time because he is not the person to lead the country out of the mess it’s in. I plan to vote in a primary for the first time in my life next year, even though my state’s primary is pretty unimportant, I feel like I need to do something to try and prevent Trump from being the nominee.

Perhaps, but I've never met these guys, so I'm not willing to believe that. Rhetoric spouted online is almost invariably an escalated and idealized versions of true beliefs. Everyone does that. I know I do. Cutting through to ground truth of a differing view is worth it to me, so I'll keeping asking questions until I'm actually answered. To be clear: guys like @nsplayrand @Prozac are invaluable resources worth listening to. They continue to post on what is largely a conservative forum despite often getting attacked or derided for their beliefs, yet they continue. That means they are true believers and I, for one, seek to understand what facts drive their beliefs. History teaches that the left mis-understands or completely fails to care about the beliefs of the right. If conservatives and moderates don't try to understand the left, there is no hope of any kind of compromise, and society splits...which we're seeing right now.

@FourFans Good points but you’re going nowhere. Prozac is an idiot who votes a blind D ticket just like every idiot who votes a blind R ticket. To further demo the balance of this problem, his statement above makes him as delusional/uninformed/blind as the people who happily push for trump in the primaries. They’re no different from each other, just one is on the D side and the other is on the R side. These people will always exist in our society, unfortunately. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink…

To your first (unquoted) point, I don’t know that Medicaid is the answer, but I am for diverting money from colossally wasteful spending and putting it towards mental health services. To be clear, I do not support more total spending or new taxes, I support throwing Peter off the cliff to pay Paul. Firearms (or hammers, or prescription drugs, etc.) is irrelevant. What’s relevant is we have a systemic issue with not just mental health, but also rapidly declining societal norms and values. Those two things tied together are the RC of our issues that manifest in many ways, one of them being evil shitheads who shoot kids. Grndpndr’s post is a small visual presentation of that. But most importantly, we collectively see far less value in other human life than we used to. We’re not ISIS, but we’re sliding that way (in terms of zero fucks given for the lives of others who aren’t us/our circle). So why has this happened? I could list a thousand things that have driven our society down the toilet, and I believe we specifically have declined further than other first world countries (likely because we have more money and innovative capability that has netted us some really negative things, amongst all the great stuff too of course).

it’s called the airlines

They don’t need to afford it, that’s the taxpayers job

Great to see there are still people in our country that run toward the sound of gunfire. Good on that cop wearing the body cam both figuratively and literally pushing any of his fellow cops that appeared to slow down. A plan of nothing more than 'run to the sound of the gunshots and shoot that person' violently executed right now is better than SEAL team six showing up in 5 minutes. Now if only we can get some of the front office people armed and doors that consist of more than glass, we might have a chance at this being a page three news article about someone being killed trying to break into a school.

Uh, if adults can do whatever we want, can we opt out taxes that support things we disapprove of? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nashville metro police showed how to take down an evil douche. As that Sheriff in FL said, "you can't kill evil too much". One less evil doer roaming around.

Um if they identify it as real flying then it’s real flying and you’re a bigot.

Another mental health case kills kids in a school, and predictably all the dems can talk about is gun laws. Not one mention of the shooter’s mental health illness, specifically trans in this case. They do not give one genuine fuck about saving kids, they care only about power. I’ll keep saying it, if all you talk about is guns and don’t talk about/do anything to address mental health and societal issues, you do not care about kids at all because you refuse to identify and address the RC.

Ok Rachel Maddow

There’s no reason for anyone to score in the 40s on any section with all the resources available. He needs to do a lot of research online as to how people study for it. I understand though people without a math background may need more learning time for those sections. Many of the books are helpful, buy as many as you can to maximize TIMED practice test opportunities. Next, make sure you are reviewing the AFOQT materials from the AFPC site. They have a practice Table Reading grid. Do that thing 100+ times until he has 10 seconds left over. Switch up the questions order. I would give myself less than the actual allotted time. I ended up with 99/99/99/95/99/75. DM me if you have any questions

50 years ago BiffT was saying the same thing except it was in regards to Elvis Presley and the devil music.....

He should hire some serious minded, professional lawyers, take their advice, STFU, and try not to steal the limelight from Republican candidates who are actually serious about wanting to govern this country. I’d honestly much rather listen to their ideas than DJT ironically whining about how unfair life’s been to him. Alas, he is who he is and he’ll be making sure he’s stealing the spotlight for the next year and a half. 😐 Yes, the media will play a large role, but part of that is Trump’s own fault through his constant quest for notoriety. At this point, I could honestly not care less whether he is prosecuted….he just needs to go away. There’s got to be some sort of reality show he could host where he could grab all the pussy he ever wanted and not have to worry about the monotony of things like daily intelligence briefings & what’s actually in the constitution. ‘The Bachelor; Ex-Presidents Edition’ maybe?