Blue

You're right. Throughout this entire "pandemic," messaging has been consistently fluid, with constantly shifting goalposts. To quote Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from a couple days ago: "We’ve gone from 15 days to slow the spread, to 3 jabs to keep your job. If you don’t give resistance to this, they’re going to absolutely do more." When trying to gauge the reaction to your messaging, it's a pretty well-honed technique to float "trial balloons" to the masses, and then gauge the reaction. It seems like that's exactly what's happening here regarding "booster shots." You don't see any solid info regarding booster shots, just a bunch of rumors and hearsay. Wait and see what happens over the next six months though. Bet the messaging gets a lot more solid.

What drove you to quit, as opposed to staying on and letting them terminate you?

I think it's been said here before, but this certainly illustrates the point. We weren't in Afghanistan 20 years. We were in Afghanistan one year, repeated 20 times.

I think the reality that often gets missed in these discussions is that, for the vast majority of all us little "cogs in the economic machine," the Covd pandemic is over. We've moved on. The contractor I hired to do some remodeling didn't care about masks or vaccine status, and neither did anyone on his crew. The cared about getting the job done, getting paid, and moving onto the next job. When I took a business trip to one of our industrial sites, the factory leadership stressed all the different covid mitigation measures that were in play (masks, plexiglass shields, etc). When it came down to getting on the plant floor, the mechanics and technicians gave a decent effort to wear masks, but the cumbersome plexiglass shields stayed in the corner, where they belonged. They were too busy getting work done. The current administration is trying to shoe-horn in this vaccine mandate, and I'm sure the threat of the mandate has driven more people to get the jab. But the reality is that, as soon as the actual mandate is officially published (whenever that is), it'll get dragged down into the courts and never again see the light of day. Those companies that got all kinds of press when they mandated the jab (United Airlines, etc) will eventually drop the mandate, with little fanfare. There are various entities out there that benefit from a never-ending pandemic. They'll continue to try to keep the narrative and propaganda flowing. For the rest of us, we've all moved on.

https://rumble.com/vnouq3-twitter-user-video-showing-the-shifting-narrative-in-vaccine-efficacy.html This video has been making the rounds, a 2 minute review of the ever-shifting narrative on vaccine effectiveness.

For the record, @hindsight2020 made a pretty good case back on page 9 about how Afghanistan was never about "regime change," or anything of the sort.

Interesting interview with Gates. That 90 second clip was impressive. In that short snippet, he managed to spread the blame for the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle to both Trump and Biden. Cause, you know, spread the blame around enough, eventually it looks like it's no ones fault. He doesn't have a recent book release he's pushing, so one has to wonder why he's doing this interview now. It's hard not to assume he's on a push to define and burnish his reputation, now that we're closing the book on Afghanistan, a conflict that defined a such a large chunk of his professional career. Old bureaucrat, pushing 80, face looking pale and full of liver spots. Trying to make sure the "record is straight" on what he's done, and why he wasn't in the wrong. Seems to be a common thing; I remember Donald Rumsfeld doing something similar in the years before his death (one 2016 interview here with Stephen Colbert). George W. Bush seems to be making similar rounds lately as well.

Good to see Col Curry (319 RW/CC) really lead in the most Air Force-way possible. Set a 28 Sept deadline, in order to come in a full five weeks ahead of the 2 Nov deadline given by the Air Force. Way to lean forward Colonel. Also, have to wonder how strange these letters sound to anyone who hasn't been in the military. "You are hereby reprimanded! You are ordered to proceed to transition class, where you will be counseled on how to make you transition to civilian life as smooth as possible. Also, make sure to get checked out at the clinic." I think some people are assuming you'll get marched to the front gate and literally "kicked" out onto the street.

