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Any FedEX guys know when the iPad (10) lanyards are getting ordered? I’d like one.

Well....we've responded to you for many years. 🥃

Taiwanese U-2 pilot Johnny Shen died last Thursday, age 92 He was a U-2 pilot with The Black Cat Squadron on Taiwan from 1968 to 1973. He was admitted to the CAF Academy in January 1952, then trained in the PT-17 and the T-6. After his graduation in December 1955, he was assigned to the 4th Tactical Fighter Group in Chiayi. He was first sent to Tainan to be trained on the T-33, then returning to Chiayi to fly the F-84 in 1956. Later he converted to the F-100. He left the 35th Sq in 1973 and became the vice military attache in Vietnam. After the loss of Vietnam, he returned to Taiwan to served on several desk jobs. He retired from the CAF as a Colonel in 1977 and joined China Airlines, where he flew the Boeing 707, 727, 767, and 747, and Airbus A-300. He transferred to EVA Airlines in 1992. Then he returned served in Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration until 1998. After retirement, he emigrated to Canada and lived in Vancouver. These guys flew some really risky missions. Him him...

"Ghost guns" are another fabricated and irrational scare tactic term akin to "assault rifles" for those who are hoplophobic. Serial numbers don't stop the illegal use of a firearm any more than a VIN stops someone from stealing a car. The right to keep and bear arms is an alienable one, not "granted" by any government. And, as we all can attest to, anything the government gets its nose into is more likely to get fucked up that fixed!!

In this case you are quoting a literal Russian Psyop outlet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It goes way beyond Plastic. A society without soaps… most medications… superior lubricants to machine parts… fertilizers growing 8 billion people in food. The sheer stupidity of somebody that thinks human existence can exist at this scale without petroleum is just unaware of anything petroleum is used as a precursor or provides the bulk chemical make up of. They just think a barrel of oil = gasoline = bad stuff for global warming. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He is there because WEF, Blackrock and Vanguard want him in that chair.

Multiple visits shows the unit you are interested. We never hired anyone that we hadn’t seen stop by a few times. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

@Biff_T: See that yellow circled part? Excess Russian women between 55 and 75. You were born for this.

The irony is Im reading all of this while taking a pretty mean Growler.

Perhaps you're right, the war will be fought economically. If one wanted to slowly weaken, bleed, and defeat Russia, here's how we should go about it: Economically: First, we get Russia to spend themselves into oblivion. Interfere in their elections by funding Communists and leftists. That's assuming they have free and fair elections. Once their domestic spending outpaces their GDP by a substantial amount, we compel them to send hundreds of billions of dollars more to foreign governments. They'll be forced to further into debt, using creative tools to sustain their economy. Soon, they won't be able to maintain an infrastructure, the Russian standard of living declines, and social unrest ensues. I also see other strategic opportunities to weaken Russia: Socially: Using technology and social media, we inundate it's population with propaganda. We flood them with polarizing ideas and political ideologies. We create organizations that fund the migration of millions of poverty level people, particularly military age young men, from a vast array of cultural, religious backgrounds, creating a further strain on resources and social cohesion. Sponsor protests. Encourage violence. Militarily: Focus on making Russian military service an undesirable career choice. Create a recruiting crisis that shrinks the size of their military. Make them reliant on complex technologies with multiple single points of failure and insanely expensive acquisitions processes instead of mass and production. Create cognitive dissonance by telling Russians they're fighting for the nobel principles Russia was founded on while simultaneously incentivizing Russian politicians to destroy those principles. Energy: Make them deplete their energy reserves and hamstring domestic production by making them adhere to global climate change policies. Make them reliant on foreign cheap oil. I could go on, but I see plenty of opportunities to weaken Russia over the long term. The key is, it takes time. We can't allow ourselves to be provoked into an overreaction, massive escalation, or direct military conflict. If we're patient, Russia will eventually collapse from within.

FIFY

Don't worry, they learn how to read once they hit elementary school.

