Blue

Yeah, this bit in particular. It's amazing how many people don't recognize this. It's not like it's some big secret or anything; it's well documented.

You know, I'd maybe give you and the US government the benefit of the doubt, had I been living in a cave for the last 22 years. However, I haven't been in a cave. I've watched us squander blood and treasure in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other places. None of those places seem better off after our intervention. I watched Bush Jr declare "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. We were there for eight more years. Some of our forces are still there. I watched us chase Bin Laden to Tora Bora in 2001, only to fuck it all away. We eventually got him 10 years later. We stuck around for another 10 years (for who knows what fucking reason), before leaving in disgrace with the country in shambles. We've proven that when we get involved, we're there for decades. It's concerning that people unquestioningly support our efforts in Ukraine, without acknowledging our track record. Also, I keep hearing things like "we're beating Russia at bargain basement prices!" "Look how well we're doing!" In a couple weeks, we're going to mark the first anniversary of the invasion. Is Ukraine really doing better today than they were a year ago? According to the mainstream press, we were winning in Vietnam, right up until the point Tet happened. And we were winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, right up to the point that we weren't. Maybe next week, Putin will capitulate. Maybe he'll be overthrown by moderates who will make piece with Ukraine, and open up free trade with the West. That would be a good deal. I'd love for the US and Russia to have completely open relations. In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, some Russian Mig-29s came over to the US to participate in airshows. I went to an airshow outside Chicago, and got one of the pilots to sign my windbreaker. It was a cool event, and even at my young age, I sensed the promise of the time. But given our track record, the above seems unlikely. Given our track record, it seems much more likely that we're going to keep pouring money down the rat hole, in our attempt to topple Putin. At this point, we've pretty much declared that getting rid of Putin is the only "off ramp" here. How long are we going to support Ukraine? How long is it really going to take? Also, as a side note, we want to have our cake and eat it too. We want to give Ukraine support, but not support. Tanks, but not F-16s. How has this kind of "limited war" worked out for us in the past? Our history has shown something else, too. When our economy gets good and proper fucked up, when we run out of rabbits to pull out of our hat, we go to war. That's what's happening now. Bought groceries lately? I have decent resources, and I'm astounded at the price increases. I don't know how anyone on limited incomes affords to eat anymore. Honestly, I know I'm wasting my keystrokes here. We're on the path, and ain't nothing going to stop us at this point. Bureaucratic inertia and all that. Those with the money benefit from a good long war, so a good long war is what we're gonna get. Sucks for the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, and the people of the US.

I bet Uncle Sam ponies up the dough to replenish stocks in a lot quicker than 10-15 years. I'd guess more like 24-48 months. I remember hanging out with some of the old timers at the depot in the early 2000s. They talked about how the bomb dumps in CONUS were emptied out for Gulf War I; using up a lot of the stuff that had been left over from Vietnam, along with everything built-up during the Reagan years. The current war in Ukraine is a boon to the weapons makers. This is a problem.

Yeah, this. I get it, the Bear is not necessarily our friend. But there are a hell of a lot of people out there in the US who've bought into the propaganda that Russia is some kind of arch enemy. It's mind boggling.

Damn. Perhaps there is some justice. Curious - what kind of back pay was he owed (I assume he was still getting paid while winding through the separation process)? How long was he "in limbo" for, and what was he doing the whole time (stuck in a desk job somewhere)? On the whole, was this ultimately a benefit or hinderance on his career? Was his choice in orders to that new squadron something that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise?

Dunno. I think most of the "political commentators" do it as just a part time thing, but who knows. Given Kinzinger's visibility and "recency of experience," maybe he'll be able to make it as a full time gig. Kind of wonder what the half-life is of a CNN "Senior Political Commentator," though. Depending on how the political winds blow, CNN may quickly find Kinzinger's opinion to be irrelevant. Interesting to see how things shake out. Seems like loyal Congress-critters usually find themselves rewarded with cushy jobs at lobbying firms, think tanks, private equity, etc. So far, Kinzinger is missing out on all those options. CNN "Senior Political Commentator" seems like a lame consolation prize......

Loyalty. They want to see who's loyal to the organization, and who isn't. Loyal people don't question the absurdities and the nonsense. They just salute smartly and do whatever the boss says.

