Prozac

I think you’re just looking to argue. I don’t disagree that illegal immigration, human trafficking, and proliferation of horrible drugs are bad. I’d like to see more done to stop these problems. Full stop. Unfortunately, most people want easy answers. Building a wall and deporting everyone in the country illegally certainly sounds like an easy answer. Unfortunately, those “easy” solutions don’t address the complexity of the problem and are a complete waste of money and time meant to appeal to voters who don’t have a firm grasp of the issues. We can go round and round as to why, but the truth just isn’t as simple as Democrats don’t want a secure border and Republicans do. Neither party has addressed these issues in any semblance of a workable manner. Let’s address your last paragraph: You chide Democratic voters because you perceived them to be on the opposite side of what is a hot button issue for you. Your wish is for those who vote for Democrats to change their allegiance. That must be a nice thought for you, but it’s a pipe dream and it ain’t happening. Sorry. See, there are hot button issues for Democrats too and just as you can’t understand why someone would seemingly ignore the border issue and cast a ballot for a D, there are an equal number of voters who could never see themselves voting for a candidate that, say, supports wild conspiracy theories. There are plenty of extremists on both sides of most of these issues. Let’s focus on how we can get control of the parties back from the nut jobs vs yelling at one another for making voting decisions that are always a compromise based on what’s important to them.

Keep sighing. How many kids does the average American couple have? Enough to replace all those “Boomers” (I’m most definitely NOT one btw)? I’ll save you the the trouble of googling: NO. If we want to continue to have a viable economy, we need immigrants. Lots of ‘em. Perhaps you prefer we take the lazy, ones instead of young, hardworking people? Or perhaps you just can’t see past your own generation’s potential success and prefer to leave the hard issues like demographics to your kids and grandkids? And before anyone else gets all up in a huff about who gets to come here, go back and read my original response to CH. I am NOT advocating for unabated illegal immigration or open borders.

Holy fuck some of you need to check your reading comprehension & recognize when someone is agreeing with you.

That is a damning article on many levels. Hopefully this will get some national attention.

Who’s defaulting to whataboutism? You’ve raised some no-shit valid concerns. The depletion of the SPR could be disastrous and I don’t think it’s a smart move for the country. It’s politically expedient though and that should come as a surprise to exactly nobody. As far as border security goes, I didn’t see the VP’s quote but it’s safe to assume the administration could do more to address illegal immigration & I wish they’d push for sweeping reform that included a legal path to citizenship for those already in the country as well as a legal work program for those who want to come here. We could use some more young, hearty folks who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. But I’m not arguing your more recent points here ‘cause you’re not wrong. There are a lot of things that disappoint me about Biden’s term so far. I hope he and Kamala get out of the way for better candidates in 2024 (or that the Republicans can muster somebody sane). At the same time, I’d rather be confronted with these issues vs. radicals storming the Capitol. YMMV.

Really Huggy? Including the FCC permit? (Busting your balls here brotha). But seriously, I get the airline ID, the license, maybe even the medical, & I tip my hat to the guys that carry & cross check a scab list. But the radiotelephone thing is a bit much. Next I’m gonna be getting shit ‘cause my shoes aren’t shined & my buttons aren’t polished. If a guy is obviously a pilot trying to get to work or, better, go home on my airplane, he’s getting on with the least hassle possible.

I’ve had less than a handful of bad experiences offline jumpseating. All of them were on Delta. Not shitting on them. The vast majority there are good dudes. It does seem like there is a contingent of captains there who are really enamored by their own authority though.

Yeah, this is key. Everybody’s going to have to come to terms with the fact that we NEED new reactors. A lot of progress has been made over the past 40 years and it’s my understanding that smaller, regional level plants are probably the way to go. We should start a massive PR campaign to get people on board & start building the things ASAP. In related news, the French have apparently come to terms with the reality of Europe’s energy predicament and decided to re-start all of their reactors: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/edf-restart-all-its-nuclear-reactors-by-this-winter-minister-says-2022-09-02/ Over/under on how long it takes them to start selling electricity to the Germans?

The numbers for solar powered vehicles don’t pencil out for anything but the lightest vehicles & even then, come with some major compromises. I’ve been following this company for a bit, & their offering looks somewhat promising as a second/commuter vehicle: https://aptera.us I’ll wait for their product to come to market before I judge their potential as a company. I’ve wondered lately why all the momentum has moved away from hybrids and onto pure electric, especially for heavy applications like semis. Why not go diesel/electric like locomotives where you get all the benefits of electric motors powering the wheels full time (massive, instantaneous torque) with basically a diesel generator to charge you as you go along? Yeah, you still end up with (lower) emissions but it’s probably gonna be the best we can do until A: massive improvements in battery storage and packaging come along, or B: we develop 100% fail safe reactors that can fit under the hood.

I dunno. Seems like the Ukrainian counter-offensive is starting off on the right foot & the Russians may just be ham-fisted enough and so strapped for ammunition, equipment, and personnel that they won’t be able to defend any of what they’ve gained. Let’s keep supplying Ukraine for as long as they need to re-establish their borders. The one concession might have to be Sevastopol, which the Russians likely will defend at all costs. Get the Turks and/or Israelis into Crimea as non-aligned peacekeepers & you might have a workable peace.

Have you been following international geopolitics at all lately? This is exactly what is happening. Countries like Germany are finally stepping it up after years of neglecting defense.

