Leaderboard

Agree to disagree. Congress wants to be in charge, then accept the responsibility that comes with it. I've got E-1, 2, 3, & 4s working 6/1s on 12s, I expect the same kind of work ethic from the highest law-making body in the land. Insert a cliché about 'ignoring a problem won't make it go away' or 'Bad news doesn't get better with time'...both apply to this situation. Again, this is political theater with three sides…unless you truly think that the 12x takers of the DoD policy on funded abortion travel is a higher National Defense priority over the nomination approvals of the Senior Military leaders. SecDef Austin and Senate Majority Leader Schumer have statutory options they are choosing to not exercise...and I have to ask myself "Why?"

Hot take…the airlines don’t require a degree. Spend your money on hours to get to the regionals, run hard and get to the majors. Live on ramen for another 2 years until you’re a narrow body captain, then spend your money on a technical school for something like welding. Profit.

Callsign SHED, Super Huge Enormous Douche.

No offense, but 'exercised the authority the Senate had the entire time' is probably a more accurate description. What legally changed for Chuck Schumer between last week and today? Tuberville's hold was never a insurmountable obstacle. Remember that politically, both parties use your military service as pawns of whatever it is its after.

What is unacceptable behavior? Taking down hostage posters - yes, blocking traffic - yes or attacking people - yes...but simply expressing another view point no way. I was driving home two days ago and flipping through CNN and Fox on Sirius. Fox had a retired Army Lt Gen I have never heard before and he was upset with the kids expressing their view of what was happening in Gaza...his commented that if a University allows this type of commenting they should lose their federal funding....uh...NO Fing Way. I find what is being said by these far left groups absolutely appalling, but minus violence it is simply free speech. Free speech is not only free speech you agree with and the government should not try to stifle those expressions. It is one thing for a private citizen to hold them accountable by denying jobs, doxxing, yelling back...that is part of the game, but minus violence and the law, the government should never cross that line.

I'd start pumping propane (heavier than air) into the tunnels followed by a Zippo. Not that there aren't enough ignition sources already there.

Yup. Exactly what @Boomer6 and @brabus said: They're likely not going to care about BS/BA; get a degree that is useful to you in case you don't get to play airplane for some unforeseen reason. Furthering that, it's great you want to know about psych but, if you have zero interest in making it a career, you're just wasting your money. You can buy some books to read/learn about psych and, if you really want to go through some formal courses in it, get a minor in psych to go with the major that's going to get you paid (or just rack up hours for airlines). Always try to open as many doors as you can; it'll allow you more options down the road when life inevitably changes.

There shouldn’t be so many offices to confirm in the senate then. Smaller government, boom problem solved.

I was an AF Legislative Fellow in the Senate and saw the process up close. Our office received a list of military promotion nominees ahead of time. If there was somebody on the list that we didn't think should be promoted, we could call the SASC and they would remove that name from the list. This allowed the main list to move forward for unanimous consent vote, without that person on it. Obviously this would be rare, but it did happen to one O-6 when I was there. Only the very top nominees would have any attention paid to them. The highest level nominees (4 stars, JCS members, Asst Secretaries, etc...) would make their rounds to our office to meet with the Senator and others on the SASC to "kiss the ring." Below them nobody really gets reviewed, unless there was a specific person on the list that was highlighted negatively. And I agree with Stoker. My Senator worked everyday from about 0600-2300 and also brought a giant book of "homework" with him every night, memo's to review and approve. He frequently had 30 appointments a day. Unlike the extreme bloat in the DoD, our office was small with very few staff. There is no time or manpower to review nominees one by one, except the people at the very top of the DoD.

Best get started then. Or we're going to have 50,000 vacancies a year.

It is feasible and THIS is part of the problem. If you have to be confirmed by the Senate why just accept the blanket approval of each service. This practice only reinforces the broken process and continues to promote some of most acidic leaders we have ever seen.

