M2

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!

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.

OK, here's a few facts to consider. (Note, the following numbers are from AI and are not collaborated, but appear to be correct). First, this war doesn't come without a cost to Russia... According to recent estimates, since its start Russia has lost approximately 868,320 soldiers. Additionally, Russia has lost a substantial amount of military equipment, including 10,177 tanks, 21,157 armored fighting vehicles, and 370 aircraft. As of 2024, the Russian military is one of the largest in the world, with approximately 1.32 million active personnel and another 2 million in reserve. Do the math. I know we've all seen Enemy At The Gates and know it's been a historical tactic of the Russians to throw bodies into the fight at any cost; but this will have an impact. Ukraine has lost approximately 46,000 soldiers and around another 390,000 wounded. Currently, Ukraine's military consists of approximately 900,000 active and 1.2 million reserve personnel (I suspect the latter are now all "active!"). Again, do the math. Civilian casualties have also been substantial, with over 12,000 Ukrainian civilians killed. As of now, Russia still controls parts of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. As of early 2025, the U.S. has committed approximately $128 billion in total aid to Ukraine, which includes around $71 billion in military assistance and the remainder being financial and humanitarian aid. The total aid from Europe since the war started amounts to approximately $198 billion. More math (and we all know the old saying about math in public!). Lastly, as of January 2025, the U.S. national debt stands at over $36.2 trillion. No math needed to know that's a very big number! So, is the intent of the Trump Administration to put this financial burden on those who will be greater impacted on the outcome (Europe)? Obviously. Just to keep things in perspective, over the past five years, the US has provided Israel with approximately $19 billion in military aid, part of a larger ten-year MOU signed in 2016, which pledges $38 billion in military assistance to Israel from 2019 to 2028. It will be interesting to see if the Trump Administration will cut that as well! One last, here is the top ten list of the countries that received the most U.S. foreign aid in 2024, from largest to smallest... Ukraine: $16.5 billion Ethiopia: $2 billion Jordan: $1.2 billion Democratic Republic of the Congo: $982 million Somalia: $1.1 billion Yemen: $1.1 billion Nigeria: $886.2 million Afghanistan: $1.2 billion South Sudan: $891.1 million Syria: $894.7 million These figures include both economic and military assistance. All included, it's approximately $68.2 billion in foreign aid for 2024. Can we afford it? Can we not?

"The Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!?" "Forget it, he's rolling."

Most likely close, but if EUCOM does disappear it will look suspicious to those who claim Trump is too buddy-buddy with Putin. STRATCOM absorbing Space and Cyber along with its nuke mission is a no brainer. Perhaps they'll split the world in two at the International Date Line and the Greenwich Mean Time making EASTCOM and WESTCOM fudging the latter's line a little? Of course, SOCOM could always fall under STRATCOM if necessary; bringing some of the "cool kids" from Tampa to Omaha! 😆😆😆

Just to switch gears (not that getting breech loaded over taxes isn't a fun discussion!), I just saw this and wanted to highlight another excellent pick by Trump! Trump to tap Texas “border czar” to lead U.S. Border Patrol, report says I met Mike Banks when he spoke at a Texas Leadership conference a year or so ago, and was highly impressed with the guy! He's not a politician, knows the border as well as anyone, and has reasonable expectations as to what needs to be done. He is also very unapologetic, during his speech he talked about the border buoys Texas is putting in the Rio Grande. He defended their use, and addressed numerous fallacies about them such as using saw blades in between the buoys. Not long after, I took a week-long trip along the Texas border with a stop at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, and there was a line of these waiting to be placed in the river. I did the same thing Banks mentioned and ran my bare palm along the ridges of those "blades." I didn't get a scratch. This new administration is moving in the right direction when it comes to defending our sovereignty!

UTFSB! Allergies/Allergy info - Aviation Medicine - Baseops Forums Peanut and pine nut allergies. Can I become a fighter pilot? - Aviation Medicine - Baseops Forums

Agreed. In fact, take this as an "official" Admin warning to KIO!

Concur. And under the old administration, we had to treat these freaks as "normal!"

Here's one of my favorite social media sites about flying... Pilot Debrief - YouTube Sure, it's not a podcast (I didn't realize anyone outside of commuters listened to those anymore, but I am outside the targeted demographic so what do I know?); but it's a good standard to measure yourself by (STS). If you're not as articulate and comprehensive as Hoover, I'd give making podcasts a miss and focus on more important things...

That's how we processed aircraft maintenance information when I first enlisted, a typist (not me) would input the data from the forms onto IBM key punch cards using a machine like this... I had to program the template card which created the data fields, which sat on a spool behind the little window at the middle top of the machine. We'd then take a box stacked full of those IBM cards to be run overnight, and the reports from the data came back on stacks of continuous dot matrix printer paper like CH posted. If we wanted more than one copy, there was carbon paper in between the sheets which had to be removed making a mess! A few years later I took a computer class in college, and the instructor called this "1950s technology." Of course, the USAF was still using it in the early 1980s! Shit, I feel old now... 👴👴

Putin has waited for this moment for 3 years, as Zelensky is left in the cold

DOGE is going to force this guy to retire, and we'll finally be free of his tyranny!

New Shots Of Ukrainian F-16s Shine Light On Combat Missions Ukrainian Air Force F-16AM Fighting Falcon returning from a combat air patrol, having expended one of its AIM-120C-series AMRAAM missiles. Appears to be the first confirmation that Ukrainian Falcons are sporting the more advanced and longer-ranged C-series AMRAAMS. A Ukrainian F-16 pilot wearing JHMCS. Plus a video of a Ukrainian F-16 sporting a full loadout of US-supplied GBU-39 SDB glide bombs...

Another reason to love Trump! Cardi B blames Trump for ruining her shoes at the Super Bowl, demands he bring back her deported uncle How this thing actually believes anyone gives a shit what it thinks (a stretch of the term) or says is beyond me! Instead of bringing back her illegal uncle, let's send her to wherever he was sent! The quicker we rid US society of this self-entitled scum such as this, the better!

Yeah, leave 9.6 million beneficiaries suddenly without medical coverage. How could that go wrong?!? 🫢 Yes, Tricare needs restructuring and revising; but killing it is not an option.

Ahhh....Panzer Kaserne! I do miss it!

🤣 🤣 🤣

OK, I lied...

Last one...