Lord Ratner

At least now we know what the bargain was to get the qataris to abandon Hamas and force the ceasefire. This might be another bit of 4d chess on behalf of the Trump administration. Giving the qataris a no shit facility in the United States is going to tie them to us in a much more concrete way than simply having a base in their country. My suspicion is that the Trump administration has decided that we are going to buy the qataris away from the Chinese and the Iranians. And we're going to lock them in with a deeply integrated military, similar to how we have locked in the Saudis. Obviously the 4D chess bit is tongue in cheek, but it's just another example of the Trump administration making a decision and buying into it 100%. In an era where the dreams of a cosmopolitan worldwide alliance have fallen apart, if the Republicans commit themselves to the concept of a Balkanized world again, we can start making moves to make sure that our sphere of influence is the more powerful one. The real problem of course will be the the pseudo-utopians on the far right and the far left that have turned into New age isolationists. They'll bitch and moan about the duplicitous nature of the Qatari regime as though that's not an inescapable facet of international relations. It's got to be a rough time to be a libertarian.

I wasn't sure what people saw in her when she was nominated, and I haven't seen much from her to change my opinion. She's pretty, and I suspect that was enough for Trump 🤣😂

This is correct. Last I saw Fort Worth was the largest and only "major" Republican city in America. And they don't have a notable crime issue to speak of. Dallas is completely blue, minus the strange politics of the current mayor.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restoring-law-and-order-in-memphis/ Also, you think Memphis is Red?

Philosophically, if the governor isn't asking for help, then I'm inclined to be against it. I would make exceptions for the protection of federal buildings, such as during the race riots of 2020, but that's not happening right now. Politically, I have no idea. It could work, and it's not a stretch to see how. That could be a big political win if it forces Democrats out of their reflexive embrace of crime.

The guy who owns my local gun shop is an M1 collector, and I asked him to take a look just to make sure it seemed fine. We got the gun from my wife's family, apparently the friend of an uncle or something brought it back from the war. The mags don't look ancient, but the only markings on them are "U" on one, "SW" on another couple, and "M2" on the extended. Right now the site isn't letting me upload pics. From AI: "In summary, your "U" and "SW" marked magazines are authentic pieces of World War II history. Your extended "M2" magazine is more likely a later, commercial product, but a careful examination of its features can help to more definitively determine its provenance"

Anyone listen to Dave Smith on Coleman Hughes' podcast? It's loonnnggg (3.5 hours), and I can't understand how Coleman can stand to play nice with one of the most dishonest "pundits" in media right now, but it was fascinating to hear how full of shit Smith is. Despite his ignorance, Smith is a pretty good example of why libertarianism is an unworkable political philosophy and is more of a starting point for American thought. There's definitely too many comedians parading around as political historians and analysts.

No, but he did call dibs.

Sure. You're a bad-faith debate participant who's gotten addicted to political news theater. Even Boomer could keep focused long enough to read that.

I've got one, and honestly the only reason I feel comfortable with the thing is because the bullets it uses are such low power rounds. It's strange feeling how much less... sturdy... a gun from that era feels. But then again they were just being smashed out by every factory that could produce them.

Where? Which dudes? Be specific. Did any of the people who are interacting with you now say that? I certainly didn't. O Face has never used the word "golf" on this forum Also are you equating a game of golf to a commander's call? Are those on the same level of national importance? You have an obnoxious habit of lumping together everything that's ever been said on Fox News as some sort of proxy for what the real individuals here are saying specifically. Why do you come here if not to directly interact with us? Is this just some outlet for you to howl at the moon? There are legitimately interesting conversations that happen on this forum, and on this topic, but all you can respond with is a whataboutism that none of the people talking to you at the moment actually said?

I know, I know, it's your username, if you weren't miserable about literally everything in the world, what else would you do? But it's pretty amazing to see people defending the *generals* against the first secdef in my lifetime that is telling them they have to live by the same standards they enforce.

Are you suggesting that commanders' calls should all be done digitally? Or that Zoom is the same thing as an in-person presentation?