Nicolas Challian was appointed as the first ever "Chief Software Officer" of the Air Force in August 2018, and it sounds like he put in a good fight over the past three years. The Military.com article highlights Chaillan's concerns over Cybersecurity, but his letter posted to Linkedin is much more wide-ranging. He spends some time highlighting his team's accomplishments during his tenure (which seems like they had many). However, he has scathing criticism of how the DoD defines, develops, and fields software of all kinds. It's a lengthy letter, but his criticisms seem to revolve around the following items (none of which are unexpected to anyone who's spent any time at all around the DoD): DoD not funding his group properly, to the point that his billet and office had no dedicated funding, and he was forced to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing funding to do his job. The figures he quotes seem reasonable - sounds like he was asking for $10's of millions, not $100's of millions. DoD policies not being in line with modern software development. Putting uniformed officers in charge of software development programs when they don't have the background/knowledge. As he stated: "The Department of Defense, overall, needs to stop staffing Enterprise I.T. teams as if I.T. is not a highly technical skill and expertise. We would not put a pilot in the cockpit without extensive flight training; why would we expect someone with no IT experience to be close to successful?" Overall bureaucratic inertia, silos, and resistance to change. The story of Kessel Run seems to be a bright spot in DoD software acquisition and development. The Air Force had spent years and hundreds of millions funding the normal primes (Lockheed, Northrop, etc) to develop upgraded AOC software, with not much to show for it. The Kessel Run group was able to succeed in a matter of months after spending tens of millions. Kessel Run referring to the smuggling route in Star Wars, since the group figured they'd run into so much opposition within DoD that they'd almost have to "smuggle" their software in. Ultimately, the DoD spends a big chunk of money on software development with a lot of companies (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, etc). And the entire enterprise is biased against faster/better/cheaper. I'm personally out of my realm on a lot of this stuff, but it seems to be the same age-old struggle. We'll drag our feet on changing our ways until we get our ass kicked by someone. Then, after we're done licking our wounds, change will come fast and furious. Interested to hear from @17D_guy ,@Chuck17 or anyone else who's been closer to the software enterprise.

Also got a lengthy e-mail today from my employer about the vaccine requirement, including the 8 Dec deadline. @arg, maybe we work for the same place. Lots of mealy-mouthed language, including this fun bit (emphasis mine): Really begs the question (again), of "where does this all stop?" Two weeks to "slow the spread." It's just a mask It's just two shots etc. Edit to add: Maybe that's the point. There is no end. Make your choice for getting the vax now, and plan on continuing to get shots/pills/etc. as Uncle Sam dictates. Or, say no, and plan to be ostracized from participating in a large portion of corporate America.

I suppose. I guess I'd need a bit more supporting evidence. Honestly doesn't matter what the end goal is. Them who has the gold makes the rules. Therefore, the federal government is doing what they're told by the wealthy. And the wealthy are motivated by greed and power. The only power the people have is in their numbers. I'm encouraged that ~45% of Americans have taken a pass on the vaccinations, while at the same time a bit dismayed by those in my own social circle who took the shot. I only hope that 45% continues to forgo the shot. Can't fire all of us, right?

As an anecdote, that about matches the current US population (55.4% fully vaccinated, 44.6% unvaccinated).

Honest question: Is there any kind of open-source intel on what the Taliban has planned for the next weeks/months? I know the Taliban aren't likely to just drop everything and rule in peace. At the same time, are they going to set off on some kind of Khmer Rouge-style genocide, where everyone associated with the West is on a hit-list? I'd assume the reality is somewhere in between the two. I know some want to paint the Taliban as a bunch of Neanderthal goat-fuckers, which maybe they are. But they are a bunch of Neanderthal goat-fuckers who have to run a country, including Kabul, a city of 4+ million people. They may have all kinds of plans related to theology and women's rights. But they also have to keep the lights on. They've already reopened Kabul airport with the help of the Qataris. And I'd have to think they'd rather ransom an American first before they hang their body in the street.

The final part about using graphene in the vaccinations to develop some kind of "brain-to-machine interface" seems a bit far-fetched. That's just a small portion of the paper though. The rest of it I have a tough time arguing with, especially given how well the author has documented their sources. Honestly, so much of the last 18 months can be boiled down to the same old aphorisms. Specifically: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Follow the money. Those two alone allow one to make much more sense of everything Covid-related. This "Spartacus Letter" just does everyone the favor of providing a well-sourced summary.

