nsplayr

I think normally you want that, yea. It’s just real tough when you have a full mobilization, like 20% of your country is occupied and you don’t even have access to your citizens there, and the invading enemy still retains the ability to conduct air strikes and other long-range attacks all over the country. To me, it’s telling that none of Zelensky’s political rivals want elections either - they want to win / end the war and then recover & rebuild on their own terms rather under a daily Russian military threat. Maybe he’s re-elected, maybe someone else wins, I truly have no idea and don’t have a dog in that fight. But the fastest way to guarantee elections happen in Ukraine is for Putin to order his guys to leave. Just start driving east and the rest will sort itself out.

I’m willing to be wrong, maybe they’re useful idiots rather than actual possibly-foreign trolls. That’s the best case! The easiest way for them to make me look real stupid is to go with quals and/or have someone vouch for them. Hasn’t happened yet unless you know them in real life & vouch for them. Do you? Opinions are like assholes, everyone has them and they all stink, mine included. But I am who I claim to be. Nothing more but nothing less. An actual Air Force officer & pilot who knows other folks here in real life and has (dumb) reasons to still be on BO.net shooting the shit with the bros. Are they what they claim to be? What even is that? Pilots, enlisted, other AF, sister service, etc. This place is semi-anon at best and for a somewhat specific niche audience, it ain’t discord or twitter where millions of randos can just be whatever they wanna make up and claim wild shit…or at least it shouldn’t be. It’s a legit accusation, and the best way to beat an accusation is to clearly and quickly refute the claim and offer evidence to the contrary. The worst way is to not answer the question and pop a bunch of verbal flares & chaff. I’ll wait.

I’m gonna lay the accusation @BashiChuni and @gearhog are Russian or otherwise trolls and should be given the heave-ho. I’ve vigorously disagreed with probably every single dude here for 15+ years, including the mods, but I respect anyone here who’s AF or adjacent and wants to sport bitch & help solve the world’s problems. These guys are not that. If you’re not Air Force, aviation or adjacent why are you here? In my squadron bar you either have quals or a bro check or usually both. Go with quals or someone vouch for them or Mods, yall should boot these guys.

Nav and an RPA pilot tyvm, I’ll say it again, you’re welcome for my service 🇺🇸 Go with quals or a bro check who will vouch for you - I have both. If you have neither, at least in my squadron, you’d get kicked outta the bar 🤷‍♂️

So neither of y’all are legit huh?

Fact-immune 😆 Before we beat around this bush again and again, how sure are we some of these dudes are actually pilots or in the Air Force or something adjacent? I don’t know too many BO.net people in real life but a few know me. I may be a dumbass liberal but I’m also not a Russian troll. Some of these arguments are literally directly from the Kremlin. Go with quals or bro check credentials @BashiChuni and @gearhog. What do you / did you fly? Who amongst the mods and OGs can vouch for you? If you’re good patriotic American airmen who are also just morons, my apologies. But let’s hear it.

I am not a Ukrainian constitutional lawyer, but a 2 minute google search + page translation yields: This article describing why Ukraine can’t hold elections while under martial law, which was (understandably) declared when their country was invaded by Russia in 2022. That article has a link to the actual constitution Article 19 states: BL: the “Zelensky is a dictator” is a Russian talking point, happily parroted by POTUS. If the Russians really were passionate about Ukrainian election timing they should end their invasion, go home so martial law can be ended, and then let them hold elections in peace. This article also discussss how it’s the Kremlin, not Ukrainians, even opposition leaders, who are calling for elections. The Ukrainians of basically all political stripes want the Russians to GTFO of their country. Straight from Poroshenko’s mouth, the former President of Ukraine who lost to Zelensky in the 2019 election (page translation needed once you click): And this from another opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko:

I’m in board with kicking Boeing straight in the junk but what’s the alternative, buy an Airbus and start over with all the bespoke requirements of AF1? Maybe we shouldn’t have allowed so much corporate consolidation and monopoly building over the last 40 years, then we would actually have other options. Boeing is too big to fail in commercial aviation, just like LM, Amazon, Google, etc. are in their industries.