So basically, you’re upset that your hypothetical doctor might not be in-network. And ALPA would somehow prevent this. Are you Jeff Manley?

If your plan B is to go to the majors then why not get an aviation degree and start building those hours?

We already effectively have a two-state solution in historical terms, given that Jordan was carved out of Mandatory Palestine with the intent of being Palestine for the Arabs. Jordan also ruled the West Bank until they made the catastrophic decision to invade Israel a second time. Make no mistake, any solution that gives up more territory to Palestinians will eventually be followed by demands to make Israel solely consist of land a Jew is actively standing on.

Good, sounds like you’re going the right direction As to BA or BS, to the Guard / AF I’m not sure it would matter or how much in whatever candidate selection method they are using now I never sat on a SUPT candidate selection board but I did on several promotion and interview boards If we knew the candidate was not an immature knucklehead by his / her service in the Wing, that paid the biggest dividends IMHO, good grades, flying time, etc all matter too but your performance in the Wing is where you’ll make your mark I’m telling you something you already know but FWIW If you think you can score a higher gpa with a BA vs BS, and you want that degree then proceed that route Except for test pilot / astronaut, the tech degree doesn’t matter Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You really can’t handle having a big boy discussion without bringing in political labels (that are wrong), can you? Nothing I said was political, but you have to bring it back to some super dumb take. Literally you just can’t fathom that we have similarity between our views. MAGA bro.

My take: you're waaaaaaaaay overthinking this.

I've seen a few versions of this one. Pretty funny in any format.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that 100 billion killed a lot of Russians with zero risk to us forces. A win by any accounting.

Get your BS and don’t suck. If you’re after a UPT slot you should be prioritizing all your effort that direction now.

I never said illegal, I said unacceptable. These universities have said they will not allow “hate speech” on their campuses, and threaten students who don’t use the “correct” pronouns. So using their own litmus test, these universities need get rid of these students and prohibit this “unacceptable” behavior. But they largely won’t…and why?—because the university leadership by and large share these same views. Let’s not pretend these left wing institutions ever supported free speech and dissenting viewpoints.

Here is the TIME article referenced in which Ukraine is reported to be "struggling" to keep it together. It certainly doesn't portray the situation positively. In fact, the author makes it sound almost hopeless. It appears the Ukr gov't is dealing with exhaustion, apathy, waning public and international support, decreased funding, simply running out of people to forcibly conscript and launch against a brick wall. When the funding declines, the well-documented corrupt UKR gov't will fracture, and they'll turn on Zelensky, be forced to the table, and ultimately capitulate. When they do, what happens to the 100 Billion dollars in aid and equipment that we have delivered to Ukraine? We couldn't believe it when our leadership left 7 Billion worth of shit behind in Afghanistan. Imagine the disgrace and shame of doing the same in Ukraine. After all... all the same people are in charge of this mess.

I bet @Best-22 even downvotes posts in the “German chicks in dirndl and beer” thread…Hold on, I’ll go check.

I agree with your statement, however this is where I have issue with the people living in Gaza. Hamas oppressed you as residents = agreed / Israel is bombing and destroying your homes and towns because Hamas is imbeded inside your homes, hospitals, stores etc... You cannot convince me that the residents there "don't know who Hamas players are", then for the sake of your families, town, wellbeing kill those motherf*ckers. If the Palestinians as a people would literally kill these hoodlums hiding in thier towns then bombs wouldn't be falling from above. If this was happening here, we as residents would be stacking bodies faster than the military to keep ordinance off our heads. At some point they can't be victims and do nothing about it.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Coming into flight examinations with $600+ in cash in an envelope and being required to hand it over first thing always felt a lot like a mob shakedown lol. Great system we've got!

