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They got naked gunner hugged to death.

"We should trust and support the government sending our money to Ukraine because we can't trust the government to spend the money wisely at home." You've read a lot of other posts here as to why we should be spending money on Ukraine. Some of them are actually understandable and intelligently argued. Why would you follow that up with what is perhaps the dumbest, most asinine argument of the entire thread?

What the military used to offer as incentives (college, health care, some money) the left wants to give people for doing little to nothing to earn it. And for what the military does offer that is truly meaningful (discipline, skills, teamwork, etc), these are actually earned through hardwork, dedication, and sacrifice…something fewer and fewer people are willing to do. This is where the US is headed as a culture. None of this is surprising.

I genuinely hope that all of this crap turns out to be like the Foxbat which produced the Mighty Eagle. If all of this stuff turns out to be a helpless baby seal, I very much hope me and my buddies all have the sharpest and most lethal clubs that the American taxpayer can buy and the military industrial complex can produce.

From the article.. John Venable, a former F-16 pilot and senior defense fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank, told Defense News the AC-130J would not survive a war against China and that the command is right to rethink its mission. Dear John, Fuck you! Now go point at your asshole and tell us how much it's worth.

I get what you’re saying, but think you’re still looking at it mostly from a legal standpoint. That’s why I specifically said strategic. And I disagree with the fact that moving it to the states will make the issue go away. One, the left is not going to let it go away unless and until it is protected or codified again at the federal level. You may not agree with that, but that’s the only way the dem’s think they win on this. Not to mention, any conservative politician wishing to make a national level campaign will have to answer for their stance on abortion or have their stance used against them, especially if they come from a state with an abortion ban. Abortion was always a fringe issue out there that got talked about from time to time to get a rise out of people, but it never got the level of electoral attention it’s getting now on a national scale. In the recent elections since the overturn of Roe v Wade it has been a forefront in the decision making of many voters and has not worked in favor of conservative candidates. That’s why I think it was a colossal strategic mistake to shake the hornets nest of Roe v Wade.

Counterpoint, this is exactly how the Roe issue is permanently removed from the conversation. Every state is now deciding what they want, which is going to appease a lot of people who now have choices if this issue is truly that important to them. The only way Republicans can truly fuck this up is if they try to nationalize the issue again with a federal ban. They will lose their asses in that case, but I don't think that's the strategy for most. A terrible legal decision has been undone, and one of the most contentious issues in modern American politics is being dealt with in the manner of the founders originally intended, locally. I know a lot of Republicans had the ultimate goal of fully banning abortion, but from a purely conservative and legal standpoint, this issue is resolving itself remarkably fast after 50 years of turmoil.

Election 2023: 3 key takeaways on abortion, Trump and Biden | Fox News A small sample size of elections for sure, but some strong messaging from voters nonetheless. I've said this on here before, but the overturning of Roe v Wade was one of the single dumbest strategic moves by the Republican party in a very long time. Forget about the legal or technical aspects for a second and look at the big picture. One, abortion bans are in general not popular across most of the country. Two, the right essentially went at the heart of the left's version of the second amendment. This galvanized support and basically proved to many voters the Dem's drum beat of "they want to take away abortion!" was correct after all. Looking at the last two years, the overturning of that single measure has led to numerous election losses and looks like it will continue to do so. Also, the moderate democrat Kentucky governor winning (again) in a deep red state highlights to me the desire in this country for moderation in politics. The far left and far right garbage that dominates the headlines is not what most people want. Personally, I think on the presidential level the republicans have the best candidates that actually could lean center on many issues and also provide genuine leadership. But of course, somehow, someway, Trump is going to be the nominee; nearly ensuring 4 more years of the current garbage we have. The only positive light I would take from this for conservatives is that this week's elections were far more local in nature, and the economy, the border, national security, etc... were not exactly what was being run on. Those three things look very bad on the current administration. But again, they're probably going to run against Trump so the issues will go out the window for half the country anyway.

I thought it was the 13th - 17th? Either way, next week! Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

@M2 2024! With @nsplayr as the VP.

They’re all attached to sharks instead.

Don’t listen to these people telling you to jump straight to the airlines. Get either degree and serve in any officer capacity in our military. It’s an honorable way of life.

US acquisitions process - where good ideas go to die. Good luck gunship bros.

SEVEN DAYS UNTIL THE BOARD MEETS!

