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You're thinking of chang/bashi/gearhog/torqued. 4 chaches in one.

Threaten me with early retirement. I triple dog dare you.

I also want to pile on with a reminder that the very year groups they force-shaped during that phase in 2011 or whenever it exactly was, they then began to offer TERA to the people who would have been otherwise eligible for retirement (albeit a reduced one). That's like being at 18 or 19 years of service and getting let go because they don't want to pay you your retirement / pension. Thanks for your service. See ya later. https://www.stripes.com/news/2013-07-26/air-force-offers-early-retirement-option-in-certain-career-fields-1836037.html1 https://www.afpc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/856683/officers-enlisted-members-offered-early-retirement/

So on the email summary to everyone's supervisor, Elon. This is all anecdotal, but maybe provides some color. Wife obviously got the email and was told they need to provide responses. She works in a SCIF/SAP spaces. So she asked how her, and her subordinates can respond but not provide too much data so that there isn't a classification issue but putting all the emails together; classification through compilation. So she had to ask her boss, who had to ask group. The whole time her employees are stressed because the guidance is unclear and the timeline is short. People going on leave the next day, all that. End of day group comes back and says everything has to be super generic, "worked on project my supervisor assigned," "attended meeting for platform we support," etc. Much more than 10 minutes was spent on replying to this email. Now the employees are worried the generic responses are going to make them targets for RIFs. Again, anecdotal but highlights the impacts these "pulse checks" are having in important corner of the workforce with people who are good workers, but demonized for no reason.

The real progress made is people have successfully made the talking point it’s ok to invade another country and take their land if you don’t like their government, even if they don’t pose a direct threat to you.

The "Zelensky is a dictator/wont hold an election" talking point is taken in such bad faith. It's in their constitution. Also, how does one hold a free and fair election while a significant amount of their population/territory is occupied? How do you account for citizens of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson? I'd imagine they are all voting pro-Putin right now. Not saying there isn't a lot of valid criticism you can throw at this conflict, our involvement, and Zelensky...but "he is a dictator because he suspended elections" is one of the more idiotic talking points.

this is my problem with the ukraine situation. if the US hadn't been messing around in Ukraine, destabilizing governments, running coups, establishing bio labs, putting the crack head son of the Vice President on a Ukranian gas company's BOD, having the Vice President blackmailing Ukraine with 1 billion of USAID money... if all that wasn't happening and russia invaded...that's a clean kill...id be all for supporting them against russian "aggression". but the same government fucks that lied to us during covid and trampled the constitution in unprecedented ways are the same government fucks who were playing around in ukraine. i'm sorry but they burned ANY trust i have in them...they DO NOT get the benefit of the doubt. and i assume they have bad intentions. so when guys like chris murphy and other democrats cry wolf about protecting ukraine from the russians it rings on deaf ears.

Blah blah blah. I call bullshit. It's a simple principle called self defense. If you think self defense is propaganda, leave all your doors unlocked, welcome in the home invaders, show them where your valuables are, and which bedroom your wife is in. The only lesson Z learned is that Trump will not only not help, he'll go against UKR in favor of Russia.

In addition to what @Biff_T said, they also got rid of those non-promotable majors...like 200 of them with like 90 days notice? I can't remember the timelines. My boss got the shove, but he was a supreme dirtbag so no love lost there. I asked him what he was going to do, and he said, "Drive big rigs, I don't want to be responsible for anybody." Which explained soooooooooooooo much. You'll get the ole' phrase "do more with less" a lot, a "focus on efficiency" as we "transition to a whole warfighter/airmen concept." Which just means Personnel, Finance, and MSG will help you even less, additional duties will come back with a vengeance. Probably lose Sq. orderly rooms again. That time really fucking sucked. I retired in 2020 and it seemed like the AF was finally getting back to being itself after 18 years. I enlisted in 1999. Oh, I would also say it's probably 2 years away. That was the lag from 2008 recession to the Tea Party bullshit, to the RIF's.

I hope those in uniform aren't thinking they won't be next. Those of us who survived the RIFs of the early 90s and again in the early 2010s know it won't be pretty... Good luck!

Sorry! If Big Blue offers a Voluntary Separation Program, be very very cautious. They flagged the “volunteers” last time, cancelled their VSP and targeted them for the RIF. The powers that be have altered the deal waaaay too many times for anyone to trust them.

