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Just got word today actually that the divorce is final and the judge signed the final judgement. There is so much to tell and I’m at a loss of where to start. The good news first. I got 50/50 custody of my kids through mediation. When it all came down to it all she really wanted was money. If we would have gone to court in our county in Florida I would have gotten reamed. I got unlucky and we got assigned a pro-mommy judge. So glad we settled out of court. The craziness is enough to write a book on, and maybe one day I will. During mediation, my lawyer asked me if I knew what “Borderline Personality Disorder” was. He said that my ex definitely has it. That actually answered a lot of questions I had about what the heck happened and I’m 100% convinced this is the case. Life is sooooo much better now. I didn’t realize how miserable me and the kids were. Now that I have my own place and my own life, I feel 100% free. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Trump is a piece of shit. He'll never be 10% of the man Mattis is, nor will he ever know what honor or courage is like Mattis does. But Mattis, like the others, has been wrong on the Middle East, and no amount of personal character will make up for the fact they are fundamentally wrong. In some sort of strange way we have ended up with two camps. The Bush/Generals/McCain camp, where personal conduct is dignified and policy is catastrophic, and the Trump camp, where personal conduct is alarming and shameful, but the policy is somehow pretty solid. Not sure why we can't have both, but you'd have to ask the electorate [emoji2369]

You have a thing for bat shit crazy chicks, don't you?

The great gamble is whether the moderate Democrats can gather behind Biden/Warren. Several swing states are showing Democrats losing registrations, with independents (and some republicans) gaining ground. NC is hemorrhaging registered D's in several areas, and seeing a lot of first time voters, just as an example. Large portion of those are Eastern NC blue collar Democrats who saw the textiles vaporize after NAFTA. You tell me who they're registering to vote for... If it's Biden, Trump wins in a "biggly" way. If it's Warren, Trump wins, but not so "biggly." If it's Gabbard? It'll be a good fight and he'll lose by a large (historically) margin. If it's Buttigegggg, Trump wins. The ultimate irony is that Tulsi would wipe Trump off the map, but the Democrats are too preoccupied with Socialistic posturing and nonsense to notice it. She's been my dark horse in this thing from day one, and that's before Hillary said she's a Russian operative!

Bruh, cmon. Merely being a 4-star General means being political. McCraven merely represents elite foreign policy consensus. A "nice guy" ...maybe?, but I bet you he towed the line on some of our disastrous foreign policy mistakes over the past 20 years (Iraq War, Libya, etc.) Don't pretend he's anybody he's not.

Retired GOFOs are like children; they should be seen and not heard. Unless he/she is willing to step into the political ring and run for office, then hiding behind the "I'm a general and therefore apolitical, thus speak truth to power" is complete bullsh1t.

Guys, just to be clear...as one of the few resident Democrats and as someone who follows politicos very closely as a hobby, there is just zero appetite for Tulsi Gabbard. She’s been in all of the debates except one (ie not being “totally ignored”), is an elected member of Congress (ie at least has some traditional qualifications), and she’s polling at less than 2% on average. No one polling that low this late in the primary has ever made even a bit of difference in the race. Her fundraising is basically non-existent for a Presidential-level campaign, and anecdotally of all the Democrats I know, I don’t know of a single person supporting her. I will give you than in an MFK of the Democratic primary, she gets my vote for the “F” category hands down. In all seriousness her oddly pro-Assad views are completely disqualifying in my book and I hope the good people of Hawaii make a difference choice for her seat in Congress in 2020. If y’all wanna like her as Republicans or conservatives because she’s hot and currently shitting on Hillary, go for it.

Some people here are conflicted about his speech because they’re Trump supporters, and they like Mattis, but don’t know how to tap dance around addressing Trump’s clueless insults of Mattis. Also, McRaven apolitical? Sure 😂 http://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/trump-mcraven-syria-military.amp.html

