tac airlifter

Being vaccinated is no obstacle to having and spreading COVID. All of our recent positive cases are fully vaccinated. The whole thing is a charade.

Why on earth would you believe that? This far into the pandemic no amount of capitulation to public health demands has resulted in decreased demands. And since “everyone” includes immunocompromised and day old infants who can’t get the shot, your new demand is impossible.

If ever there were a subject which should engender bi-partisan agreement it should be this: make China pay for unleashing this shit. Unfortunately we cannot agree on even that.

Valid. Good discussion.

For discussion purposes only: I don’t agree with that sign. As a practical matter, ask the WC-130s. As a philosophical matter: How can you know where the real edges are in combat if you never explore them in training? Lot of people out there unwilling to approach a training limit who are simultaneously certain they can react like pros if contingency circumstances required it. They’re wrong.

Refresh my memory— why was Trump impeached by the house in 2019? Because I thought democrat arguments were that illegal WH influence was through implied rather than explicit statements. A fundamental problem in our country is political tribes that justify any behavior from “our” guy while condemning all behavior from “their” guy. This is why Hunter Biden isn’t in jail on felony gun charges. And why the obvious C19 lab leak was hidden, etc. The hypocrisy makes compromise impossible. Which is the goal; how do you guys think this ends?

Just imagine how many books they would write if they had a damn president. And the first half of every state of the union will be about how hard BUDS was.

Every WO returning from WIC

Valid, he has nothing on the master of extemporaneous eloquence that is Joe Biden. 🙄

Surprisingly hard when you’re perceived as having sold out & abandoned your allies. Not saying I disagree at all (I don’t). Just saying we’ve made that obvious COA pretty tough on ourselves by encouraging an unrealistic narrative to GIRoA.

Logically I know you’re right. But emotionally, after 10 deployments there, I want to stay and smash every enemy forever. I felt similarly watching the first departure from Balad after 5 trips there. Alcohol with bros will be how many of us cope having spent years of our life doing something that sporadically felt necessary but mostly filled me with anger at endless tactical success but no victory. All while my kids grew up and I stupidly went back. In the end I chose how to spend my time and have no one to blame for my decisions but me. However I will never forgive or respect senior leaders who could not win. Why should any of us believe any of them about the “big shift” and GPC when they’ve lost this one? probably time to wear my veteran hat and move into a camper near the base pharmacy… 🥃 🇺🇸⚔️

Good questions, I’ll have to chew on them. But crushing my freedom to maybe help an obese person have a slight edge isn’t moral or fair. Forcing me to comply with restrictions for the benefit of another who placed themselves at risk is antithetical to freedom and opposite my values.

Are those your only two choices available for understanding Fauci? I can imagine a more nuanced gradation of possibilities; that you cannot is informative towards your understanding of differing viewpoints. The analogy of your child is merely another appeal to authority without addressing the underlying issue or question. You’re using the same trick over and over: mischaracterize the other viewpoint, then mock the mischaracterization. It plays well with folks who already agree with you; how convincing is that logic for those still deciding what to think about these events?

Aside from the Red herring of the phrase “anti-vaxer” to slander vaccinated individuals opposed to mass forced vaccination, you’re also ignoring how much we've been lied to. Why should I trust you on herd immunity when we have Fauci’s emails proving he manipulates “herd immunity” and the definition is subjective? ”we could get to herd immunity in a month if you were reasonable.” ”2 weeks of lockdowns to slow the spread.” ”the vaccine originated naturally not in a lab.” ”there are no safe treatments, that is why our only option is using this experimental vaccine” ”the NIH didn’t fund gain of function research in Chinese military labs.” Those statements are used to shout down questions and dissent. Some have now been proven false. Do you not understand why that calls the others into question? “Appeal to authority” is insufficient to convince people when the authorities lie so much.

Replace “mask” with “reflective belt” and you just became what’s wrong with the Air Force. By the way, neither do anything to keep us safe.

