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The kid is going to lose his shit if the 35's, Hornets and Vipers get the kills and he left holding a balloon (marking).

Something came out it

Remember when Iraq went into Kuwait? What's different now? I understand that Greenland is important but when did the USA start going after weaker countries for their goods? We typically help out the defenseless not go after their property.

Politicians and pundits having been calling for acquisition reform for decades. Having worked in that world I've seen only marginal changes, until yesterday. Hegeseth dropped a bomb on the system and wants to end the 8(a) contract system. If this happens it will shake up a lot of things in the "business." There is a simplified definition of 8(a) contracts below which basically states these are set aside contract for supposedly small disadvantaged businesses and tribes. What started as an effort to help groups like Indian tribes turned into a yet another way for people to make money doing nothing. Most of these contracts were awarded to companies in name only, owned by a wife with enough native American blood to qualify, a huge fee was taken then they subcontract it to another company or consulting firm. I dealt with several range management contracts that were exactly like this. I am not in favor of everything he has done but this is a good step towards reform and getting the most of the taxpayers dollars spent on defense. His full statement is below. "When President Trump appointed me as your Secretary of War, I made you a series of promises. I promised that every single one of your taxpayer dollars would go toward one thing and one thing only: building the most lethal fighting force on the planet. And I promised we would gut the corruptive, unconstitutional, non-merit-based DEI programs that have weakened our military and distracted us from our primary mission. And I promised we would hunt down the waste, the fraud, and the abuse that has run rampant in this department for decades, and to instead redirect that money to President Trump's America First priorities. Well, today we are once again taking action on these promises. We’re actually taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI program in the federal government, a program few people outside of Washington have ever heard of, that I hadn’t heard of. It’s called the 8(a) program. Now, if you're like me, you're asking yourself what is an 8(a)? It’s a great question. 8(a) refers to the Small Business Administration’s program to assist "small disadvantaged businesses owned by a socially disadvantaged individual or tribe." Providing these small businesses with opportunities is a laudable goal. But over the decades, as it happens, the 8(a) program has morphed into swamp code words for DEI race-based contracting. And here’s the worst part: in many, many instances, these socially disadvantaged businesses, they don't even do work. They take a 10%, 20%, sometimes 50% fee off the top and then pass the contract off to a giant consulting firm, commonly known as "Beltway Bandits." For decades, this program—8(a)—has been a breeding ground for fraud. And this administration is finally doing something about it. The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, recently exposed half a billion dollars in 8(a) fraud. Treasury, led by Secretary Bessent, found another quarter billion, and their investigation is just beginning. Treasury, Justice, and the Small Business Administration under Administrator Loeffler are all actively investigating their 8(a) contracts right now. Now, in the Pentagon, $100 million sole-source contracts go out the door to these 8(a) firms almost every day. One hundred million dollar sole-source contracts go out our door to these 8(a) firms almost every day without any competition or opportunity for anyone else to bid. The Department of War is required by law to do almost a hundred billion dollars’ worth of contracts per year with small businesses, including 8(a) firms. Seems 8(a) is quite important. But we're not required to pay enormous brokerage fees only to have these firms pass those contracts along to giant consulting companies, and we won't. We're not doing this anymore. So effective immediately, I’m ordering a line-by-line review of every small-business sole-source 8(a) contract that is over $20 million. And we’ll look at everything smaller than that too. The Department of War has the biggest chunk of 8(a) spending by far, ten times more than any other agency. So our cleanup, it’s going to be ten times tougher. It’s a two-stage mission. First, if a contract doesn’t make us more lethal, it’s gone. We have no room in our budget for wasteful DEI contracts that don’t help us win wars, period, full stop. Second, we’re doing away with these pass-through schemes. We’ll make sure that every small business getting a contract is the one actually doing the work, and not just some shell company funneling your money to a giant consulting firm. This approach is of course not meant to hurt small businesses, and that's not the point. America’s full of great, amazing small businesses. This is part of a larger effort to transform our acquisition ecosystem into one that makes sense for the threats we face in the 21st century. I gave a long speech about this back in November. Our goal is to spend your money to build our defense industrial base with businesses, large and small, that share our mission, not to line the pockets of Beltway fraudsters or to advance the agenda of DEI apologists. Only lethality, and we’re going to look at every single contract."