I am fine with continuing to supply them, it’s been a great bargain for us to destroy lots of Russian gear and war fighting capacity for pennies on the dollar and zero American lives, and it has allowed Ukraine to still exist, so that’s a major part of the upside. I mean this barely qualifies as “just” but realistically at this point Ukraine trades Kursk for most of Donbass and Putin goes home. He already kind of fait accompli’d Crimea previously. Sign a nonaggression pact that maybe also includes a Ukrainian pledge not to join NATO for X years or something. We and Europe can still sell or give Ukraine whatever military gear we’d like to, because Ukraine is a sovereign nation and has agency to secure their continued freedom. No third party like Russia gets to veto their sovereignty just because they are neighbors. We’d then lift some sanctions if/when that all happens and the ink is dry and the Russians are back in Russia. That’s my realistic end to the conflict. True justice is Putin on trial at The Hague, Russia paying restitution and giving back every fucking inch of Ukrainian territory. In return Russians could elect a new representative government and rejoin the world economic, diplomatic and rules-based system. That seems pretty fair to me.

We should not abandon democratic Europeans to a despotic Russian invasion just so we can buy their natural gas, which OBTW we don’t need? Worst analysis I’ve read in a while! We already are world leaders in energy and have the resources and technology to do even more. We can and should back democratic countries over autocratic ones out of principle. We can and should stand with allies and against adversaries at every turn. Theres realpolitik and then there’s just abandoning your values for basically nothing… I think everyone here knows Ukraine isn’t going back to the pre-2014 borders or joining NATO immanently. Shit, even the Ukrainians know that. BUT they aren’t preemptively conceding in the peace talks while the war is still raging. Hell, they weren’t even invited! They are sticking to their maximal position and will likely work down from there. Meanwhile Mr. Art of the Deal has already given Putin about 2/3 of what he wanted and is looking to offer up more…for what? A temporary ceasefire that lets Putin waltz into Kiev unscathed a year from now? Hard pass. Either have real peace talks with both belligerents at the table or let them fight. TBH it serves us just fine to let Russia crash its military against the hard rocks of Ukraine, while at the same time we should be leading the world toward a just end to the conflict. A just end, not just any end.

Actively abandoning our allies in Europe to appease a Russian dictator who’s already instigated several hot wars in Europe, including an ongoing one! If this is what’s required for “peace” in Ukraine I’m a hard, hard no. NATO allies are allies and if we want to have U.S. troops there for our mutual benefit then Putin can fuck right off. If Russia wanted domination of Europe they should have won the Cold War rather than lost it.

I mean…let’s hope it’s all reprioritization (that’s done smartly) and not big cuts. I don’t support any cuts at all, I want to see growth. Even an 8% cut over 5 years is bad policy. Given how clear the guidance has been re: Forking Over Our Employees and how thoughtfully that process has been carried out so far…I’m not optimistic.

I’m “deployed” right now on contingency orders buddy…TIP of the tip of the spear. Might go sling a hellfire or land the airplane in a few hours, brb 😁

Yea I mentioned in one of my many posts that the very most favorable interpretation of what’s happening is massive reprogramming from current programs and priorities to…something new. TBD. “A concept of a plan.” Thats the best case and it may still be a wreck, like you described with Gates’ reprogramming efforts during GWOT. Actual topline cuts on the order of 8% per year for 5 years would be devastating and inshallah Congress will never go for it and also inshallah they still have an independent will and governing authority outside of whatever the President wants to do. I would love for all my friends in the GOP to lobby their Reps and Senators to make sure that’s the case. I have written to mine. Hopefully it’s another “not the first nor the last time POTUS is talking out of his ass” or writing half-baked memos in this case, but if we can, let’s slow down the thrash because we are all on the whip end right now. Guiding the ship of state toward new priorities is the President’s prerogative, but let’s try not Tokyo drift into the wall at high speed here either. Buckle up is right. We have fucked around and this is the find out phase.

Say what you will about congestion pricing in NYC, he and his team created this image, this is not an actual magazine cover. Does he know what happened to the last King of America??