Solid rebuttal! Yes my heart comment was a small bit of hyperbole; but myocarditis, heart failure, and death is real. This thing where you call the other guy crazy to avoid questions & critical thinking worked just fine until the damn on fake COVID info started breaking. Now that approach is less convincing.

Now thar so much more is coming out, it’s clear this entire thing was the bullshit many of us suspected from the start. A Chinese bio weapon escaped from a lab funded by the very people insisting it wasn’t. Masks were just a distraction to avoid this fact, and the doctors forcing masks compliance knew they were useless. Medically valid and effective treatments ignored and derided to push experimental vaccines. Those vaccines now mandated for college students in little danger from C19, but the vaccines are making their hearts explode. Medical doctors censored and banned from media for pointing to evidence. Have all the “conspiracies” come true or only most? 3 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed anything this insane and dystopian could rapidly grip America. I was totally wrong. We are living in scary and unpredictable times.

Good point. That’s some scary ass commissar stuff.

I don’t think we’ll be back this time. I had the same experience in Iraq, but the mood was very different in 2013 and early 2014 before we re-invaded: Obama was doing everything he could to let ISIS have their caliphate but those idiots could not resist provoking him with their disgusting torture propaganda. The Taliban will do a lot of terrible things when they regain control, but beheading western journalists and aid workers while filming it, making snazzy videos and mocking the impotence of our president is not one of those things. I think we’re out of that place for good.

Spot on for AFSOC as well. But you’re asking an impossibly difficult organizational task: for its leadership to realize they can’t lead in a new environment. And what is the mechanism to ID new leaders whose thought processes are compatible with the new environment? There isn’t one. When the next high end fight kicks off (which I think is not soon), we’re going to follow the pattern we’ve always followed: get our ass kicked a little bit, then pivot dramatically by firing existing leadership. That will be our only chance to win…. Assuming those new military leaders are matched by political leaders who also demand victory and enable it. Our entire approach to war will need to look very different than the last 20 years.

Here’s a controversial opinion: I don’t care about near peer/GPC. If it happens, I’ll have time to get smart because other taskings will be zero. If it happens and I don’t have time to get smart, I’m screwed anyway because I can’t keep that level of proficiency concurrent with maintaining my CVEO specific skill set. Also I don’t think it will happen. We have an almost zero percent accuracy record predicting future conflicts (seriously, look it up, the US has been awful at this).

But the science indicates it evolved naturally and didn’t escape from the bio weapons lab! We have to trust the science; it’s “settled” so don't ask questions.

You’re onto something. Some folks are joyless and boring. Ban dancing at weddings? Check. Kissing with masks on? Check. Ban pictures of spouses wearing bikinis in a persons office? Check. Ban books and podcasts, ban parties, wear a mask, suppress normal sexuality but defend pedophilia…. If you’re defined by all the things you want prohibited or ways you force compliance in others, we all know your political affiliation. Likewise if you are a “live and let live” kind of person so long as we all follow common rules evenly applied; we know your political affiliation as well.

Just picked up a SCAR 16. They’ve been discontinued by FN apparently 17 & 20 only remaining in production) but I always wanted one. I’m excited to put it through the paces!

Dude spot on. I’ve often considered the analogy between mask nonsense and the reflective belt nonsense of 2004-8. Worth noting, sometime about 10 years ago people just got sick of the psycho belt enforcement and quit wearing them…. Action which resulted in ZERO rise in cases of people being run over by vehicles. We had Nazi level belt compliance enforcement (not hyperbole) for years based on the idea that leadership had to save us from ourselves in the name of safety. We quit doing it, and data proved there was never any “there” there. The belts prevented no accidents, because no statistically significant amount happened when they disappeared. It was just all bullshit. Anyway, great observation. Since I have nothing to add I your point, I’ll post an article instead about C19: Origin worth the quick read. Several good threads; curious one side of our government (DOD) is acutely focused on China as a bad actor and suspicious (with good reason) of their actions. Another side (NIH) is deeply protective of the relationships they’ve developed with China and willfully stopped inquiry into China’s C19 role.