Ballsy move Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a year and a half of rushing is just getting started. I know it seems like an eternity, while in your 20’s, but if you’re a gov employee, as you stated, then you certainly should understand the glacial pace the system moves in. Have you interviewed anywhere more than once? You do realize that guard units typically select pilots only once per year? So in a year and a half you haven’t even been through the cycle more than once. Other than that, the advice offered to all the others on similar threads still holds true: -Widen your net (Heavies, Reserves, USAF, USN, USMC) -Enlist in the unit -Practice your interview skills -Get more flt time -Polish up your resume -Network

I am in charge of both, thanks 😃 Do you seriously think that Democrats are not in the military or in other positions of authority? New flash, people of all political stripes serve and do so well. My politics has little to do with my service in uniform. A fellow pilot on my team is a HUGE Trump fan and we joke about it all the time, but we work great together. He gives me shit, I give him shit, we fly the mission, etc. We'll be checking different boxes on election day 2024, but pretty much every other day we're fully aligned on killing our nation's enemies and protecting it's friends & interests with airpower. If that seems weird or foreign to you, I in turn hope that you are retired. TYFYS.

I could get on board with that, if we can go back to the 1800s where it was pretty easy to simply execute violent criminals, whether through official or unofficial means. But we’re not in the 1800s, so if you get out of prison after violently raping a woman (or man if you’re BQZip’s mom), conducting armed robbery/assault, carjacking, etc. then fuck you, you gave up your right when you acted like a total POS who would have simply been put down in days bygone. Above answer is directly related to background checks. I only support them to verify you are in fact not a felon.

Oddly, they didn't win despite a huge ramp to their industrial base and the employment of millions of rounds of artillery, airstrike and even chemical weapons. It's almost like an adversary employing asymmetric tactics (Stinger), blunted their advantage, bled them until they packed up and went home. Who would have thought...

Live updated Frontline Map Institute for the study of war - Great site founded by retired General Jack Keene - They have a VERY good interactive map as well. BBC has a good site as well (they leverage the Institute for War's maps with their own reporting and analysis). A bit gruesome at times but Reddit/combat hosts new videos of the conflict everyday. Three themes emerged in the video: 1. Early on the Javelin stopped the Russians cold, now they don't attempt large maneuver actions unless they absolutely pummel an area pre-strike with artillery. 2. Ukraine has been very effective at combined arms. Even through they don't have Air Superiority, they have used drones to coordinate fires in both TICs and interdiction. 3. Small drones have changed warfare. Hundreds of videos of drones dropping grenades AND being uses in a kamikaze roll to chase down individual soldiers...it is chilling to watch. If someone added AI... They have noted some gains by Russia in recent week which they attribute to the Ukrainians running short of long-range strike weapons and air defense. If the Senate approves the aid package those systems will start to flow on Friday. Also interesting to note the perceptions of those who voted against the aid, they think we are sending Ukraine pallets of cash which in fact $50B will flow into the U.S. Industrial Base creating jobs in 30 states.

Technically speaking @BashiChuni is correct on point one. It's not possible to re-blunt something that is already as blunt as it can be. They (Russia) are more than two years into this mess after having had 8 years of pre-combat battlefield shaping operations. Two years! For an operation that would have taken us a long weekend. Russia is most certainly blunt.

You new here? Aren’t there runways spread around the globe? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

You old bastards know if you decide you want to add something to your post, you can just edit the post, instead of making 6-9 in a row...? FFS.

Nothing Uncle Bosey's nephew can't handle.

Another area we disagree. The longer we wait, the weaker we will be for the actual fight. As our weak governance racks up increasingly absurd debt, the pressure to divert military spending to welfare programs will only grow. The longer we wait, the fewer war fighting experts we will have coupled with less and less modern military equipment to fight with. I still think we win based on geography and natural resources, but it'll cost more lives and treasure to wait. Whether or not there is a nuclear exchange, which is not nearly as certain as you propose, does not change the calculus. Will we be better capable of fighting Russia today, or after another 10-20 years of peaceful decline? I'll be honest. I don't care about you. Or me. I want what is best for my kids. I am not interested in adding WWIII to the list of hardships we are pushing off to the future. Appeasement does not work. History is clear on this point, and that's exactly what you are proposing.

I’ll answer: We let it fall. We have no treaty obligations, and although I’m opposed to Russian aggression I do not believe WW3 is the best option for our interests. If they start some shit with a NATO ally then fights on.

Awards/medals are embarrassing compared to the days of old. Even bronze stars and to some extent, DFCs, are handed out for simple baseline-doing-your-job. Everyone gets a trophy for just breathing and doing average shit. Ridiculous.

