NKAWTG

I would love to see Tulsi as the head of homeland security so she can ask who put her and her husband on the terrorist watch list.

The preferred government method for paying debt is inflation. Borrow a dollar today, and pay it back when it's worth 50 cents. You have to find the sweet spot for inflation between lowering your debt burden and keeping the natives from getting too restless. The political incentives for cutting spending are not there either, nor have politicians made any serious moves to cut spending. What they debate now is the lowering the rate at which we increase spending, and touting that as a victory of sorts. Or adding a sunset clause that won't be honored to make the math work for the GAO. This system will keep working until it doesn't, and nobody has a clue what the trigger will be.

But there is absolutely no talk of a solution other than total war? The problem has rarely been what do the Israeli's want to do. Is there a political solution where the Palestinians accept less than the death of all Jews in the holy land, and the elimination of Israel as a country? Not sure how you meet halfway on those demands.

Whether this was an errant Israeli missile, or a Hamas one, Hamas knows its audience and how to manipulate social media far better than the west can. I expect far more of these "atrocities" to be broadcast as this war continues. What saddens me is how our media falls hook, line and sinker for the propaganda from the terrorists.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67088547 Feel like this could backfire. By not allowing riots to kill Jewish people, they might get more riots to kill all kinds of people. Are they really going to deport 10% of the population of France if they push the issue?

Gaza needs to cease to exist as an entity after this. Destroy every building, collapse every tunnel. As to the people there, give them an outlet or two in Egypt and the Mediterranean to flee too. Let the virtue signalers in Europe accept a few more Muslim refugees. The disproportional response is required, and honestly, that is what Iran was aiming for all along. This prevents Saudi and Israel from coming to any sort of diplomatic terms. Qatar and UAE will be hard pressed to continue relations when the Israeli's send the entire Palestinian people in to exile. Not that anyone cares about the Palestinians, but they would rather it be Israel's problem instead of their own.

It is all luck and timing for the number of pilot slots. In 95/96 the USAFA grads were competing with each other for a limited number, i think around 300ish. By the time I graduated, we had more slots than medically qualified. The USAFA grads go by class ranking for the slots, if it needs to be competitive.

Information is a bit dated, so please take it with a grain of salt. Sounds like you'll fall into the category of boxes checked with P instead of DP. For the fighters, that would be a 50/50 toss up on promotion, and if you're a heavy MWS, it's more like 1 in 4 chance of promotion. If your senior rater doesn't know who you are, you are not getting a DP. The flying experience is completely irrelevant to the boards. The non vol deployment indicates leadership who is not grooming you for bigger and better things. There's away a chance, but you'd be better off prepping for your next phase in life than chasing that last rank before you hit 20.

Stacey Abrams was never a serious candidate. More akin to the Maxine Waters type who takes the campaign money and funnels it to friends and family. She herself has gotten very wealthy for accomplishing little in life. Pennsylvania is what astounds me. They elected a brain damaged candidate to the US Senate, and in their statehouse, elected a candidate who died a month ago. Is it shadiness or stupidity? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with either answer.

Last time they raised the age going into a recession, it set back the profession by 5 years. Those who would have retired can sit at the top of the seniority list longer, or more likely, collect long term disability for another couple of years. It will also allow the regional pipeline to catch up. For everyone else, they stay put for two more years, either in seat, at the regionals, or still in the military. Will continue to discourage entry into the profession when it goes another 2 years without hiring. It's perfect kind of legislation these days, where it has the appearance of helping, while making it worse in the long run.

I'm really uncertain if malice or incompetence is responsible our current energy policies. The goal is to transition away from fossil fuels and switch to renewables plus a yet to be invented energy storage solution. And for some reason, we aren't really considering the most efficient solution, nuclear. This feels like every military exercise where we fairy dust away the hard problems. Despite the media's tendency to piss on your leg and tell you it's raining, people won't accept lowing their standards of living for some nebulous climate change goal.

