Blue

Drifting from the thread topic a bit, and somewhat outta my lane of experience. But I won't believe the fairy tales about squadrons of armed Air Tractors until they are no-shit sitting on an Air Force ramp somewhere. Yeah yeah, I know contracts signed, and development ongoing, and all that. At one point there was going to be a bunch of C-27Js in Air Force markings, too.....

I wouldn't unequivocally trust the service academies to put out accurate data on number of applications and number of selections. The Naval Academy has been shown in the past to inflate their numbers; I assume the other academies have done the same. That said, "down 70%" is an incredible number if accurate.

Real talk now - The current administration has a laser-like focus on identity politics, and no where is this more evident than in their political appointments, particularly in the high profile positions. And it doesn't get much more high profile than a service chief. The talk about qualifications and experience of different candidates is laughable. The next CSAF is going to be chosen based on which box they check. Given the current field, I assume it's going to be "First Female CSAF."

I mean, it's a story from a local Tucson news station. If I was a resident there, I sure would care what happens to the mission at DM. They've had Uncle Sam spending money in their community for decades. They don't want to see that gravy train stop. The article talks about "the DM 50," presumably a group of local business leaders. I've heard so much about the "Shifty 50" in Clovis NM and how it relates to Cannon AFB. What is it with these local 50-person business groups. Is that a Southwestern US thing? Speaking of Cannon, I'd read that when AFSOC went looking for their Western US base, DM was one of the finalists that lost out to Cannon. If the A-10 is going to be retired, it seems like a win to.....everyone to move people and missions out of Cannon and put them at DM.

Eh, you look at Kathleen Hicks' bio, and it becomes clear how someone like her could arrive unprepared. She's a DC swamp creature through and through. She's spent her entire career within the DC Beltway. It's not surprising that she would appear so entirely out of touch. She probably thought Jon Stewart would crack a couple jokes, shake her hand, and leave. Look at her bio; she's spent her entire adult life as a bureaucrat in the federal government. She's married to a fellow swamp creature (Thomas Hicks) who had such career highlights as "helping to pursue low emissions alternative fuels" as Undersecretary of the Navy, and now runs a K-street advisory firm focusing on "help(ing) companies, organizations, governments and institutions prepare for, mitigate against and take advantage of change." Whatever the fuck that means. When people talk about the "Deep State," these are the kind of folks they're talking about. A huge body of career bureaucrats, answerable only to their fellow bureaucrats. They make buckets of money, and provide vanishingly little in return. As time goes on and their numbers increase, they only get more and more out of touch with the day to day lives or ordinary Americans.

Thanks, it works now!

I think most folks on this forum would prefer that DEI go away entirely, and people be hired based upon merit alone. My experience in corporate America has been that DEI preferences focus on very specific groups that do not include veteran status and age.

For one member, when I put in their name I got an error message: "You are not allowed to ignore that member." Just curious as to what the logic is for who can and can't be ignored?

Yeah, this is a particularly concerning aspect of the whole clown show. Karl Denninger does a good job of breaking it down. Excerpt below: This is a serious problem for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the number of people sitting in prison -- or convicted on connived, false claims with no ability for their defense to access the evidence proving that in many cases they were escorted. At worst most of these people are guilty of trespass, but even there you likely can't make it stick as trespass is voided if you're invited or chaperoned, and its quite clear that at least in some cases -- they are. There's another problem too: The Brady decision by the USSC makes clear that the prosecution must turn over all evidence they have which exculpates a defendant. It's not optional and it dates to 1963. The violations here are severe and in fact it appears basically universal. Indeed the definition of malicious prosecution is to bring a case before the court where you know the exculpatory evidence is so strong you'd never win a conviction and you intentionally withhold it from the defense. That opens up the DOJ and even the individuals involved to personal liability. I have no idea how the DOJ thought they'd get away with this indefinitely, but apparently they did think they would.

Is there a setting or some other method to not see a particular user when looking at threads? A "block" or "mute" option?

It's not even so much that "the government lied." Governments and politicians lie. It's an unfortunate aspect of our system of government. To me, it's more the fact that we're all awash in propaganda and narrative, and so many people are blind to it. The NPC memes that get tossed around are frighteningly accurate.

Dunno what to tell you. This board isn't "a good chunk of conservative media," or "a good chunk of conservatives." The only person saying any of this in this thread is you.

It's difficult to take your posts seriously when you start off with juvenile nonsense like "Putin simps," and then proceed to categorize every disagreement into some bullshit "red vs blue" narrative. Be better.

Interesting link, and quite the rabbit hole. Seems like a fascinating hobby. Some quotes from the article below. I'm amazed that these can not only circumnavigate the entire globe, but can do it multiple times. Well built balloons can totally circumnavigate the globe several times over several months before degrading. There is speculation that at least one of the objects shot down over Canada, Yukon by a US Air Force jet may have been amateur radio pico balloon K9YO-15 which was launched from Illinois on October 10 2022. It was on it's seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days. The launch blog post indicates that the K9YO-15 balloon was flying a silver mylar 32" sphere SAG balloon which appears to be this one from balloons.online.

Hasn't Haiti been more or less on the brink of being a failed state for the past......forever? I remember someone opining once about all the great things Hattian immigrants have done in the US, and their impressive accomplishments here. And how sad it is that all that talent couldn't be leveraged in their home country. I'm sure the problems of the country are multifaceted, and an onion that goes 1000 layers deep. This board has a wide readership, maybe someone will come along and offer a perspective that goes beyond my Wikipedia-deep knowledge of the place. Someone has to lead the charge, but it shouldn't be Uncle Sam, due to our relatively poor track record in that respect. Haiti shared Hispaniola Island with the Dominican Republic. Surely the D.R. has a vested interest in the health of their neighbor. The linked article also talks about Jamaica taking a role. Taking a quick look at Haiti on Google Maps and waving my ill-informed but well-intentioned magic wand: Tell Cuba we'll open up trade and relations - no strings attached - as long as they provide a safe haven for the Haitians. Don't we have some mothballed Cold War bases in Puerto Rico? Open those up, and make it a staging area for supplies. All I know is Haiti has a population of about 12 million people. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of humanity. If we have the ability, we should do something. At the same time, it seems like every time we "do something" on the global stage, it goes horribly wrong. I dunno.

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.