Dang. Reminds me of the Mark Twain quote: "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." Lt. Col. Scheller is doing nothing but speaking the truth. And it seems that military leadership is scared of him, because he's the most serious threat: An intelligent, motivated individual with nothing to lose. Also, at the risk of a tangent, I guess Mattis is gay. Not surprising, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than all the "Warrior Monk" nonsense.

I'm not much of a Twitter user, and honestly thought the above Tweet must be some kind of photoshop or otherwise fake. After all, it's the US Food and Drug Administration, right? A federal agency with a $3.2 Billion (!!!) budget. You'd expect their official Twitter account to be more, I dunno, official? Went on Twitter and scrolled back to August, and sure enough, the above is legit. This guys Tweet below more or less sums up my thoughts. Honestly, how can anyone take anything from the .gov seriously these days?

That's part of what I question. My experience with the major depots (Ogden, Warner Robins, Ok City) is that the folks doing the depot line maintenance are all govt. civilians, who work whatever line they're told to. They're employed by the depot, not any particular production line. Maybe @Prosuper can chime in here.

Agreed, some of the logic and statements seem suspect. I wish the author provided more sources, or at least more background. Hence my ask if anyone in the A-10 community could corroborate any of the claims. His statements on the A-10 depot work for example. He jumps around from claiming it's an issue of parts, then an issue of manpower that leaves the depot with about half the throughput they need for the A-10 line. That's a pretty significant claim, with not much more than some hand-waving as a source. For me, it's not so much the question of tactical relevance of the A-10. It's more the question of to what extent is the Air Force going against the will of Congress to starve the A-10 fleet out of existence.

The Project on Government Oversight offers a good write-up on the Air Force's latest underhanded efforts to "retire" the A-10. Some pretty damning charges in this article; would be interested if anyone in the A-10 community (pilots, maintainers, depot workers, etc) could corroborate any of this. https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2021/09/new-document-shows-how-the-air-force-is-starving-the-a-10-fleet/

Yet you still continue to post.

Yeah, this. @pawnman, you're probably the most prolific poster in this thread. Why don't you step back and tell us a little about yourself, and why this is such an important topic to you.

Indeed. I'd be interested to know more about how the Aussie police force is used in these scenarios. I'm no expert on the law enforcement field, but here in the left-wing utopia of Chicago, the local PD has gone on record at being vehemently opposed to any kind of vax mandate. Very early on in the covid shenanigans, they half-heartedly enforced the mayor's rules on closures and the like, but that quickly evaporated. Wonder if things are different wrt the Aussie police force?

ZeroHedge is a daily read for me, more or less. It aggregates a lot of good stuff from all over. Market Ticker is a blog by one guy. The comments section is only OK, but I think his writing offers a good view on politics, the economy, etc. Some of his "must read" archived stuff is really good (links of the right hand side of his main page). Reddit can be worthwhile, but as others have pointed out, Reddit as a whole is very biased, and wrong-think tends to get one downvoted, banned, etc. MGTOW had its issues, but there was a lot of good content there about society, relationships between men and women, etc. It was banned about a month ago. NoNewNormal was a pretty popular subreddit (100k+ members), with content revolving around skepticism of Covid lockdowns, vaccines, etc. As of just today (like a couple of hours ago), it's been banned.

This is likely inappropriate given the gravity of current events at Kabul today. However, when I sit back here in my comfy office chair and daydream, I think about what could have happened over the past couple of weeks. There was that brief several days (week?) after Kabul began to crumble, but before they closed the airport to commercial flights. Folks were getting on whatever they could. Watching FlightRadar24, a Turkish Airlines 777-300 seemed to be one of the last civi aircraft to get out (16 Aug). Would have loved to see Trump have his 757 fly to Kabul to pick up a load of evacuees. The pics and video footage and accompanying chaos in the media would have been entertaining if nothing else. I'm not an expert in 757-200 ops, but bet it could have done it in two legs from NYC.

I was also surprised at the 15k number. I knew there were NGOs operating in-country, but I would have assumed a much smaller footprint of American civilians. The sheer number of different NGOs is surprising as well. The size, impact, current status, and future of all the NGOs in Afghanistan is something I'd be interested to see.