This is the crux of the issue. For every “low performing civilian” there’s multiple other people who are actually competent and important to their position. We’re firing park rangers, but adding 2 TRILLION dollars in debt with the proposed budget. It’s a phucking farce; there are people behind this who don’t believe in “big government” and are taking their one shot at eliminating everything they feel is unnecessary. There are established ways to perform civilian RIFs, and still treat people with respect and dignity. What they’re doing now, isn’t it. And caught in crosshairs are dudes who just want to do their job and be left alone. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I don't understand why there is a reflexive need in the West to fight to the last Ukrainian. What can we do differently to coerce Russia without starting WWIII? Ukraine is not gaining back lost territory without more manpower, regardless of how many weapons we give them to test. You have to negotiate with Russia at some point, and Zelensky seems incapable of doing that.

FIFY

I don’t understand how we lecture Ukraine. Hey, Russia invaded your land and took a third of your territory. You want to keep fighting? Sorry, we don’t like that you have the will to fight for your land. We have decided it’s not worth your people’s lives so we have also decided that we will give the Russians everything they want. Imagine France told us in 1778 too bad, we won’t fund your war because the British are killing too many of you. Go ahead and sue for peace and just be British puppets again because we don’t like other people’s war or the idea of you dying. Your people hate it and just want to be British rather than have a war so let them. There is a valid argument over money spent which I think is separate to supporting Ukraine’s right to defend itself. I personally think it’s money well spent. Let a malign foreign actor who wants to bully those around him and affect our internal politics get stuck in a war they made against an enemy willing to fight them with little risk to us. Seems like a win/win to me, way better than other crap we’ve spent way more money on. Obviously the opinions on that are all over the place. The die hard support of all things Trump amazes me. You can be a fan of his and support him as President without just justifying everything he does. It seems like no one has their own views anymore. Trump was a dick to Zelensky because he correctly pointed out you can’t trust Putin, which could hinder a negotiation. Trump just wants to say he made peace at any cost, repercussions to Ukraine be damned. It’s like Afghanistan, he started that shit show pull out because he “made a deal” with the Taliban that they were never going to uphold, Biden just didn’t change course. Trump doesn’t care if his deals are held up, he just wants to say he made one. There are lots of things happening now in the country I like. I’m not a rabid anti Trumper. This just isn’t one of them.

Talk about overplaying your losing hand zelensky!

@Sua Sponte I know you, dude, and I know you're one of the good guys. I do sincerely hope that you aren't fired and caught up in this churn.

Wrong. I've covered this multiple times in this thread. Ypu're regurgitating something you saw on the internet without even bothering to verify it. Their "constitution" was abridged in 2015 by a statutory law that allows them to suspend elections in a time of war. After the coup. The original constitution was not written with a provision for suspending elections under "Martial Law". Here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law_in_Ukraine Just because a document outlining a system of government is called a "constitution" does not mean it is in the same class or category as the US Constitution. As I said before, we held elections during the Civil War and WWII, two of the most consequential conflicts in our nation's history, and we were better off for it. A democracy isn't just about people voting for frivolous policies about what potholes get filled or where people can smoke weed. A true democracy exists when a nation's citizens can decide the direction of their country in it's most important and pivotal moments. The Ukrainian people are denied the opportunity to decide if their citizens continue to die. Don't speak of idiocy while also not knowing the history of martial law in Ukraine. No one here ever said it's ok. You can understand something without condoning it. Another BS Straw Man fallacy argument. The world is full of crimes and injustices and we simply do not have the money and resources to correct them all. And they're not all a direct threat to us. Shit happens. And don't play it up as if you're hyper-sensitive to the plight of Ukrainians. Like most of those wringing their hands over how a sacrosanct piece of foreign dirt got trampled upon, you'll argue for 200+ online discussion forum pages about what a tragedy this is while not doing anything of substance to help. You even have the means and ability yourself to help Americans suffering within a few miles of you. Think about how much of that you're doing. It's all virtue-signalling and no substance. Check out the concept of "Suicidal Empathy" in Gad Saad's upcoming book. You can be manipulated to become so deeply empathetic to a cause while having absolutely zero first-hand exposure to it, that you'll knowingly or unknowingly harm yourself for its benefit.

I'd be happy to engage with you if you could answer one question: who blew up the Nordstream pipeline?

one of those was in my sq...got RIF'd, airline job, then a few years later came back under a bonus. or at least that's how my brain remembers it happening. anyway we were all pumped it worked out really well for him!