I think for most on this board, "the establishment" has been a relatively decent deal. Decent pay, benefits, retirement, etc. There is an entire subsection of this country that has been more or less run over by the "establishment" over the past 30 years. Humans, on the whole, are good at sensing what's fair and what's not. And people have seen decades now of unfair behavior; of all the money and wealth flowing up, and nothing but poverty and pain coming down. Trump was able to tap into that demographic. Believe it or not, Bernie did something similar, albeit from a different angle (money and social programs for all!!!!). The DNC was able to shut down Bernie, but the RNC didn't (or couldn't) stop Trump. Combine all that with the competition being the most establishment candidate out there in Hillary Clinton, and that's how you ended up with Trump in the Oval Office. Trump wanted to portray himself as slaying all the swamp demons. I have no doubt that, behind closed doors, he was beholden to the age-old Golden Rule as every other politician (as in, those who have the gold, make the rules). This blogger does a decent job of pointing out some of the promises that evaporated as soon as he was elected. Particularly how Trump's campaign website had three distinct bullet points about promises to eliminate medical monopolies, that were subsequently deleted within 15 minutes of the election being called for him in 2016. Realistically though, he was in many ways over-powered by the swamp. He reportedly explored firing Dr. Fauci as our Covid response floundered, only to find that even as President, he didn't have the power to unilaterally remove him. In his final days in office, he put forth an order to create a new job category for civil service (Schedule F) which would include all govt employees who were in "policy related" positions. Employees in these position would be able to be removed at the whim of the President. Critics decried it as something to be abused by the Executive Branch, and described a scenario of the the federal bureaucracy being packed with the President's patronage hires after every election, which granted, the power was there. More importantly though, Schedule F would give the executive branch some level of a check on the obscene level of power held by unelected bureaucrats. Your average swamp creature leans left, and we're at this strange point in our history where we have this bizarre, hugely powerful, yet unelected administrative state. Schedule F got slow-rolled, and then quickly cancelled when Biden took office. It continues to be brought up in the press as something that would be "The End of Days" for American Civil Service, threatening national security, Mom's apple pie, and all kinds of other things. I hope it gains traction again at some point in the future.

A year ago today, I was promised a Winter of Severe Illness and Death for the unvaccinated. Still waiting.

At first blush, it really looks like both parties are pretty awful at developing any kind of "bench" of up-and-comers. Then, you realize the up-and-comers are out there, serving in the US House and various state government positions. It's just that the DNC and RNC do equally awful jobs of elevating people off the bench. Instead, they seem to reach beyond the bench and grab these oddball outsiders. Who knows why; there are questions of money, power, conspiracy that I'm sure others can opine on. To make it worse, both parties are seem to neglect the process of "gracefully" shuffling the "elder members" into retirement. So all us little people end up with this current crop of geriatric, ossified leadership. And when one of those fossils finally decides to hang it up, or kicks the bucket, we end up with the Theater of the Absurd like Warnock / Walker. Before the current Warnock / Walker saga, you had the Georgia Senate race of 2020. Spent way more time than I wanted to reading about that race , but I just couldn't pull myself away from the train wreck. A shorth history below as I could summarize it from a couple hours of falling down the rabbit hole. TL;DR, the Georgia Senate seat that Warnock just won has been a source of all kinds of odd behavior since Johnny Isakson announced his early retirement in 2019. Like a story arc from the West Wing or House of Cards, but less believable.

Juan Brown currently has this pinned as a "highlighted comment" below his video. It was originally attributed to "Matt," whoever that is, and now is attributed to "Editor," although it's unclear who that is, too. That comment has 440 replies, and the video has over half a million views. As far as I can tell, it's a random comment, from a random person, and people see it pinned to a Juan Brown video and take it as gospel. Aviation and Social Media are an interesting combination. Aviation is one of those things that generally inspire people. At the same time, the barrier to actually participating in aviation is high, both in money and time. Social media fills in the gap for a lot of people - you can look at YouTube and consume all kinds of aviation-related media (some of it of incredibly high quality). At the same time, "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" holds true. Chuckleheads like Juan Brown and Dan Gryder race to post on YouTube with a video collecting the available footage and data from an accident. They present things in a digestible fashion for the general public. But then they jump off the deep end and add their wild-eyed editorializing. When they're wrong, there is no penalty. When they're right, they get to tout to the online masses about what great aviators and detectives they are. There is almost no downside for them. They both found this new niche of "YouTube Aviation Accident Investigators," so I think a lot of their popularity is that they're first in the space. I can only hope better competition comes along.

Worst trade in the history of the WNBA.

I don't see anyone in this thread criticizing anyone who voluntarily wears a mask. To add, when the mask mandates finally started dropping, I recall brief public service campaigns about "being respectful to people who choose to wear a mask." I recall those campaigns quickly going quiet, as people realized the vast majority of non-mask wearers don't give two shits if someone voluntarily wears a mask. People don't care if you decide on your own to wear a mask

The US Army has something like 2,100 Blackhawks, so I assume V-280 Valor buy will eventually be somewhere in that neighborhood. And obviously more opportunities to replace Air Force and Navy Blackhawk variants down the road, USMC H-1s / V-22s, etc. I don't like the "Winner take all" approach of these competitions. Proponents talk about "economies of scale," and the like, but there is never a focus on the benefits of a split buy. Keeping competition in the industrial base, for one. Along with protecting yourself from any technical/reliability issue grounding your entire fleet. I would have liked to see the US Army do a split buy between the Valor and the Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant-X.

Northrop CEO sure likes to hear herself talk, doesn't she?