This is a problem is a long time in the making and will hurt to correct. Cheap money, government bailouts and speculation have sustained companies with bad business plans since the great recession. In order for capitalism to work, stuff needs to fail. Would Boeing be solvent without cheap credit and the implied government backstop? Boeing in particular focuses more capital on lobbying and regulatory capture than engineering. That only makes sense if the conditions allow it. I know I'm picking on Boeing, but some version of that exists in a multitude of industries. And with the banking industry, will you get more bang for your buck from lobbying, or better underwriting and research? Until the risk of failure is back on the table, companies will play with the house money, knowing their hedge is the government bailout.

Case of marketing selling more tickets than they have people to fly them. It's not just the pilots, they are short on flight attendants, gate agents and ramp personnel.

There is a real missed opportunity to blame inflation and oil prices, etc. on Russia. Make an argument that the higher prices are needed to combat Russian influence on the energy markets. Circle back to the previous administration's energy policies and take credit for them.

Putin will roll over Ukraine fairly quickly. He's been prepping that battlespace for years and won't find a better time to execute it. I'm betting our response will be some CIA insurgency supporting type of operation that will keep poking the bear for years to come. Not sure how I feel about that since it will keep tensions fairly high over the next decade or so.

Plan on applying, even if you think it's nothing. Tore an ACL, separated a shoulder, jacked up my feet from 20 years of running when I really shouldn't. I know it's the normal wear and tear of getting older, but if you did it while in uniform, you get a rating for it. The system is confusing, and stuff counts for far more credit than makes sense, but you don't make the rules. Take the time before separating, bring the medical records to VSO in your area, and have them go through it. They'll find something. Do it before you separate, and it'll be months instead of years on the claim being adjudicated. The 0% rating means it's service connected, and the VA will treat you for it in addition to the VA loan fees being waved. The 0% doesn't negate the injury, that just happens to be the government set rate for it. For retirees, 50% is the magic number. 49% and below, your VA disability pay is deducted from your retirement pay. Very small tax benefit. 50% and above, retirement and VA disability are both payed out. VA essentially pays my mortgage right now.

Was the no show job Hunter had in Ukraine from the pro Russian side or the pro Ukrainian side? Just curious which side we're on when the marker is called in.

#1 is the most correct answer so far. ADC's are mixed bag, but should give you the best advice. For the unsolicited advice side, start working the immediate exit plan. You won't make the next rank with paperwork meeting the board. Doubtful you will be continued to 20 once twice passed over. Guaranteed to be the top of the list when the next RIF occurs.

I see the masked crowd now as virtue signaling rather than any health or welfare reasoning. Especially when I see people outdoors or driving with a mask on. For them, it's a magic talisman against evil spirits. And just as effective.

Because the Afgahn refugees are using the established legal process in applying for asylum. The economic migrants entering on the southern boarder are doing so illegally, and/or exploiting loopholes in the asylum process to remain indefinitely.

Retention rate would be around 30% regardless if there was a bonus or not. They won't raise it enough to move the needle, so I certainly see the temptation to eliminate it. I'd rather they plan to staff service with the 30% rate in mind. Open another pilot pilot training base. Resource it with new iron and personnel. Staff the FTUs. Accept 5 to 7 years of degraded capability while the new paradigm takes hold. Pipe dream of course. Bureaucracies don't change wholesale, just incrementally Most likely COA is to continue the course, massage the data until it meets the metric, and adjust the metric once the fuzzy math won't work. Maybe a quad chart or something. If we're lucky, our mission sets over the next few years will be deterrence focused instead kinetic. Hopefully.

We've always joked about Biden and his handlers. What if it's just a dementia riddled old man who has been in government and out of touch for over 40 years? What if there are no handlers, and the simple answer is what we see, a president who has locked in his world view and won't let silly things like reality intrude in. I wouldn't attribute this to a conspiracy theory when plain old incompetence can explain it all.

One point that hasn't been mentioned about the videos from Kabul is how utterly incompetent they make our civilian and military leadership look. They don't like to be embarrassed and will certainly find a scapegoat at some point.