I would raise taxes, primarily on the wealthy, and also slowly adjust the structure of social security in order to bend our deficit spending back toward a more fiscally responsible path. Whether people here are convinced of that being a good idea is not something I can control. And you are correct that I am not a debt doomer. Deficits and debt do matter, but not as much as you worry they do. Debt to GDP ratio is what matters most, and if you implement austerity you usually kill your GDP growth, which in turn undermines all the savings you’re trying to realize. I would instead keep things growing strong and adjust a few of the big levers gently (taxes and mandatory spending) to have us level off and eventually bring that ratio down a bit.

Not mutually exclusive, I know many great bros who are severely regarded. Some of the best in fact!

Is my position not crystal clear? I am for modest, continual defense budget increases above the rate of inflation. Based on the role we now play in world affairs and the one I would like us to continue to play, we need more ships, more jets, more munitions, more training, and likely more end strength. I want to do the same or more with more. No major power is cutting defense spending right now and neither should we. Some liberals have long favored cutting defense and now apparently some MAGA are on that train. Y’all are wrong, cutting defense spending in most circumstances is bad policy whether it’s Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump calling for it.

I am in the Tennessee Air National Guard…that checks 😆👍

That sucks to hear. And never trust a Major haha. Just like Roman statues, we cover our pricks in gold (2d Lt and Maj) 😅

"Ya know it's really annoying to follow this legal process, so instead of improving the process let's just all draw numbers from a random number generator and anyone with an odd number, pack your shit!" There are proposals like Schedule F that while I don't agree with some of the details, bring some needed reforms to civil service. The full-control GOP Congress can and probably will pass that, and there could be an orderly process to improve the way our government works. But going full chemo and nuking our own organs is, let's put it mildly, not the strategy I would employ. You're killing off people's careers at random and having the gall to justify it as "stop sucking on the government tit, the good ones will be fine in the civ sector."

I hope to god you don't supervise anyone with an attitude like this man. And why are uniformed service members so different? Are MSG towel handlers really that different? MX? Pilots? Why don't they "stop sucking on the gov tit and do something useful in the civ sector?" Jesus Christ the just dripping animosity for our own government that you yourself are a part of is wild. I really hope the leopards from the "Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party" don't eat your face, but please don't be surprised when they do.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/us/politics/trump-musk-air-force-one-boeing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU4.ewhD.8P8WDMcfhmAt&smid=url-share I can't possibly see any downside to forcing Boeing into a rush job to built me a new jet, nope. Seems totally safe.

I am a longstanding neolib advocate for modestly rising defense budgets given the challenges we face as the world's superpower. Biden's proposed very small increases were the floor of what I thought we should be doing, I'm glad Congress in a bipartisan fashion continued to add more to the topline above the WH request. #HeDidTheMath. And here's a gift link to the Post story. And yea I assume inflation will continue upward, at the 2% Fed target rate. Do you assume it will be less than that or that we'll have deflation? If anything I would bet it will be higher. It's higher than 2% right now, I was sorta being generous. But President Trump very, very much is concerned with that, at least when it comes to our NATO allies. He's going about it in the most dickish manner possible, but he's not wrong that Europe should spend at least 2% of GDP on defense if they want to play a serious role in world affairs. And we would very much want them to do so because we are their allies and our values largely align, especially when it comes to countering Russian gangster oligarchy or CCP-style governance. So...after berating our allies to get up to 2%, and actually succeeding to move the needle there despite being a total asshole...he's gonna slash our own defense spending from like 3.4% today to around 1.5% in 2030?? That makes zero sense. Here's my very most generous interpretation - Trump wants to do insanely massive reprogramming from the baseline but will ultimately accept the topline the same or rising because Congress will make him. Ok...if that's the case what are we cutting and what are we getting instead? That's the million dollar question of the whole plan, if that's even the plan. Right now it just looks like a big defense cut & surrendering our world influence to the foreign dictators who want to remake spheres of influence. Right now we are top dawg and the entire world is our sphere of influence, and we got there through a lot of blood & treasure. Let's not give that up for literally nothing.

I vote we don’t just give up and let our enemies win because the problems are hard.