My popcorn is getting cold. 🙂

Money seems to be a common theme with divorces and the reason why most women want full custody is to get as much money they can get. The courts don't regulate where the money goes or what it's actually used for. They just want you to throw tens of thounds of dollars per year her way to be mismanaged and wasted. BTW, If you have never seen Bill Burr's "Gold Digging Whores" standup, Youtube it. It is classic. Anyway, from personal experience with this subject, as far as BPD and other things like ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) and NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), they are real and some people get totally sucked into relationships with these "monsters" and only find out after it is too late. Living with or even worse, being married to, a person with any one (or more) of these is a living nightmare. I would rather have testicular cancer than be married to someone like this because there is at least a way to treat cancer. Dealing with a person like this is a losing battle. You will never win unless you separate yourself from the person. Unfortunately, in this F'd up society we live in and legal system we deal with, men dealing with a women with any one of these disorders almost always get destroyed in one way or another. Mostly because the family law legal system favors women and because society does not recognize the fact that there are women out there with these disorders destroying their husbands lives. In fact, whenever you read an article about NPD, 9 times out of 10 it almost always refers to the person with NPD as a "he". People can't fathom the damage a woman with one of these disorders can inflict on her husband and their children and it is very easy for them to hide behind the image of being the "poor stay at home mom". Guys live with it because these women have bucket-loads of power. They can ruin careers, tear your family apart, destroy you emotionally and financially. Not saying there aren't dudes out there with these disorders, but the percentage of women out there with them is a lot higher than you would think and there's a lot of husbands out there just willing to put up with it because they don't want to say anything or do anything about it. I commend you for GTFO of there. Bravo!

Only on the weekends.

Congrats Duck. Here’s to finding your passion that has been stifled for years. Hears to getting to be the father you always wanted to be but the BPD wouldn’t let you! Here’s to being free of the BPD active duty Air Force. Cheers to Duck. If I ever see you in person drinks are on me.

We talk about failing strategy and then talk “immortalizing” guys who were at the tip of the spear during many of those miscalculations. I like Mattis, McRaven, mchrystal and what they taught us through exemplary organizational leadership....but that doesn’t mean they have the ing answer to every problem. like brickhistory said join the solution cause I am pretty sure making bank in your think tank you rolled directly to isn’t helping anyone but themselves.

Ehhhh........ If your worldview stops at the boundaries of Washington DC, and if you determine the health of the country based on what's on CNN/FOX/etc, then yeah, it looks kinda bad. Honestly, I think the majority of Americans are doing ok, and the country as a whole is going about their business. But that kind of narrative doesn't get clicks, so you won't normally hear it.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/466192-kinzinger-challenges-trumps-defense-chief-on-syria-in-closed-door-meeting Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

We need to evaluate all our overseas engagements against the Powell Doctrine. If we can't answer in the affirmative to each and every question, then we need to go home. Spoiler alert: In the vast majority of cases, we need to go home.

Fair point. However, she’s had two major roadblocks to her success. One, the DNC actively kept her off the stage by manipulating which polls were used for admission, and have cut off major donor fundraising as punishment for attacking Kamala. Two, the polls being done (you mention 2%) are typically done with voter rolls of people who have voted D in the last 3-4 presidential elections (aka “highly likely voters”) which means you’re asking the deepest blue folks how they feel, not the rest of the Democrats. Her value is giving them a moderate base and hoping the rabid left still hates Trump enough to vote for her as a FU to him. Plus, she strikes me as the type of woman who wouldn’t hesitate to rub Trump’s face in his lack of military service/sporadic foreign policy decisions... all while wearing a smile. That’s dangerous. Trump could attack Hillary because she’s basically a man. The public will react differently when an attractive veteran woman stands there. For the record, I don’t agree with her foreign policy at all, and I don’t like that she’s embracing SJW stuff. But her answer on impeachment shows she’s rational and smart. It’s not completely outside the realm of possibility that I’d vote for her, but it would take some interesting circumstances. TLDR; she attacks the problem of winning by starting in the middle and growing outward. Warren/Biden do the opposite. For anecdotal reference, several moderate Democrats that I work with and know say they wish Tulsi would have a chance, but they know the system will pick a old white person instead. I also know never Trumpers who would love to cast a vote for her, but will either hold their noses and vote for Trump (but telling no one) or just skip the Presidential election.

Mattis: pensive, scholar of war. Trump: stupid. But yes, somehow Trump and I have wound up at the same Middle East policy. Let the mfer burn.

I don't agree with many of Bernie's positions, but I don't know how you can make an intellectual integrity argument against the guy. Not only is he not on the list that you cited, but if you open up the full list past the top 50, it shows him in 423rd place in terms of net wealth amongst Congressmen. Some quick Googling puts his current net worth at $2-2.5 million. How could he have amassed such a fortune as a career elected official? Keep in mind, this dude is 78 years old. If we assume he started saving when he was 28 and earned the market's 10% nominal return over the past 50 years, you know how much he'd have to put away every month to have $2.5M today? ....$172

If you're actually being serious and not just talking out your ass, I'll take both those bets at any price.

This is a hypothetical, but wondering if anyone can shed light on it. If someone is medically retired from the Reserves, how does the rule set vary from AD? For instance, if someone is medically separated with 18 years service (for example) from AD, once all the wickets are worked through, they may be eligible for immediate retired pay at some multiplier based on their years of service and calculated disability. On the Reserves side, how would that work? Would they be eligible for some immediate retired pay, or would that wait until age 60? What if they’ve reached 20 years of AD time? (I’d assume immediate in that case) Like I said, this is all a hypothetical. I’m at 14 yearsish now, and considering if there’s a safety net factor that changes there. Thanks.