During my sentence...I mean tour... As an ALO with an armor battalion, I was having a conversation with one off the air defense guys and he proudly stated that the AD folks could visually ID 67% of all aircraft. I guess the other 33% are screwed.

Back on the personal finance front... Fidelity will allow SPAXX as your sweep account in Cash Management Accounts (CMA) starting around June 15. IMO this makes CMAs a no brainer. No need to mess with separate online savings accounts to get higher rates on your cash. I know this took me a while to wrap my head around and I wish somebody had broken it down for me earlier, so for those that don't habla CMA, here's the skinny... CMAs are brokerage accounts that operate "like" checking accounts. Debit cards, ATMs, fee reimbursement, checks, online bill pay, direct deposit, etc. Your cash balances by default are kept at various banks around the country. You can see which banks, but there's no reason to care. You get FDIC protection, ~2.7%* interest, and manage your cash centrally via Fidelity. If you elect to keep your cash in SPAXX, you give up FDIC coverage, but you can get ~5%* on your cash balances. Vanguard just started "Cash Plus" accounts to compete. I'm sure they'll be great accounts, but I moved from Vanguard because (IMO) their service starting slipping around 2020 and became untenable. Bottom line, especially for the young dudes: Look beyond USAA for your banking needs. With some work, you'll be very wealthy one day - learn to manage it well now. *all rates are as of 4/15/24

From the AP I'm gonna withhold judgement on this one. For now, at least, until more info comes out. It sounds like this is a case of family members battling after a death. If you've ever witnessed it, you know. Reasonable people do unreasonable things when a death happens in the family. Even more so if a step parent is involved.

Until the moment one is convicted of a crime (and therefore legal to own firearms up to that point), an individual should be able to own whatever they want, including homemade firearms. That also means the NFA is a significant violation of the constitution and should be fully repealed. Any additional roadblocks to ownership/use such as firearms/ammo specific taxes, insurance requirements, banning of whatever, etc. are unconstitutional. I support restrictions for felons and I’m fine with background checks for purchased firearms (without any arbitrary waiting period), but anything beyond that is unconstitutional and illogical. The anti-gun crowd doesn’t give a fuck about safety or “saving lives,” they care about disarming the public to gain control of the plebes, pure and simple. Your average suburban dipshit who’s anti-gun just doesn’t realize they are simple pawns in said goal, despite whatever hollow, altruistic goals they claim to personally have.

0% if they're filed off as they often are once they enter the underworld. I looked for a stat about how many guns used in crime have altered/removed SNs, but I couldn't find anything. A decent number of guns are already untraceable because they have altered SNs. https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-iii-crime-guns-recovered-and-traced-us/download Between 2017-2021, 48,601 guns couldn't be traced to a buyer because their SN was altered. 25,904 crime-linked guns traced back to a .gov owner! Opposition to un-serialized firearms is not about crime prevention - it's simply about placing obstacles and red tape between citizens and legal firearms and creating the groundwork for a future confiscation database.

Lol. Hungry Like the Wolf is the best Duran Duran song. Excellent choice kind sir!

If you actually start looking at original founding members of things like the Sierra club, there is a deeply inhuman meritocracy of human survival they are advocating for silently. John Muir was an advocate for white ascendency and soft extermination of lesser peoples. People that read things like Population bomb and think it is a sound science from a place of money and power don’t want there to be 8 billion people on the Planet. These were champions of Eugenics, which at its time was a widely regarded pseudo scientific thought and now through revision its something we normally just associate with the Nazis. That doesn’t make that the sole platform of the eco movement. There are utopian-futurists in that movement who want to see us ascend technologically (people that think of things like mass scale tidal power generation), there are opportunistic parasites (people funneling trillions of future investments to the cause so they can be a ground floor owner in that investment). There are the dogmatic zealots (think green-peace/morons like Greta) who see this like an extreme religious crusade. There isn’t just 1 monolithic ecological identify. But what I’ve found is most of them want no discussion of the trade off to anything they are presenting as the sole and only problem. They want to just do arithmetic in a game that is regulated by calculus/physics. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would say that I'm Ukraine War continuation skeptical but not opposed exactly, they passed the "funding" bill but as a skeptic I would be less skeptical, cynical and maybe supportive if they passed a funding vehicle (bureacracy speak phrase for tax increase or creation) to pay for this appropriation https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/20/betrayal-complete-mike-johnson-passes-61-billion-ukraine-aid-violates-hastert-rule-again/ Like climate change preening / virtue signalling... if the activist / big mouth / holier than thou person advocating for a low energy life style actually lived that way themselves I'd take them seriously, but as they are not actually for paying for it but thru debt issuance, continued funding seems less than honorable Follow up: So as I know there are CODEL staffers lurking on this thread /s… the IRS says there were 161 million income tax filings, divide that into 60 billion, that’s about $373 per filer, propose an amendment or stand alone bill to 2023 income tax filings and collect the money, not holding breath but that would go long way to burnishing your credentials and supposed commitment to the LIO and love of it