Unfortunately many of us don't realize this stuff until we're well into our career. The system will drop you faster than you can say integrity first. So much of the daily bullshit is completely unneeded. Honestly, how much time do you suppose the average officer blew formatting, or redoing, OPRs because white space is a mortal sin. How much of that data was inflated bullshit? How many TDY's/deployments were unneeded? How many jobs have you guys done in the AOR, that could have been done at home, or not done at all? I've know I've done a job at the deid, that could have easily been done from any SIPR terminal in the U.S (During rona, they in fact, did that same job remotely...so it clearly could be done). I had to justify why I couldn't have done a TDY via secure VTC, when I'm moving an F-16 to a depot facility. Why is that same shit not applied to jobs/deployments? Now, this isn't to say the service did do great things for me, because it truly did. I have great memories, I did some amazing flying, developed great skills, I have friends who have become family, and I'll hopefully get a decent pension/medical when I turn 60. But what young guys need to understand, is that the day your retire, you'll get your litho, maybe a medal, and nice pat on the back "thank you"...then the system will continue just fine without you.

I just watched this video on the PC-24. It does some pretty heavy lifting in advertising for the PC-24 but dammit it does make me wish we had these to replace the T-1. I would have loved to tried landing on SPRO type fields, grass fields, compacted dirt, etc. This could be adapted into a syllabus that really gets everyone ready for real world scenarios where we might be island hopping or landing on unprepared fields after a hurricane/earthquake before the Air Force spends more money teaching this in their MWS. I know this is about the budget but if the training came first, this would be a great trainer.

God bless little European Texas

Epic slugfest...Indiana was the better team and they deserve this end to their magical season. Mendoza was lights out on the TD run. Proud of the Canes and their run, they beat ND, FSU, UF, Ohio State, A&M and Ole Miss to get to the show.

If someone asks to buy your house and you tell them it’s not for sale, that’s the end of the conversation.

Case in point, I went TDY to my first ops squadron a little over 4 years after I left it. Other than a nametag on the wall in the bar, there was zero visible evidence I was ever there. And honestly, while slightly humbling, that's the way it should be. Even as a commander, if you are truly irreplaceable, then you've failed.

If you think your unit (or larger organization) is fucked without you, you have been misled. Everyone is a replaceable cog, including every single black border pipe hitter. Take pride in the good things you accomplish in your career, work hard at what matters, but don’t think for a second you’re the lynch pin that holds the whole thing together - you’re not. Operate with that mentality and you’ll be much less stressed and happier.

Scott Adams has died. In honor, here's my favorite of his art.

They should give Socialism a shot

Have you asked him to stop being an ffing homo?

TL/DR: It depends entirely on the situation, but regardless I'm ready to be disarmed by a LEO. I'll fight it in court, not in the moment. It's about managing my own expectations and it all boils down to the officer and his/her assessment of the situation. If I talk to the sheriff in church as I walk by, I'm fine. She knows I'm armed. If I am the first responder who engages an active shooter in that same church, I fully expect that same sheriff to disarm me afterwards. A: the situation is over and shootings result in frayed nerves and shaking hands. B: evidence. The reason doesn't matter, I've decided before it all happens that I'm submitting to the proper authority. If the officer deems according policy/judgment that disarming me is advisable, I'm not resisting in the slightest. It might be a complete BS reason. There also might be a factor I don't know about. If I feel like my rights are getting trampled, that specific moment is NOT the time to take a stand. I must give the officer the benefit of the doubt. The officer is not required to reciprocate. In fact, the officer literally stays alive by NOT automatically giving people the benefit of the doubt. If it was wrong and/or illegal, we can figure that out in court...later...when loaded weapons aren't in play. I'm also of the opinion and experience that simply acting as described above will relieve any tension and most likely the officer will not escalate to disarming me. It's about expectations. If I act like I am superior with better legal knowledge than this officer, they can smell it, it's a red flag for them, and it does nothing to help the situation, regardless of how right I am. To use an analogy: I treat every police officer the same way I treat the range safety officer I've never met: With absolute deference to the authority they hold in that moment. Yes, some that suck. Most don't. But every single one should be treated with respect. If they prove undeserving, I bring it up with management later, not on the range.

Mostly this activist action against ICE is to distract the conversation from the electoral kryptonite of the MN welfare fraud scandal (and other states) They know the attention span of the public is short and they need a narrative they can spin against the Republicans in the mid terms This is a calculated planned funded political operation, a theater level action.

