raimius

It seems as though people vote for whichever side says nice things to them, whether or not any positive results occur. Republicans say things conservative Christians agree with, while the DNC tends to call them heartless bigots. Democrats claim to be helping African Americans, while Republicans don't really voice support (and the DNC casts anyone with an R after their name as a racist). Neither party seems to actually do much work for either group, but they say sympathetic things...

The side willing to fight for a longer duration usually wins. Which side that is, what duration, and how many casualties is not yet clear.

The NM AG also sent a letter saying the AG's office will not defend her in these cases! https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/new-mexico-ag-to-governor-grisham-on-second-amendment-suspension-defense-drop-dead/ That's quite the legal mic drop. Hopefully she is held personally liable (but I'm not familiar enough with NM law).

Double turn 5 days a week (maybe with another sim/rsu thrown in there) plus the occasional xc on the weekend, also whatever office job you have.

Already in progress. (Could get worse, but then you are looking at 6-12mo before burning out the entire IP corps.). The former AFSOC min-turn deployment types are already complaining about the ops tempo...

No, dude. You asked a bunch of strawman/loaded questions based off of one of the most clearly biased pro-russia American commentators and Russian aligned sources. THAT is why so many called you out. It's not zealotry when people criticize clearly biased and VERY often wrong sources. Ukraine is fighting an existential war vs. Russia pursuing an entirely optional one. That does mean something. Additionally, UKR is getting a LOT of external support. That doesn't mean they will win, but it does mean they do have a chance.

-explain how NATO is destabilizing? -Russia is trying to destroy a sovereign nation, not us. -China has been fairly quiet throughout all this. They seem to have mixed feelings.

Some epic idiocy/trolling here. But I'll bite, because this is the Internet! --You claim "we" should negotiate to give up some of Ukraine. Do you think maybe the Ukrainians should decide whether or not they want THEIR country? They seem pretty willing to fight for it. --You seem to think the nation that took massive casualties, is resorting to Iranian and North Korean weapons, has a ton of sanctions, had their most effective PMC mutiny, and is at a defensive stalemate on the battlefield is stronger now? 😂 You can debate how much money/arms the US should provide. That's valid. What you are doing is a mockery of intelligent questioning.

Neither side will fix it. Neither wants to take responsibility or give up anything when they can scream about how bad the other party is.

I'd say that it's less the tech baseline and more production/distribution issues. Russia has good tech, but they usually don't make a ton of it, and corruption takes a huge cut.

AI finance would probably start quoting you some reg (that doesn't actually exist, and it made up because it sounds bureaucratic) for why it denied your travel voucher/PCs expense/pay.

A Russia that is incapable/unwilling to invade their neighbors and a China that is deterred from making similar attempts would be good outcomes, from a NATO/US/"west" perspective. A sovereign, western aligned Ukraine (hopefully with a little less corruption) would be good too, I suppose. They are both a main actor and a pawn, at the same time, it seems. Ukraine isn't a particularly vital US partner, but stopping Russia from "flipping the table" of European security is rather important to the US, since that group has a huge chunk of the global economy, influence, and US allies.

Corruption is a major problem in Ukraine. Check. Some people may be pressured to keep aid flowing in order to keep some Ukrainians quiet about certain American financial/political issues. Check At the end of the day, Ukraine is still fighting against an unjustified invasion by one of our "competitors," and stopping that sort of thing is in our interests and the interests of basic justice.

Sometimes I don't like how things are going...but an analysis of alternatives doesn't offer a ton of better options. Keep working to keep your neighborhood (literally and figuratively) in good shape and encourage others to do the same. Edit: when asking for faith in the military, it's a really broad question. Do I think we can destroy any enemy nation? Yup! Do I think the DoD always makes the best decisions and takes care of people?...not as much.

The above! More personal--save and invest. Make sure you get TSP matching (max it if you can), and have an IRA. Every time your pay increases, auto-invest half that raise. You'll never feel the difference and it adds up over time. Also, have a non-retirement account for first-home down payment, etc.

TSP (to get matching at a minimum, max out if able), plus Roth IRA. Make sure to log in and select the funds desired (it used to default to the gov bonds fund). Neat strategy someone passed to me was to throw in half of any pay raise. That way take-home increases with pay raises, but so do the investments. In today's scale, that's an "extra" $1k+/mo by the time they get to O-4--and it will never seem like a sacrifice.

We cant just point the finger at civilian leaders. The DoD writ large has a "can-do" response to basically anything. We need to stop that. The military hammer can't fix every problem...but we need to be clear on that. How many times did we "turn the corner" in Afghanistan? How many times did we send over-optimistic reports from people who should have known better to people who should have known better?

So, do you think Russia thought NATO was going to invade, if they didn't defeat all the (Jewish-led) "Nazis" in Ukraine with their own swastika-tatooed hired guns?

It is a grind. There are fewer additional duties, but plenty of gradebooks to write, or review prior to the student's 88/89, or a sim to run because the civilian sim IP isn't qual'd to teach some sims, or getting a "good deal" XC where you can sit a day in some random city so you aren't "forced" to take a comp day (because who wouldn't want to double turn student sorties for 11 of 12 days?). Then, get told you aren't producing enough and also need to take more time for "resiliency" (which is mandatory, but also will likely be scheduled over). Is it the worst thing in the world? Of course not. Is it way more pain than it should be? I'm going to go with yes.

I think most of the US folks trying to get Afghans out are trying to get particular families out. Some of the escapees are cowards. Others realized their sacrifice wouldn't turn the tide and called it quits. There's also a big gray area in there.

There is a critical mass to such things. When you are one of the only dudes willing to fight and all your "leadership" flees and most of your logistical support disappears, you face a losing battle. Is it worth it to "die like a man" and get your family killed for a government that just fled the country or flipped sides? Should the Afghans, writ large, have fought? Yeah. If they had enough mass to have a reasonable chance, I'd take a harder line with you. Should a few individuals die on the hill to show support for people who don't care? That's less clear cut.

Curious what was the 11H rotary-wing rate?

Probably...but I've also seen JA argue cases where their own sequence of events didn't make sense. I also kind of doubt all JAs think about how SCOTUS would review each and every case.

I only had one college course on the law, but do seem to remember that all legal orders need to have a valid military purpose. A gag order relating to X, Y, and Z topics under review/investigation would make sense. A TOTAL gag order would have some pretty serious 1st Amendment issues. It is entirely possible that both the LtCol and his command are making poor (and possibly illegal) decisions.

Ordering someone to cease all social media and group communication sounds exceedingly broad and potentially illegal. I don't think you can order someone not to post college football scores on Facebook from their home.