Very distant relative. I remember hearing the story a long time ago as a kid. Randomly a couple days ago I called and thought to get clarity from another family member and found this. After my own service it takes on a whole new meaning. We had a great discussion how in 1949 when 12 O'clock High came out no one wanted to see or discuss the movie because the feelings were still so raw in the family. Only child. Yesterday I noticed today would have been his 100th birthday. Lt. Dunn and Crew Marshall Clyde Dunn was born on April 20, 1924, in Wichita County, Texas. He was the son of Clyde Stanley Dunn and Merle Sheldon Dunn. He was a graduate of the Electra High School and was a member of the band. He was attending Texas A & M when he enlisted in the Army Air Force. Marshall entered the service in February 1943 and had been overseas in October 1944. He served in the 850th Bomber Squadron, 490th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a First Lieutenant and Pilot on the B-17G #43-38699 during World War II. He was Killed in Action on February 6, 1945, when his airplane was involved in a mid-air collision with B-17G #43-38167 over France. That day, his crew took off from airfield station 134 in Eye, England, for a strategic mission to Chemnitz, Germany. Upon reaching 17,000 feet, his plane collided with B-17G #43-38167 piloted by Lt Schoenfield and crashed near Mittersheim. This resulted in the death of seven members of his crew; 3 survived and recovered. Sgt Johnston, who jumped around 3000 feet, indicated that the survivors were transferred to Nancy, then to Vittel, returned to Nancy, then Paris by rail, and finally returned to the UK in C-47 on February 11, 1945. 1Lt Dunn is now buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA. Airmen who perished on B-17G #43-38699: Dunn, Marshall C ~ 1st Lt, Pilot Philley, Jack O ~ 2nd Lt, Co-Pilot Baland, Helmer O ~ 2nd Lt, Navigator Horton, Fred H ~ S/Sgt, Ball Turret Gunner Mayhew, Donald R ~ S/Sgt, Radio Operator, NY McKinney, Clarence H ~ T/Sgt, Mechanic Mulvihill, Edward J ~ S/Sgt, Bombardier The survivors were SSgt Dean R. Smith, SSgt George A. Naifeh, and SSgt Osvil F. Johnston.

Good reply, thank you for writing it out. I'll reply in kind when able if you're still interested, but it won't be for a bit. More than once here I've gotten a thoughtful reply, but lamentably have been too busy to respond in a worthy fashion. 🥃

Right, you know, except for the whole invasion of Ukraine thing. I wonder if there are any other "historically Russian" parts of Europe... Definitely doesn't compare to Hitler targeting historically German parts of Europe for "reunification."

I would counter that was the thought in the 1930s with Germany. Hitler just wanted a little more territory and he would be good. I have little doubt had Putin been in power in the 1930s-40s he would have been just as bad. What line is too far? I'm still as pissed as many over the Charlie Foxtrot that was/is Afghanistan but at least Ukraine is willing to fight.

Hopefully a 63 or 64 year old willing to fall on his sword on his way out the door a little early. ...legends live forever!

There are dozens of obvious reasons why they want Biden in the chair. You have to be mentally handicapped to think otherwise, especially considering many of the leaders of these organizations are quite vocal about the topic. Arguing that they are secretly pulling the strings of the entire government is another issue entirely.

Spoiler alert - Biden: “It’s Trump’s fault”

Another inevitability. The move to "re-shore" some critical manufacturing capabilities is the only good news these days. The sooner the better. Trading with China was the biggest mistake of the post-WWII era. We could have pulled the entirety of Latin America into the modern world, instead we funded the buildup of our biggest geopolitical adversary, and got an immigration crisis as a bonus.