90% of these issues would be prevented if these state/local govts would just cooperate with DHS and hand over the convicted criminals with deatiners already. It's all planned.

Interestingly, Alex Pretti, Renee Goode and Laken Riley would ALL be alive if not for Joe Biden's open border policy.

To go more macro, there are cities with more deportations than Minne, but none of the Minne BS going on. Why is that? Well, it’s because these aren’t grassroots protests. This isn’t normal Americans who just really love illegal aliens. This is a calculated insurgency-style operation that is well organized, equipped, and funded. There are big actors behind this with the ultimate goal of delegitimizing the gov and hoping to instill increased support for communist/marxist values. The agitators are useful idiots. They’re petulant children who didn’t get their way in the election, and despite a vast majority of Americans demanding deportations and voting for it in Nov 24, these people don’t care. The left either gets their president/policies, or they’ll hold cities hostage via riot and unrest until they get what they want…or hopefully for all of us reasonable people, they get what they deserve this time around (held accountable for breaking the law). On the ICE actions front, I’ll say this: I’m always skeptical of the fed gov and our rights - I am far from a “worship the gov” guy. But I also know what it’s like to be in situations where you have milliseconds to make life/death decisions. So while there are issues and bad apples in any organization, including ICE, I also have to say a big GO FUCK YOURSELF to every douche bag out there who hasn’t been in a situation like mentioned above and has the luxury of freeze framing videos from multiple angles over and over.

I think both Fauci and Mayorkas should both be in prison for the rest of their lives.

Because it is a flying pile of Poo! There are so many issues but the ABM community has been abused for so long they jumped at the first girl without a mustache who paid attention to them. Wedgetail is 20 year old technology mounted on a 49 year old design. The 737 has been engineered to the max extent of its potential thus Wedgetail will have a 20 year old radar flying in the mid 30's. Epically dump for SOOO many reasons. Boeing underbid to get the sole-source, within 12 months they announced they were $400M over and needed help from the govt. The Boeing 737 line has a 10 year backlog and even using National Defense priority, they can't retool fast enough to make Wedgetails fast...our Allies are SCREWED...they are at the end of the line, even behind purchases by other airlines. South Korea is divesting their Wedgetails which should tell you something...you should see their performance on a hot summer day. I can talk about it now...my previous company submitted the same time as Boeing with a proposal to put a brand new radar on a Bombardier that would start at FL47 and step climb to FL51, 12+ hours of endurance (unrefueled), the same number of crew stations as Wedgetail...the detection physics alone moving from FL33 to FL47 are staggering. We submitted an 800 page package with 400 pages of engineering documentation from tests and other work we had done on the Bombardier platform. We received a reply ONE HOUR LATER - not technically viable, they sole-sourced to Boeing the following day. I'm sure they reviewed in depth our input. The system is not screwed, it is corrupt and broken and the ABM community is going to get EXACTLY what they deserve...warm poo.

Looks like a war crime to me

Cruel and unusual

Genius

I feel sorry for the illegals who are taken advantage when they come here, but they shouldn't be here. We can't let in millions of unskilled people and expect our society to remain stable and prosperous. My wife had a friend who overstayed a tourist visa to secure work in restaurant. Her friend worked for that restaurant for a year without pay (was provided food from the restaurant and lived onsite) and when she demanded her back pay, the employer threatened to turn her into ICE (and to another employee they did the same thing to). She ended up going back to her home country without having gotten paid for a year's labor. We put her in touch with some NGOs that help illegals get their pay (illegal or not, nobody deserves to be taken advantage of like that) but none were able to help and so she went back home (she wanted to work in the US to earn money for her daughter's cancer treatment but wasn't able to find a job in her home country due to being past retirement age). At any rate, illegal immigration and fraudulent asylum migration will continue until the incentives are removed.

Aggressive ICE ops wouldn't be necessary if the Republicans in Congress would get off their asses and pass some laws that a) dramatically increased the penalties for employing illegals (i.e. seizure of business, heavy jail time, etc.), b) 50% tax on remittances, ban on illegals receiving any taxpayer funded assistance, c) bill their home countries for their education and medical care costs incurred in the US (and trade embargoes on those who don't pay up), and d) remove counting illegals in the Census for Congressional apportionment (which is why the Dems are fighting so hard to keep them here, plus the kickbacks and grift). Most would self-deport were these policies enacted and aggressive ICE ops wouldn't be necessary. But the Republicans in Congress are only pretending to oppose the Dems.