Meh. Very, very good, absolutely. "Coolest?" Not so sure about that: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7578761/F1-petrolhead-Lewis-Hamilton-tells-fans-vegan.html Luck and timing, as always. Imagine how some of the other drivers would do at Mercedes instead of the also-rans. Bottas is a great example of that. His fortunes (literally) greatly increased after going from nobody Williams (great pedigree but not competitive in a very long time) to current Mercedes drive.

I started Medicare + TFL two years ago. Before that I had private sector employer’s insurance + Tricare standard. The difference is amazing. I feel like I may have won the golden ticket of health insurance. I have none of the problems with Tricare and private insurance finger pointing, never a copay, and no pharmacy problems. I did find that Tricare had a better drug formulary than my company insurance.

Asked my CSS today, name is not on there yet 😕

Private insurance nearly broke me, it was equivalent to BC/BS, when I got seriously ill as an ART. Get the TRICARE for life, worry less. Oh yeah, you should also have $1M on your cranium in life insurance, unless you can self insure that. And only use term.

From my perspective I think Tricare in retirement is a huge benefit. I haven’t started at my next job yet but looking at their health options they are all about $3-4K min a year for a very healthy family’s plan. Add in some health issues or surgery it could rapidly go up to $10K+. Tricare Select has max out of pocket total of $3000 per year, per family, with no premiums, and $300 per year deductible limit for a family. One of the few things that got my attention during TAP was the offer to Airmen separating to buy some kind of Tricare for up to a year after separating: at about $1200 per month... Go to Tricare.mil for the source data, I’m convinced it will save retired people thousands over a lifetime.

Moose: Tricare For Life is a medicare supplement which kicks in when you get Medicare at age 65. Tricare Prime or Select prior to age 65: it is a benefit but it’s not huge. The premium for health insurance from my employer is $100 per mo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A personnelist officer friend of mine told me that we could potentially find out if we were picked up or not for this year's board based on what is on the Loss roster. Apparently, before AFPC processes personnel for assignments, they first insert you into into MilPDS - this comes first, before any advance commander notifications, or PSDM release. So, theoretically, you could find out if you were picked up based on where you assignment is loaded -- ask your CSS to check the Loss Roster through BLSDM. Because this is done manually, this is why there is a long wait time between the board and announcement. And because there are normally upwards of a hundred or so total board applicants, this can take a month or so for a single Airman to hand-jam... so it is possible for some of us to be populated on the Loss roster without ever knowing. I have BLSDM rights, so you can bet I will be checking every day!

I agree with you, but decisions made in DC still have an impact. I'm looking 20 or 30 years out. Socialism never looks bad when it's implemented. But after the money runs out, and well after the geniuses who promoted it are gone, it's always a calamity. We have candidates legitimately trying to normalize the concept of wealth confiscation for the common good. Right now, just the billionaires. But do you really think the voting masses will just give up their new entitlements once they run out of billionaires to squeeze?

The best driver in Formula 1 turns 40 today.

Exactly. You've paid more than your fair share of the bill and I've paid mine, as well as most of the people on this forum. When I read "we" should be staying continuously engaged in Syria, it seems "you" is implied. Some people are tired of being threatened with the worst possible outcome being realized if we suddenly end our 18+ year subscription to the Middle East Clusterf^&* Vacation Club. There's war when we're present, there will be war when we're absent. If Russia and Turkey want to wear that anchor around their neck for a change, good.

Say what you will about endless land wars in Asia (and having participated in several I'm not a big fan!), but the small SOF footprint we previously held in north east Syria was absolutely critical to maintaining the somewhat stable situation that was to our advantage. The SDF fought and died for us against ISIS and we quite literally cut and ran on a whim. How long to stay? Will there ever be an independent Kurdistan? What happens to the thousands of ISIS prisoners in the long-term? How do we deal with the reality that Assad is here to stay? How do we handle a dictatorial & increasingly oppositional NATO "ally" in Erdogon's Turkey? Great questions all around and I don't have great answers. But we literally chose the worst possibly path that answers none of those questions. The path we chose, with little to no planning or interagency process, forfeits all of our leverage in the region, cosigns the slaughter of some of best allies on the ground, potentially re-starts ISIS, and threatens our long-held forward-deployed nuclear forces posture. And for what? Great job everyone, hit the showers!