Not a fighter dude, but my guess is that, even thought you're not above the age-waiver land, Reserve/Guard fighters usually shy away from folks close to that range. They got burned by the oldies in the past bailing out mid-UPT and there are pieces to a fighter track that are tougher as an older person. You're playing a numbers game and betting on the longer shots by narrowing to fighters; more competition for fewer seats. If you really just want to fly anything, you really should start looking at heavies. If you want some autonomy, start rushing heavy Reserve/Guard units. As many before have said, 96.69% of people usually enjoy wherever they end up as long as they embrace it. "Bloom where you're planted." AD has its place...and it's life. If you want life autonomy, (more of) a choice of what you fly (depends where you're hired, obviously), and the ability to get that airline line number started years earlier, you probably are infinitely better off holding off for Guard/Reserves. You might have a "better/faster" chance flying just going AD, but you risk getting pulled by your hammer around the world. As for flying fighters, you're putting WAY more in the hands of the fates than if you get hired by a unit. Your skills, your competition...errr classmates..., available 38 slots, and the needs of the AF all dictate more than you "wanting to fly fighters." You could be a strong above average 5th in a class that gets six 38 slots or you could be a hot shit 3 in a class that gets two slots. You could get that 38 slot and they only have 2 fighters in the drop, so FAIP or bombers for you. All of that is decided by random luck and timing. Then again, some folks are in it to win it and wanna ride or die AD. It's certainly admirable and a guaranteed paycheck for 12-ish years. It really is only something you can decide. Lastly, look into Reserves more. Guard is great and less AD-light, but it's much more disjointed in the hiring due to the inherent state by state nature. Each Guard unit has its own separate hiring apparatus with separate recruiters; Reserves can get you started (MEPS, forms, basic intro stuff) for any airframe (I think they still do Unsponsored...) and you can begin rolling as you're rushing multiple Reserve units. Whichever path you choose, 100% rush multiple times to the units you truly want. They're getting lots of hotdogs tossed their way; be a more memorable hotdog. Be a good human, put in the work to make them want to pick you, and don't stop until you've gotten the last TBNT. it's tough competition and no one is gonna just hand it to you, so don't give up. Good luck! Signed, A happy Reserve heavy driver that started UPT 7 years above the age cutoff ***(DISCLAIMER: during a VERY different hiring environment, so not happening very often anymore)*** and has greatly enjoyed the adventure I've been fortunate enough to experience thus far.

The current "AI" iterations are not AGI, however they are closer to functioning like a human brain than we have ever gotten before. The irony here is that we didn't accomplish this by figuring out how the brain works, quite the opposite, we created an array of associations that is as mysterious to us as the individual neural pathways of a human brain is. We know that the brain has a combination of biologically-arranged pathways (e.g. for walking, breathing, visual identification of faces, eye position, etc.) and experience-formed pathways (math, music, flying a plane). Right now the AI models crunch tons of mostly-unfiltered data into a model that we do not have the ability to directly adjust because of the sheer volume of parameters, then an overlay is used to do things like prevent swearing, giving directions for bomb making, etc. But this is in it's infancy. Once you can pre-program certain behaviors into the actual model, then leave the rest of the model to continuously adapt the weights based on new data, we will take another big step to AGI. But since we have precisely 0% knowledge on what is or what causes consciousness, it is entirely possible that we reach a point where AGI is achieved simply by running the models with enough horsepower that we stumble into the solution. That is, incidentally, remarkably similar to how evolution works. Are humans the only animals that are conscious? What about dolphins, octopi, crows, or chimps? If not, does that mean there is no intelligence other than human intelligence? That seems like an arbitrary definition. Where is the line, and how smart does a computer need to be before it is considered intelligent? Smarter than all humans, or just smarter than any human? Do people born with Down Syndrome have consciousness? What if an AI surpasses the intellectual ability of someone with DS? Calling even the current models an "abacus" is like calling the human brain a glutamate sensor. Sure, it's kind of true, but it's the scale of the apparatus that makes it interesting.

A nice check that comes every month as long as you have a pulse and don’t commit a felony. Also Tricare Select at a very reasonable price. ETA: I know your question was bout decorations, but as nice as a decoration is, what I wrote above is what I really wanted.

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