@Lord Ratner and @brabus already nailed it earlier. What we are seeing is useful idiots being useful. Yes, people have a right to protest and to have their voices heard, but in active law enforcement operations, law enforcement has the authority - which is something that people on the left just do not accept or comprehend. I'm not sure which. People have chat-grouped, reddited, or otherwise brained themselves into thinking that they can do whatever the hell they want and label it protesting and hence somehow legally insert themselves into some sort of "referee?" position that gets to be there calling balls and strikes, but then who also get to lightly skirmish at will when the play isn't going according to their own rule set? People have mistaken rights with license, which is a distinction that you're supposed to learn while writing civics essays in junior high school. Both Renee Good and Pretti appear to be people who never matured past their teenage rebellion years. Should either be dead? No. Do they deserve to have been killed? No. Did they engage in actions that led directly to their tragic, but justified deaths? Unfortunately, yes. I understand and accept that law enforcement is made up of people. People are imperfect. I see frat all the time in the sim. Thus, if I were to engage in such a protest, if things started to go sideways, I would immediately be completely compliant and non-threatening. You wouldn't see me struggling on the ground with 4 other officers while I was armed with a handgun. But this is also instructive as to the actual tactic and strategy being employed by the Left. Push things just far enough into the grey zone, that you provoke a violent or emotional response. Thus, Good and Pretti have done well, and served their purpose for the Left. Unfortunately, just like in 2020, this is part of a larger, coordinated operation meant to destabilize and delegitimize the government. The Federal government is helping somewhat, but then again, so is the Minnesota government. @Negat0ry is not worth responding to directly. The false equivalence between what Kyle Rittenhouse did along with whatever happened in Charlottesville is null and void right out the gate. No such struggles with law-enforcement took place. Even the terrorist MFer who ran over people at that protest in VA (useful idiot) surrendered peacefully. The difference is stark and could not be more clear. On the right, you have a true, grassroots, non-violent, response to the state abdicating its law-enforcement responsibility; the other is communist agitation which is apparently being sanctioned and coordinated by members within our government.

Interesting take........ Former Special Forces Warrant Officer gives his take on Minnesota protests: "What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t 'protest.' It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook." [As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly. What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook. Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse. This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s. The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience. You’re facing a distributed resistance that’s learned the lessons of successful insurgencies: stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time, force over-reaction when possible, maintain popular support through narrative, and never present a single center of gravity. I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night. Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war. We either recognize what we’re actually looking at—or we pretend it’s still just “activism” until the structures harden and spread. Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn’t January 2026 politics anymore. It’s phase one of something we’ve spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.] - Eric Shwalm

I knew someone would remember! I was in great shape when I went through, 6'2" 220. That dude grabbed the towel around my neck, dead lifted me with his arms straight out and shook me like a rag dog.

If Spartac’s guns are as effective as I remember his open-hand slap, I’m in.

300BO with subs and suppressor. Ballistically similar to 45ACP at short range (superior at longer ranges) with less recoil than a blowback action. Hopefully allow me to talk to my wife and kids and cops immediately afterwards without temporary or permanent hearing damage.

What a game! I certainly didn't have Indiana going 16-0 on my bingo card this season, but it's hard to not like Coach Cignetti and what he and his boys have done this season. Hats of to Miami on a strong season, they man handled my Buckeyes and earned their right at the national Championship game via a hard fought schedule. College Football may be a bit jacked up right now, but I thought this was a pretty awesome season to watch.

Does anyone here actually believe that Trump is going to try and get the US to invade Greenland? If he does do you really think we'd actually do it? This is political theater. We reminded the world that the western hemisphere is ours. Now he's trying (poorly) to remind NATO that they really need us and we don't need them.

So Germany really needed Poland, Japan really needed Manchuria, North Korea really needed the south, North Vietnam really needed South Vietnam, Argentina really needed the Falklands, the USSR really needed Afghanistan, Iraq really needed Kuwait, and Russia really needed Ukraine. We were with the defenders in every single instance. The only people excited about the US shaking down a NATO ally are Russia, China, NK and Iran. This will not end well for the Republicans.