Convicted felon, violent crime, nine years in prison? I'm gonna go with: "There has got to be more to this story," Alex. I want to know the background of his parents, and immediate family members. I'm willing to bet Mommy or Daddy, or some close relative, has some kind of connections on Wall Street. Investment banking, private equity, or similar. Seen it before in Corporate America, although it's usually confined to someone's kid or close relation getting elevated through the ranks at rocket speed. Whatever deal got worked, I bet they hadn't planned on it becoming a major news story. Will be interesting to see where it goes. So far, it's only appeared on The Daily Wire (on a holiday weekend, no less).

Don't usually get into the minutia of upvoting/downvoting, but @Best-22, why on earth would you downvote that article?

Can a student have a car loan? Only way to find out is to ask the bank of your choice. If your a ROTC/Academy cadet, or otherwise associated with the military, look into USAA. You've been given some good advice by @FourFans130 already, so I won't repeat that. I will say, some personal anecdotal experience: I did the "buy a used performance car" fresh out of college. It was fun, but looking back, I wish I hadn't. Assuming you buy as a student and keep it through your first couple years after graduation, it's more important to have things like: reliability, cargo space, etc. Hearing the whine of the turbo was fun, but I quickly got jealous of my buddy with the four door whatever, when he didn't have to tear into his car on the weekend to fix things, and could easily fit stuff in the trunk. An old man's two cents.

Never thought about the insurance aspect of CAF Warbirds, but have to wonder what kind of insurance they carry (if at all), and what it costs.

I mean, escalating incentives / threats has been the trend, right? Speaking from the civilian side: - You should get a Covid shot! - If you get a Covid shot, you'll get a free donut! - A free gift card! - Your job may require a shot, you should just get it now! - No entry without a vaccine card! - Get a shot or lose your job!

Perhaps I've seen too many episodes of Ozark. But, when you look at the DNC spending those kinds of figures, on those kinds of candidates, you start to wonder if they're really supporting candidates they feel have a viable chance of success? Or is it all just some kind of elaborate money laundering scheme?

Zerohedge article pointing out how coverage from the New York Times and CNN has suddenly become critical of Biden within the last week. It's not hard to believe that the Democratic Party is looking for an exit strategy for Biden, and this is just the beginning of them "softening the beach head" for an eventual Biden bow-out due to "mental health issues" or whatever they decide to call it. It'll be interesting (in a train-wreck sort of way) to watch. Age-related cognitive decline gets worse as time goes on. It does seem like Biden has gotten noticeably worse over the past two years. I can't imagine what it would be like after another two years, coupled with what's sure to be a bruising reelection campaign. Looking back, it seems like early-on there was a concerted effort to put Kamala Harris in the public eye. After several very public stumbles and gaffes of her own, she seemed to disappear into the background. I wonder if Plan A was to put her out there, and get the public used to seeing her in a position of power. Once that failed, I wonder if Plan B is to keep her out of the public eye until it's time for Biden to make an early exit due to "mental health issues" or what ever they decide to call it. Going down that path, would be interesting to see who the Democratic Party pushed to replace Kamala in the VP office. The 25th Amendment states that "The President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." So the Kamala and the Democratic Party chooses the nominee, but it's got to get past what will likely be a Republican House, and potentially a Republican Senate.

Scott Kirby (United CEO) is a particularly interesting example. Opinions of the guy vary, be I don't think it can be denied that he's a pretty intelligent guy who knows how to run an airline. His Linkedin profile is pretty active, with posts several times a week. Scrolling through there, you'd think that diversity is the single biggest challenge facing the airline, with climate change a close second. Every once in a great while, he talks about serving customers, fixing airplanes, flying airplanes, etc. You know, real airline stuff. Kirby is not an idiot. He knows diversity, climate change, and similar ilk are bullshit. But he also knows that the airline industry is beholden to the federal government, through both regulation, as well as the fact that the us govt. is one of United's biggest customers. When Uncle Sam says his priorities are Diversity and Climate Change, Kirby (and other CEOs) march in lock-step. Guys like that don't get to the corner office by "fighting City Hall."

Yup. Always have to keep in mind that the media is incentivized to keep your eyeballs on their site/station. You occasionally get a window into the sausage being made, like when Ariana Pekary (MSNBC producer) resigned via a scathing public letter.

The concept of Reddit is really compelling, and I'm told that in the old days (pre-2010 or thereabouts), it really was a glorious place with a free exchange of ideas. There are still some interesting corners (the Air Force subreddit is entertaining). MilitaryStories is another one. If you have some obscure, niche interest, chances are there is a subreddit for it. But when it comes to politics, or really anything related to current events, Reddit is a left/progressive echo chamber. If you aren't posting the "approved" opinions, then don't even bother. You'll just be downvoted to hell, or just have your stuff deleted. To add, Reddit is yet another social media site where it's not clear how they make their money (the advertising is minimal, they do have some "paid" user options, but those aren't very widely used). When it comes to social media, if you can't figure out what the product is, then the product is you. So, one wonders what exactly Reddit does with all the user data it vacuums up.