I somehow find this assumption wrong on all levels having been thru meps 3 times. Especially since I have been DQ’ed twice at MEPS for things I’ve never had. While I have no experience with DoDmerb from what I hear from ROTC friends I would recommend 100000 times over going that route. Not even close to be honest. MEPS will DQ anyone so fast, they dont wanna deal with extra shit ever. I almost think they DQ people on purpose to see if they have the drive to fight it lol Edit: i was DQ’ed while going enlisted and DQ’ed during commissioning exam. It is not fun.

Two planes for the Cannon aero club got here today.

Hey guys. Just wanted to update that I got picked up from a guard unit recently. This was my third board and I am stoked for this journey. I HIGHLY recommend the consulting package from Bogidope. I really think they played the major factor in making my resume and cover letter stand out and preparing me for the interview. They really teach you how to tailor your strengths into killing the interview.

Yep, know one personally who got rolled up in Fat Leonard (pun intended, as he's most like gonna get fucked because of it!). As for this non-existent story, had anyone other than Trump owned the place, it would be a non-issue. It's just the media's constant barrage against the man. I am not the biggest fan of his, but he was the best option and is doing a better job than any of the other candidates, plus I doubt he plays much of a role in running his businesses these days much less this one particular hotel. Much like the old adage of "if the minimums weren't good enough, they wouldn't be the minimums;" doesn't "if it's under the max allowable, then it's allowable" make the same sense? As a per diem hound these days, the vast majority of the hotels I stay at have a government rate which is the max allowable before taxes. There's no fucking way I am staying at some flea-ridden roach motel because it saves the gubbermint some pocket change. After 38 years of seeing what it wastes its money on, it doesn't bother me one bit...

I wonder if the Air Force truely saw this train wreck coming 15 years ago or not. Beating the snot out of our equipment, our people and going out of its way to kill all things morale in the operational units has had a devastating effect on all aspects of our service from UPT through senior levels of command. Very sad. People will talk with their feet. Deploy UPT IP's to make coffee and update slides and they'll eventually walk (they are doing it now). These are dudes looking for a "break" before they go back to an operational assignment (or won't after they separate). So... it is a lose/lose situation for the AF.

They like guys who don’t know how to flare or put the gear down? Bold safety strategy cotton, let’s see if it pays off...

That is a wild guess, and wildly inaccurate. As I've said, I've been visiting Prestwick Aviation for 17 years and those folks are on the up and up. Contract fuel prices are set. Lodging and perdiem rates are set. The Turnberry was only offered when it was the only accommodation available. Do you know of an alternative airport that meets all the requirements of transiting military aircraft, crew, and pax with fuel prices 50 cents less? I challenge you to find it. There's quite a bit more to RON planning than the price of fuel. If you've ever been deployed and are looking to save $25K of taxpayer money in Scotland, you're looking in the wrong place. If an FBO/hotel provides a great experience while conducting business within the government rules and government rates, how is that a hustle? That's just good business. This is no Fat Leonard, just another instance of politicians throwing shit against the White House walls hoping something sticks.

Uh. No. But it doesn’t have the free managers special at the embassy or free Hilton breakfast, so pocket extra money there, buy breakfast at trump with your own money. We both know the rules. Thanks for playing tho

How the fuck does that not get promoted.

"Bring me...support dogs"

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1276693/remarks-by-secretary-mattis-at-a-troop-event-in-naval-base-kitsap-washington/ So you'll never regret, but you will have some of the best days of your life and some of the worst days of your life in the U.S. Navy, you know what I mean? That says -- that means you're living. That means you're living. That means you're not some pussy sitting on the sidelines, you know what I mean, kind of sitting there saying, “Well, I should have done something with my life.” Because of what you're doing now, you're not going to be laying on a shrink's couch when you're 45 years old, say “What the hell did I do with my life?” Why? Because you served others; you served something bigger than you.

She has been very popular for some reason

But if we don't fight them over "there", we'll fight them "here".....

Valid points. I don't have a rebuttal to that. I did enjoy his book "Make your bed" though, but my background is JSOC and he is pretty immortalized around these parts.

That article specifically is one I was talking about. Trump literally admitted on the south lawn that he gives f*** all about the constitution. He asked Ukraine and China for help with the 2020 election. Not to mention the Mulvaney shitshow in the past few days. Its binary ones and zeros...this isnt up for interpretation. I mean I think we're on the same wavelength, but I really think Mcraven is for the boys and has our best interest in mind. I still think he doesn't lean one way or another. I think hes calling out dangers to our democracy. Maybe im wrong, hopefully not.

I'll take link to revenge porn website for $69 Alex

It wasn't enough. I don't forgive him for joining that dumpster fire of a presidency then bailing. And that weird blood racket operation too... Mcraven is the hero here. He is calling it like it is, completely apolitical and just remaining loyal to the US.