I suppose it could be that Trump wants Greenland to be the 51st star on the American flag. I doubt that's the plan though. I don't know what he wants, but I assume it's something more mundane (new SOFA as @Prosuper pointed out, maybe some kind of mineral rights, etc). And when Trump wants to move the needle on something, but he knows he'll run into difficulty, he has a well-worn strategy: If he wants X, he proposes X2. When he knows he's going to face some kind of challenge on an issue, he proposes the most hyperbolic, most extreme version of what he wants. The media melts down and the public melts down. Whoever is on the other side of whatever the issue is, melts down as well. After all of the chaos, Trump backs down, and the other side backs down, they negotiate, and Trump often gets what he wants, or close to it. It's not even all that unique. Developers do it all the time. When they want to put up a new 10 story building, but know they're going to face a bunch of NIMBYs, they go in with plans for 20 stories, take the attacks, and eventually walk it back to the 10 story plan they wanted in the first place. I suspect that's what's happening with Greenland.

You guys got a litho? Well s**t

Irony.

Winning! Man caught on camera throwing dozens of poop bags on Bell LGBTQ center roof: ‘He knows who we are’ On Wednesday, workers at an LGBTQ center in Southeast Los Angeles removed 125 bags of dog poop from their awning. It’s happening at Mi SELA on Florence Avenue in the city of Bell. Eddie Martinez, executive director at the center, told KNX News’ Emily Valdez that security video shows that every morning, a man walks his dog in front of the center and throws a bag of dog poop onto the awning. “He knows who we are,” he said. “He looks at the cameras.” He said that because littering is not a crime, the police can’t arrest the guy... (full story at title link)

Personally I think the pain is coming in 24-48 hours.

Those traveling to wright patt today, just want to say good luck and pray all goes well tomorrow! Also, the AF Museum is amazing! There’s a KC10 there that I flew on around the world as a flight engineer…say hi to it for me please!

Uh... Those were the distraction. Not the goal.

Gonna keep it real guys, unless you need to get exempted from the VML (which can probably be done through your current AFSC OAT), your career field wants you to PCS/A, or have a family emergency, it's probably not appropriate to email the UFT board. I get being frustrated about the 30-60 day window for RIPs closing but their email is explicit in that they ask if you do not get assignment info by 1 Mar 26 to then contact the org box. Asking for an update because we're at 60+ days is jumping the gun. The shutdown definitely didn't help organizing training dates for us and the other >930 rated accessions. Not saying it's morally right or fair, but honestly, part of the job is giving up some capacity to plan for the future to AFPC. I've never met a retiree who said they had perfect communication and heads-up for every transition in their career.

Do NOT do this. As much fun as it would be, this is textbook reprisal and would get you in actual trouble rather than just having to deal with BS complaints. Treat him no differently than you did before, other than document everything and obviously watch what you say. If there isn't a paper trail, it is your word against his and he is apparently willing to lie and play minority cards. And I mean document absolutely everything. If he shows up two minutes late, log it. Makes a single disparaging remark about someone, log it. If he walks into your office to ask when something is due, log it. However, and this is going to be the really painful part, you should start a similar documentation with everyone else, except the disciplinary part and maybe not needing quite the same level of detail. Otherwise if this ends up going sideways and you bring the documentation, the other side is going to logically ask to see the similar log you kept of your other employees. Otherwise they can claim you're only documenting him because he filed a complaint, which is also reprisal. When I started to have a problem with a guy that worked for me, I just kept a word document open on my computer. Anytime anyone that worked for me stopped in, I'd put it down. As simple as: "0945: Airman Snuffy asked due date for MFR - Friday". Depending on how often people stop buy or you go to their offices, shouldn't take too much of your day. Finally, if your boss doesn't have your back then you're probably SOL. I'd wait a week or so and ask for a sit down to talk about how much this guy is destroying the workplace. Even bring up the EO complaint as an integrity problem, which actually could be legitimately used against him if other people there will back you. If your boss still won't cover your back, then you're screwed.

Unfortunately for the oil industry, cheap oil (energy) is good for literally everything else. If it wasn't for the absolute inability to accomplish anything at all, the best thing the government could do right now would be to build 50 nuclear power plants across the country and drive the marginal cost of energy down to zero for the next 50 years.

Sorry but I had to post it.