THIS!!! proceed with caution...two of my friends "volunteered" under the "no harm VSP, see if you get picked if not no worries" promise. be very fucking careful. and read any fine print. make sure you have multiple COAs lined up to execute if you get burned.

That's all you got? Spellin?

The fact anyone mentions sensitive, classified, etc, is aggregate info for adversaries.

It was 2011, 157 majors got the ax because they hadn’t hit 15 years of service when their records met the RIF board https://nation.time.com/2012/01/03/air-force-firing-for-effect/ As Gates said wisely the DoD has the fine motor skills of a dinosaur, in the case of AF/A1 it’s a dinosaur that’s drunk Sorry if this happens and good people get RIF’d Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They RIFed a guy in my squadron who wanted to stay in (he was a good dude, not a dirtbag). They also kept a guy in my squadron who wrote a letter asking to be RIFed. Made no sense.

Simply that there are many angles to this situation, yet a lot of people are emotionally polarized by it. Life isn't simple, and things change. What made sense three years ago may not make sense now. And dollars and lives are how we usually determine success or failure in war.

Yeah I already have a revolver in 357, so that's what the lever gun will be chambered in. I also want it threaded since 357 is rather quiet through a can.

Marlins (not a Remlin) are my favorite. Winchester and Henry are great too, model dependent (subjective of course). If you’re looking for fun range shooting, don’t go too big on the caliber…if you’re looking to knock down Griz, moose, etc. then big is better.

Everything else aside are y'all actually ok with the executive branch taking the power of the purse from congress? These are fund legally approved and allocated by congress whether you support the cause or not. The action of cutting them off goes against everything in the constitution regarding division of power and seperate but equal branches.

Who the hell is this Liquid Guy? Isn’t he some fake retired general or something?

Somebody find the white paper on the money spent going from F-F/A-F-22. That can’t have been free and it was entirely stupid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Funny this is a "waste of millions of dollars," but the last time we renamed it was not a waste in your eyes.

Please vomit all over all the threads. It's super useful.

And I'd rather have an experienced active military turned civilian leader that understands leadership, diplomacy, history, and strategy and can thinks 10 steps ahead. Sadly than man departed the previous Trump admin.

So from your perspective coordinated MSM reporting based on anonymous sources is more credible than a sitting member of Congress fully read into the subject matter and speaking on the record? We disagree. Given your use of POG as a pejorative can I assume you yourself have a combat infantry background? your assertion that everyone is an unqualified white male in this administration is false, rendering your DEI question moot. "Qualified" is subjective but gender/ethnicity is not:

Rather have this dude than DEI Lloyd who fucked away Afghanistan, was in a coma while an active member of the NCA, no strategy on Ukraine, and wore a double Covid mask and face shield while in public.

This is a great point, once we established air superiority against the Taliban, the Houthis, & HTS we've dominated. That's why Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria are solid victories for the US 🇺🇸 Honorable mention to Libya, Somalia, Mali. And the "all air power no-fly zones" from Iraq in the 90s definitely prevented a decades long ground war. You seem like someone who spent the last 20 years fighting all over the world gaining a wealth of practical combat experience, not at all a new guy.

Straw man tactic. Not one has said this. You're inventing positions to argue against (or, in this case, copy/paste memes as a response) because you you're not equipped to make your case intelligently. It's apparent to me, and it's apparent to you.

NATO lost its purpose a long time ago. i'm in favor of telling europe to go fuck off.

Air Force Wargaming Chief Says New Fighter Makes Air Battle Easier To Win https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-wargaming-chief-ngad/ We needed a Major General to state the obvious?

Bullshit. It’s just utter stupidity phishing to waste millions of people’s time. Like every bad manager in the AF that steals time for total nonsense.

Holding Ukraine accountable for the billions of tax payer dollars we have given them isn’t “Pro Russia,” good lord when did you leftists become so anti peace? I thought that was your mojo back in early 2000s. Also this Trump pro Russia nonsense was tried in 2016, failed then and will fail again. You all will never learn, hence why Trump destroyed Kamala who would have had this country on its knees pissing away money so Zelensky doesn’t have to actually have an election and potentially lose his grasp on power. Let’s see your tone when Zelensky comes crawling back because there are literally no other executable options than to rely on the United States. No longer do we have a kick me sign on our back under the blithering half wit.