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I can't not read that without spongebob voice inside my skull lol. Well done. Also reminded me I'm so effing old I can still remember these threads. Oof. P.S. I need better hobbies than internet trolling, but Powell stole my life's purchasing power parity, so 'tis all I can afford. Digressing.

Policies. Here’s just a few. Bush—Iraq War and Patriot Act, amongst others. Romney—weak on 2A. Weak on immigration. Voted to confirm Jackson to SCOTUS. Voted for massive Ukraine spending. Voted to remove Trump after the nonsense first impeachment. McCain—war hawk. Weak on immigration. Voted against repealing the ACA. All three were part of the old school/elitist wing of the GOP.

It’s no different than being in direct combat - after a bit you don’t trust any of “them”, you’re senses are numbed to atrocious things, and you use dark humor as a means to cope. Doesn’t mean you’re a sociopath, I think it’s a fairly normal human response, and to expect cops to be different is just like the jackasses who expect “warrior monks” in the military.

Then you never met Gen Kevin Chilton. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_P._Chilton

Books have been written brother...to very poorly summarize it, Putin wants to restore a vision of what the USSR used to be. Remember, he started as a KGB guy and most of those dudes are still pissed at how it all turned out. While many of the old school are nostalgic for a Russia that looks like the old days, I think Putin is a bit more pragmatic and that matches with his actions. He wants buffer states against NATO, not that he thinks they will invade but the close borders enable nationalism within those former proxies and nothing scares a good communist dictator more than nationalistic hopes for freedom. Putin wants to maintain control AND expand his influence and he knows a key component it the economy. Russia, despite its 23,000 miles of coastline, has no warm water, ice free ports, with direct access to an ocean. Not only is Russia landlocked, but they lack land where they can grow crops. Russia can be divided into three main areas. The tundra which is 32% of Riussia's land mass, is found north of the Arctic Circle which is WAY too cold for trees and crops. The subsoil is permanently frozen, sometimes to a depth of several hundred feet. Then there is the Taiga which represents 1/4 of the worlds forest. The soil is boggy and is again a huge area of Russia unusable for agriculture. Finally, the Steppe which is basically a large plain and the only area Russia and grow crops but unlike much of the rest of the world, in that the regions that receive the most rainfall, are the regions with soil least suited to agriculture. Its growing season of 5 – 6 months is also significantly shorter than the 9-month window western Europe has. The access to deep warm water ports and thus the world's oceans presents SEVERE challenges to Putin. In the event of war, Russia wouldn’t be able to get out of the Baltic Sea. To get into the North Sea and on into the Atlantic Ocean from St Petersburg, a ship must pass through the Skagerrak, a narrow body of water controlled by NATO members Denmark and Norway. Then there’s the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, also home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.The port however is simply too shallow and too small to facilitate large scale cargo operations. The port is also poorly connected to the Russian heartland, reducing the profit margin of exports, and increasing the cost of imports that come through the port. Even without conflict Putin's ability to get his goods, energy and resources to market. When you take these factors into consideration and his belief that Ukraine IS Russia his moves make sense. Taking the Crimea was ALL about access to open water...even with the limitations of getting through the The Turkish Straits, to include the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. Invading Ukraine proper gives him the bread basket of Europe. When you look at the calculus of what he has to gain combined with a feckless U.S. administration it makes sense. His mistake was not realizing 30+ years of Ukraine freedom and nationalism gave Ukrainians a resolve, combined with U.S. weapons and his military leadership being complete stooges he is struggling. I am not normally in favor of giant sums of money going to other countries, but in my knuckle-dragger opinion it is money WELL spent to take Russia off the stage for a generation as a hegemonic near-peer. But hey what do I know, I flew in circles for a living.

It's definitely frustrating seeing how low some of the PCSM score are. Hell, when I was at Doss (RPA) there were manned pilot selects there with low 20s - stung a little bit at first. End of the day its entirely out of our control and not worth the effort to worry about - the Air Force is gonna do what they want either way.

Palenske is the real thing, if anything he's better than his social media "fun boss" persona; he actually likes/enables mission hackers and killers. He is a real combat leader. But he's been a 1 star for a long time. I'd be surprised if he continues upwards.

You clearly have not read the book and do not know what you are talking about. Know the dude personally, for those still in, USAF is in for a much better position compared to any of the last several secretaries or under secretaries.

Now, the media "does" its job.

The old cone of survival saves another one

Heads up for anyone going the Fidelity CMA route. I do still highly recommend it, but make sure you push any transfers from the bank currently holding your funds. Don't pull the funds out of your current account from the Fidelity side. They're putting some stupid long (~3 week) holds on any money pulled in from outside. There's no extended hold on money pushed to them.

Nice find, I'm looking for a new place to land with the drastic decrease in USAA's customer service and just got soured on Navy Federal after getting a bait and switch on a car loan rate (apparently a credit score in the neighborhood of 800 isn't good enough for them).

Thought this US Bank deal was worthy of a thread revival, for those interested in cash back cards like Amex. 2% unlimited cash back on everything, no special categories, no annual fee 4% unlimited cash back on everything, no special categories, if you have at least $100k on deposit with US Bank, including investment accounts. Account fees waived for military We are shifting our monthly spending away from Amex Platinum Schwab card that pays 1.1% in cash to this one with 4% cash back. I moved a brokerage account that has $100k in ETFs over to US Bank to get the 4%. https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/bank-smartly-visa-signature-credit-card.html

GO push as in the Senior Rater on the application? Or LOR signature? Maybe either?

Very disturbing report about events leading up to the fire and the actions of leadership, I am shocked they still have their jobs. If the reports are correct (and leadership is responding trying to defend their actions so it appears to be true), the experts warned them and urged them to activate standby and reserve capabilities. The main fire department had a total of 40 trucks available if they kept a shift over and activated their contingency plan. The plan also called for them to pre-position trucks in the pacific-palasades neighborhoods, the fire chief declined to call up the additional resources and they had just FIVE trucks to deal with the initial outbreak. Some of those neighborhoods did not get engine support for 48 hours. No way of telling how that would have impacted the outcome, but talk about an epic leadership failure.

I said you don’t like Trump and you’re biased against his picks…I said nothing about your party or who you voted for in the past. As for Bush, Romney, and McCain…definitely not any of my favorites, and I believe politically, Trump is better than all 3.

Yep, that's me, College Republican chapter president during my ROTC days, Bush-McCain-Romney voter. Biased against your Orange God. 🙄

I dialed back into this Forum when I heard rumblings of the impending re-Blues Mondayfication, hoping after a few years I'd find people's uvulas no longer tickling Trump's necrotic gangrenous schlong, but alas here we are. Oh well.

I hope Matt fires every asshat involved in his firing from sq/cc. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ironic that you used the term "herbivore". When McPeak was CINC PACAF, he was notorious for ordering bean salads for the entire staff when they were doing "working lunches". Hard to believe he is 89. I guess the diet worked ok for him. 🤷‍♂️

Valid, Norty and Alvin are two CSAFs pushing this shit that both happen to be herbivores (which makes most of us AMC guys nauseous rest assured); but in fairness Wilsbach as current COMACC is not and he’s one of the most ardent perpetuators of this standards initiative; whilst former AMC commander said quote “I’m not doing that shit, I’m focused on keeping future AMC crews alive in the Pacific.”

Hegseth quote from today " If you're a rifleman and lose your rifle you have hell to pay, if you're a General and lose a war you get promoted"

YGBSM. This is like promoting a special ed student to Assistant Superintendent.