Leaderboard

There is a counterpoint to be made for not turning the military into an access tunnel towards greater social standing and upward mobility in power… and she makes it very detailed in that previous podcast. The effectiveness of the military we wield is based largely off the degree to which the people within it choose to call it a profession and act as such. While we would most definitely bolster a lot of our manpower issues by turning on the tap of compulsory service, some of us remember the “I just joined for the college money” attitudes that existed when GWOT started demanding return to active duty or extensions of enlistments. I very much see a military filled with personnel that are there to just meet their social contract being more hollow entity than the one we currently have. You’d need a “Pearl Harbor moment” to actually galvanize that population in uniform when the call goes out into carrying on. And honestly with a unifying moment like that against an existential threat you’ll get the personnel you needed. While I agree we need more veterans in the politics above us, connected politicians masquerading as veterans is not the solution. The harder question is what are we doing right now to prepare and how does that compare to the efforts of Bill Knudsen for the years preceding Pearl Harbor where we started looking to retool our industry for war. I’d say that is the harder technical problem to solve vs the draft. How many JASSMs and GMLRs can we manufacture a week… ok now how do we go about increasing that by a factor of 5, and I’m only gonna have 3 months to do it before it’s not gonna matter anymore. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This presentation is really good. Anyone who's spent enough time in the government/defense industry will see a lot of familiar stuff.

Smarter Every Day on YouTube did a presentation (I believe to NASA) on this. It's a complete lack of seriousness within the space bureaucracy. There's no way this goes to plan, and a very good chance the decisions made will end up getting the program cancelled when budget woes rear their ugly head. Better hope Elon can carry the entire mission on his shoulders.

Meanwhile Elon caught a booster in flight with a tower today on the FIRST try. That was AMAZING!

Completely agree Clark. And to add, I’ve believed for years that one of the reasons we are in this current predicament socially is that people have gotten used to constantly taking from this country and never giving back. They’ve got no skin in the game in striving to continue making this country the greatest country in the world. They will take and take and take and worry about only themselves instead of the greater good. I firmly support mandatory service of some sort. That doesn’t have to be military service akin to the Israeli model, but serving in any type of service that benefits the country you belong to should be a requirement. Forestry service, serving in the Red Cross, counting the number of wild pheasants, whatever the need, people should be expected to serve in some capacity. I won’t go full Robert Heinlein, but on a personal note, I do think serving in the military to become a a full fledged “citizen” would do a number for this country. Just imagine if the people who ran our country were forced to serve in some capacity before they took political office. More skin in the game would at least open up conversations that seem to be overlooked. “Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part...and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.“ - Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

You misunderstand me, my last comment absolutely applies to Trump. Watching 80 YOs of any political affiliation act this way is not good, and I’m hopeful this is the last iteration of old people fighting that I see for POTUS. and valid quote, I didn’t know your thoughts on Biden and I humbly retract my snarky comment. You do have TDS though.

Pretty rich to read media articles about an “incomprehensible” Trump when Biden is obviously lost to dementia.

yeah. most O-6s in todays environment are fucking losers who obsess over friday shirts and patches. you're better off not associating with them.

I do hate teams with no class who need refs on the payroll to help them win games. So yes, not a fan of Miami. Also, a Miami fan lamenting another team showing no class is like Harvey Weinstein becoming an outspoken member of the #meetoo movement..

Alright, I’ll take a crack. Afghanistan: we went in to kill bin Laden and as many Al Qaeda as possible. Remember them? They’re all dead! Sweet! Did we bring democracy to Afghanistan? Hell no, and the mistake was to say that was an objective. The real goal was to kill terries, and we did. No Al Qaeda left. But we were too soft to dump the Afghans on their sympathizer asses immediately after Neptune Spear. Iraq: not done yet, honestly. If we leave, they’ll fail. We need to stay and keep buying their oil. Unpopular opinion, I’m sure. Libya: a mess? Yep, but that’s ok because we kicked ass with air power, lost almost no one, and left. Let them figure it out. Iran: we never fought them. If we did, we’d ruin their ability to export terrorism to the rest of the ME just like we did with AQ and ISIS. Would we try to bring them democracy also? I sure hope not! Because fuck them, that’s why! Just destroy their military and means of Shahed/TBM production in a month and leave. Syria: ISIS! Remember them? When all the murderous assholes from all around the world gathered in Syria to kill/rape the locals by the thousands. They were so bad even AQ was cringing at their videos. We gave them the apocalypse they were looking for and now they’re all fucking dead. Sweet! In all, we did a shit ton of good work, but our national/military leadership is too inept to know it. Organizationally, the USG needs a lot of work.

Valid, but there's more nuance: some of us volunteered not because of promises on the back end but because being at war (in whatever capacity)was the objective. I did 18 deployments, including a year as flying advisor (not a hand though), and volunteered for them all. I'd do it again; being relevant (even when dealt a losing hand) is the draw for some people. Losing was a tragedy I am still processing, but I would hate myself had I acted differently. Certainly not judging anyone else. The Hands program was garbage; by the end they hid their status from GIRoA who deeply resented PAK. Lol, pentagon is full of idiots. My takeaway from 21 years: figure out who you are and what you like, then do that. The best way to serve is in a capacity suited to your personality and innate characteristics. Pretend to be other than as you are: you'll be miserable & your team will know.

I have a theory that the people who are against beards are the same people who can't grow a good looking beard. I'm happy to be proven wrong if someone wants to post a selfie, but anecdotally it's been a pretty consistent coincidence. I also find it hilarious when people argue that beards don't look professional. The period of time where professionals were clean shaven is quite minimal compared to the period of time where the baddest motherfuckers on the planet all have beards. And in fact, even in this era the real badasses still have beards. Of course there are a subset of men who are not blessed with follicle dominance, yet still insist on foisting their inferior peach fuzz lady-beards on society. But I suspect the involuntary celibacy associated with such shameful, demeaning displays of facial inadequacy will purge them from the gene pool fast enough.