What value are you placing on an American life? When you come up with one, put it in a math equation, and I'll be happy to give you my take on the cost/kill. Remember, we had to abandon the gold standard to finance the war in Vietnam ultimately leading us to position we are in today. We didn't win that one and we don't have that option again. The Ukrainians don't get to decide if they wish to fight ad die. Zelenski gets to decide, and also remember, he cancelled the the March 2024 elections so that the people CAN'T decide. How much sense does it make to claim you're helping save Ukrainian people from a tyrannical dictatorship while supporting their "democracy" that is transitioning to... a tyrannical dictatorship? Do you honestly believe the world has been shocked into submission by the our support to our allies and ability to win wars? Because it certainly doesn't seem that way. Conflicts are popping off all over the place at rate greater than our ability to quell them. Quite the opposite, our strategic opponents smell blood in the water and are further emboldened by obvious inability to actually win anything. Ok, so everyone knows the financial system is on life support and the days are numbered. Today, you can go to the bank, withdraw cash, go anywhere you want, and exchange it for something of value. Replace your vehicle, do some home repairs, invest in equipment for a small business, etc. You can also use it to help someone who needs those things more than you. Our government, knowing the end is near, could just as easily take those coupons with an expiration date, and trade them for hard, durable assets. They have a choice. They could improve infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools, factories, etc. They could convert that cash to power plants, oil reserves, food reserves, raw materials, border security, and other things that would sustain the American people through an economic downturn. Instead, they choose to convert those soon to be defunct dollars to "foreign aid" and send them overseas while telling you the baddies are conspiring to sap and impurify your precious bodily fluids. Why would they do this? Because a large portion of that public debt and "foreign aid" returns to them, personally, in the form of checks to offshore banks, business deals, board positions, consultant fees at defense contractors, overperforming investments, etc. Then, they can convert those dollars to real assets for themselves instead of real assets for you. The senior deal makers at the top have zero concern for your best interests. As a matter of fact, most of them are so far removed from the average American, or Ukrainian, or Israeli that they can't even understand your needs or perspective. Most, not all, are playing Monopoly with the productive value you, not them, have brought to the American economy. And it is a game for them. In Monopoly, they're given a random opportunity to make a transaction or exchange. When a conflict happens, such as the one in Ukraine or Israel, it presents vast numbers of these opportunities. The game only progresses in one direction, that is fewer people end up with more money, and eventually if the game is allowed to continue ad infinitum, one person ends up with it all. So knowing that conflict presents more random opportunities to conduct these random transactions (thereby increasing the probability of enriching oneself), what is the greater incentive, investing in peace and prosperity at home, or investing in, or even promoting, conflict abroad?

Disagree. I've addressed this exact point at least three times in this thread, but that's okay because I want to add a few things and take another stab at it. What did we win? Did we thwart the plans of an evil superpower that amassing a Nazi-like war machine preparing to march across the European continent, and ultimately prevent the global domination and enslavement of the planet by Putin? I will concede that our $100 billion reduced the probability of that happening by an amount. It starting to seem to me that the arguments are shifting from "We're gonna defeat Russia, send them back across the border, and restore Ukraine to it's former glory" to... "Well, okay. Maybe they won't be defeated. Maybe Ukraine will never be made whole, but damnit we sure killed a lot of Russkies! High Five! Guys? Don't leave me hangin'." Our current leadership, with it's track record of incredible failures, indebted you and I to the tune of $100+ Billion for Ukraine, $14 Billion today for Israel. The US Treasury borrowed $776 Billion to pay our bills the last three months of this year and will borrow $816 Billion in just the first three months next year, just to keep the lights on. That money is being extracted from your future earnings, laundered overseas, and inserted into the pockets of those who are advocating for this conflict. What amazes me is you're praising them for it. Do you honestly think to yourself, "My life is better and safer because X00,000 Russians are dead?" What also amazes me are the X00,000 dead Ukrainians who are conveniently left out of the accounting spreadsheet that declares this a "win". Do you know any Ukrainians? Would you be comfortable expressing to them what a spectacular bargain this has been for us? I should probably stop typing. EDIT: $113 Billion divided by 300,000 Russian casualties = $376,000 per bad guy. "Bargain" WTF.