You may disagree with public sentiment, but ignore it at your own peril. There’s an increasing chance people’s feelings toward military service may be moving from apathetic toward antipathetic. https://x.com/usarmy/status/1721665315078127697?s=46

Who knew how much you could accomplish with 7.5 to 8 inches….. Somebody needs to get Yeet into any brief on said concept. Still I think there’s something immediately applicable with SDB and a rocket engine that could be translated later to something like the air launched effects project working in the Army. I think we need to look at some form of common “standoff shuttle” that can handle a family of effects types over what appears to be JASSM in a smaller package with the same costs. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

*Small Cruise Missile has entered the chat*

We’ve seen what launching an SDB on an M26 rocket can achieve. I wonder if somebody has looked at how much extra push you could swing by mounting something like an old sparrow motor to the back of one and just telling it to climb to space with a 10-18k foot head start. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you would have better luck finding someone on Cults3D, Thingiverse, TurboSquid, etc and go on their message boards to hire someone out. Chances are someone has already created a file for the aircraft you want and it just has to be exported to the format you need.

jesus christ dude this is how we end up in these insane wars. nowhere at the start of the conflict was the military goal to attrit russia until they no longer were capable of conquering NATO. and the russia boogie man that you guys keep worrying about isn't coming thru the fulda gap... give it a rest.

The Russians have violated established sovereignty and peace established borders 9 times since the fall of the Soviet Union. And the Ukes don’t have to “win” they have to repel and resist. Why when you have effectively driven the aggressor onto the purely defense would you negotiate for a cease fire that only serves to restore their combat power. Russian couldn’t “win” and annex Ukraine right now without deprecating all their effective conventional combat power. They won’t do that because of their baseless fear of some impending NATO invasion in whatever crazy reality Putin lives in. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Had a checkup at the VA very recently. Doc was an older gentlemen (55+) and did the normal doc stuff then we started bullshitting. He went on a 20 minute rant of how much pressure the VA docs are under to prescribe 'something'. Especially when it comes to the mental health side.

God Dammit, just let us take CBD, edibles without getting crucified, I started getting anxiety attacks when in crowded big box stores. I thought all I did in the AOR's was fix jets and did some contracting, thought I was just being a pussy. Retired from USAF again in June WG11. Over 40 years wrenching and moved to a small town in Colorado, I hate going to Colorado Springs, Canon City or Pueblo. Just can't handle crowds anymore, 8500 ft elevation and alone I'm great, and this is a guy who was born and raised in the south side of Chicago. I go the hardware store in town and buy some CBD drinks and some drops at the health store. It helps, don't know if it has placebo effect, but I feel better, the clean air too is a plus. Take care of yourself boys, Uncle Sam will just drug you so you will go away.

Aircrew and missile crews coming down with all kinds of nasty cancers

My Senator (Sen Mike Rounds) actually did a ton that you would never hear about. He is a genuinely great person. I know it is popular to hate Congress but he made a real difference for the military and for constituents, including regular Airmen that were getting screwed over by DoD. For example, I made a trip to Ellsworth when I was there and met with the Vice WG/CC. He told me that they were having issues with Tricare. There weren't enough providers in certain specialties and the providers they did have were taking months to get paid. This was negatively impacting families that had children that needed to see specialists. When I got back to DC, the Senator asked me how my trip was and I conveyed the Tricare problems. He was not happy. The next week we had the Admiral in charge of DHA in our office and the CEO of Healthnet, the Tricare provider in the region. He let both of them know it was unacceptable what was happening. They both promised to fix it and they did. Within a month, the Vice WG/CC called back and told us things were much better and the providers were paid immediately. Of course you would never hear about this. But this is the type of stuff we worked on day in and day out. I also worked on increasing the number of O-5 control grades for the ANG, and it passed into law in the 2019 NDAA. This opened up more billets for O-4s to get promoted to O-5. Again, you never hear about this but it has a real impact for military families. You see a lot more of the grandstanding and BS in the House. Many of the bills over there are simply PR stunts that would never pass. We did none of that. Other than deploying and dropping bombs, my year on the Hill was the best year I've had in the AF. There is so much ability to make an impact there compared to what you can do in the Pentagon. I'm not saying Congress as a whole is great and I'm not defending their ability to get anything done. But in my little corner of the Senate, we worked extremely hard with a small staff and made a huge impact.

Like i said, agree to disagree. My wife and I are heavily involved in the local public middle and high schools. No woke. No pronouns. No gender ideology. No book banning. No LGBTQ shaming. Top tier academics. Top tier extra-curriculars. Tight integration with the local community, churchs, and public service volunteer organizations. I'm fully aware how unique it is, but it does exist. Bearing in mind that I assume a normal low level of all that stuff that has always, and will always be at the fringes of every society. Just because one kid claims to be LGBTQ doesn't mean it's a main stream in the school. I knew gay guys and girls in my high school growing up. It's normal and not the center of mass. The more people I meet from around the country, the more I'm realizing that the doom-and-gloom-nay-sayers on all sides of every aisle are usually the ones with low real awareness outside of their own community, and form their opinions of what's "happening in America" based on CNN, Fox, OAN, MSNBC or some other outlet that thrives on fear mongering. Reality: There are many local communities in America that are perfectly healthy and not saturated with either wokeism or anti-wokeism. They aren't in major cities. You don't hear about them because they don't make noise. Just because you don't hear about them doesn't mean they don't exist.