Strong-er than pretty much everybody else. It’s all relative my man. What country would you rather live in at the moment?

No. Just no. She was stating that right wing extremists (you know, like people who want to storm the capitol & kidnap governors) are a threat to democracy. There’s certainly a portion of the MAGA crowd that falls into that category. Vs what Jack Posobiec and Sim want to twist the words into: i.e. “all Trump voters are a threat to democracy”. Not remotely what was said or implied. Here’s a hot tip: when you constantly twist your opponent’s words and actions into something that makes them seem much worse than they actually are, you aren’t winning the argument. You are only re enforcing the belief system of the people who already agree with you. This is how we end up with extreme polarization and political gridlock.

Ukraine isn’t even close to Afghanistan though. It’s not even close to Iraq, Iran, or any number of third world conflicts where western weaponry has gone unaccounted for. I don’t think Charlie Wilson’s War is a remotely fair comparison here. Ukraine is (or was) basically a first world nation trying to align itself more closely with Europe and the West, not some failed state full of jihadists bent on ousting their infidel oppressors. If they win this thing or even stalemate, Europe ends up with a heavily armed actor on its eastern flank that’s proven it has the will and the ability to counter Russian aggression. This scenario has the potential to be very useful, as a strong non-NATO Ukraine could be an unpredictable wild card for Russian strategists. If they capitulate, well Russia ends up with some HIMARS, Javelins, and (now) HARMs that are most assuredly not our most capable versions of those weapons systems. Bad? Yeah probably, but not nearly the same thing as the Taliban parading around in American armored vehicles or the Islamic Republic of Iran inheriting a readymade Western air force.

Except that’s not what she said.

This is why I carry a few bags of these with me on every trip. Much easier to slip one of these in the captain’s luggage after the flight than stoop to verbal confrontation.

At some point, you really do have to decide who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and what you’re willing to stand up for. Yes, we live in a “gray” world. Is the United States or Ukraine 100% good or innocent? No. Is Russia 100% awful? No. But the circumstances of this war are pretty clear cut and I can’t, offhand, think of a conflict in my lifetime where it was more apparent who the bad guys are. I find the fact that we are able to have such a major effect without putting actual American human beings and assets at risk to be fucking fantastic & it’s got to be one of the more no-shit effective uses of government money as of late. I’m more than happy to have a few dollars a paycheck go towards turning Putin’s Flankers into beer cans & degrading his ability to threaten more of Europe.

Ok Col Jessup.

Yes. Murder is worse than mishandling classified. Are you suggesting they’re equivalent offenses? Should we execute or imprison for life every airman or soldier who misplaces a document? That’s a bit over the top, no? Even if you do think that kind of punishment is appropriate, I think you might also find the DOJ and every court in the land disagrees with your assertion. Yikes man. Hope you’re not in charge of anyone. 😬

There’s a statute of limitations with different timelines for different crimes for a reason. Murder is really bad. Mishandling classified is also bad, but less so. Kinda makes sense dontcha think? Litigating a crime (that has already been investigated by the FBI) outside the statute of limitations ain’t gonna happen, no matter how hard some stomp up and down. Sorry. This “woe is me, life is SO unfair for conservatives” attitude is hilarious. Think about it. In the last decade Republicans have gerrymandered the shit out of just about every district that matters, denied a Democratic administration a Supreme Court pick, elected the guy from ‘Home Alone’ (the second one, right?) president, made a couple VERY conservative additions to the USSC (which will have a drastic and lasting impact on generations of Americans), built “the wall”, had some really fun rallies, created a whole spectrum of conservative media to browbeat the left with, witnessed Mitch McConnell continue to live despite being apparently 130 years old, and the list goes on and on. Republicans have been winning for a while now. But it’s just so darned UNFAIR that President Trump doesn’t get to keep classified in his house years after leaving office. Cry me a river. Lock Him Up.

Holy shit. Mark the tapes. I actually agree with BasiChuni on something!

Agreed. Especially since I haven’t seen anything from the administration addressing the underlying causes of the student debt crisis itself. I might be able to get behind some targeted relief, perhaps for those who may have been misled into taking out loans they could never pay, but without addressing the ‘why’ in how we got here, I have to say this plan paints with a very broad brush & sends the wrong message to future borrowers. Squarely disappointed by the executive on this one.

Squarely where you’d expect her to be on the hot/crazy matrix. You can probably throw Boebert in there as well, although I’d go with AOC ten out of ten times (but that’s just me).

PBS isn’t bad either of you must “watch” your news. I think many conflate it with NPR but I’ve found PBS (particularly the News Hour) to be much more neutral in addition to being willing to do deeper dives on important topics vs the sound bite warfare conducted by the likes of MSNBC, Fox, and CNN. Reading multiple sources remains the best way to stay informed. I don’t have access anymore but I always appreciated the Early Bird as a daily conglomeration of stories that affected my life as a military member. Not sure if the EB is even still being compiled, but if so, it might be a good place to start for generally well written articles from across the journalism spectrum.

Dude, there is a receipt from the FBI for items removed from Mar-a-Lago. Amongst those items are boxes of classified information. No one has accused the FBI of lying about what they took. In fact, Trump has tacitly admitted to having classified documents in his possession by making the absurd claim that he had a standing order to declassify them. Maybe look away from One America News for a minute?