I'm sure he's great. It's not like we have a cadre of purely sociopathic generals. But the nature of the system is such that only "yes men" are going to make it to the top. There's no real metric for effectiveness or success when we aren't in a global war of existential magnitude, so ass-covering and knob-polishing are the prerequisites. How many shitty bosses with toxic leadership did this guy serve without quitting? How about the first time his commander in chief babbled nonsensically on the global stage from 2017-2021? No, because there was still runway ahead for his career. These are the same chumps that spent their youth in the O-Clubs with strippers, drove back to their dorms drunk, then 20 years later told us with a straight face that if you have more than 3 drinks in a night (0-0-1-3) you are a bad officer, while neglecting to mention they have a bottle of Scotch in their Wing King desk. There was never a cause-of-the-day they wouldn't support, whether it was the drunk-sex-is-rape crusade of 2003, the great heritage room massacre of 2012, the Covid firings, or the transification attempt only recently squashed. They love their country, and they served it more than most Americans could ever fathom. But they were not, are not, men of principal and backbone. They are the ones who could best morph into whatever the next boss wanted from them, and the idea that an All-Call would be the last straw is laughable.

Oh please. The only sword these guys fall on is the fleshy kind that gets you promoted if you don't gag too hard on it. His plan fell apart, so he's leaving. Same as it ever was.

Is he fat? Edit: He just lost the contest for CSAF. Or doesn't like the winner. Bleh. Also I wish they would stop acting like getting paid millions by joining a Defense Contractor for their military connections is somehow "finding new ways to support our Air Force, our national defense, and the incredible people." No speech required. Thank you for your service. Next.

Let's see how many flag officers evaporate now that they have to pass the PT test twice a year 🤣😂. It's so refreshing to have someone in charge of the Department of Murdering Foreigners say out loud that fat people are gross and shouldn't be in the military. Pete just won some points in my book.

Ok. Let's run with that. Do hellfire missiles home into targets or lead them? Do they function against high speed airborne targets? Do they also look like drops of water on IR? That's all before we get into the fun of IR reflection vs emission. One of the most alarming things to me about the continued and well-deserved loss of trust in our leaders and institutions is how wide the aperture conspiracy becomes. Aliens? Really?

"Disgruntled Employee" He did at least have the courtesy to self-identify. He sticks to his brand🤣

I don't think it can be a mylar balloon because ultimately it does interact with whatever comes from the top left of the screen, and afterwards it fluctuates exactly like a liquid. What this footage looks like to me is a camera that isn't being used, as the drone flies, so it's just scanning across the sea. Then whatever contamination in the lens starts bouncing around in there, which the sensor operator plays around with, and it makes a somewhat cool looking video. And somehow someone with a great sense of humor took that video and leaked it claiming that it was a UFO. But I say again, absolutely nothing about that video looks like a hellfire missile hitting anything.

One of the most surreal elements of these cases is that there are always a slew of quotes from the recently-canceled supporting the cancellation of others. I know they are hypocrites, because the movement has no ideological basis, so there's no way to support it without being a hypocrite. But seriously, can't these people pay someone to tell them when they have said things that are going to make them look stupid?

Just wait until the rest of the bond market realizes that the Fed is not going back to their 2% target inflation rate anytime in next few decades. These rates will seem pretty good.

Hegseth, Noam, and Gabbard have not impressed me, although hegseth would be the highest rating of the three in my opinion. Patel is doing great. But I also don't think it's particularly relevant. I view this administration as chemotherapy. An ugly reality that does a great deal of damage to the host, but it's necessary to removal a fatal malignancy.

I never understood the allure, other than the fact she's pretty and Trump loves hiring pretty women. Trump was correct to hire cabinet heads who are aligned with his vision and ready to follow orders, but they need to be like Marco Rubio, not trying to mimic Donald Trump's bombast and hyperbole, and serve as the professional face of the administration. Rubio has been the surprise All-Star of this administration, and as long as he can maintain this balance, JD Vance is going to have strong competition for the nomination in a few years

And now he's been removed