Lord Ratner

So you can't be a progressive if you have conservative parents? The bullets didn't have MAGA forever written on them. Your forecasting history hasn't been great.

If this ends up being another trans shooter, then I have to disagree. We've tolerated and enabled the delusions of mentally ill people, both trans-identifying and the homeless, for years. Now we are reaping the bitter rewards of this feel-good bullshit. More people will die. You can't tell the most unhinged people in your society that anyone who doesn't participate in their fantasy is trying to "unalive" them. Just like you can't tell them that their democracy is dying, or a literal tyranny is being imposed upon the people. These tragically unstable citizens do not have the ability to detect hyperbole. They are taking the political rhetoric literally, and acting in a purely logical fashion if you accept their initial premise. If anyone on this forum believed that we truly were close to losing our democracy, we all would have a very different relationship with our personal firearms.

The suspect in their killing had a list of pro-abortion figures, so yes, it was definitely political. I do not recall a single prominent conservative making excuses for or celebrating their murders.

It's different because the Overton window is real, and it matters. And for too long the right has allowed the left full control of the window. You absolutely 100% should lose your livelihood and reputation for saying certain things. The question is, what are those things? You cannot have a society that has absolutely no shared values, and not being murdered for holding an opposing belief is a pretty obvious value. Take note, I did not say that the government should be the one to take your job from you for speech. But if we societally can't agree that supporting the murder of innocent people is not an acceptable view to hold, and as such, a disqualifying view from civil participation, then we do not have a society. The more extreme examples of this are on full display in Europe right now. But if we don't get a handle on it, we will follow them. We do not have 350 million philosophers in America. People by and large adopt the views of those around them, and express them only if they believe it is safe to do so. Technology has made it possible for citizens to be exposed to ideologies that we didn't used to have to worry about. We are operating as though the lunatics amongst us are limited in their reach to a soapbox on a street corner. That is just not the case anymore. Absolutely humiliating anyone who promotes the idea that Charlie Kirk, or anyone like him, should have been killed, will dramatically reduce such discourse, and as a result, dramatically reduce the spread of these poisonous beliefs. And yes, for the most extreme violations of the Overton window, getting punched repeatedly in the face is on the table. We need to stop pretending like the miracle that is the United States was created through a tortured definition of freedom of thought or expression that the framers never intended.

Sort of. The answer is violence from the state. This is not new. The 60's had a *lot* of political violence. Hunt them and lock them up. Publicly and ruthlessly. If not, and where we agree, is that violence will be the response

Nothing about that looks like a Hellfire hitting anything. So for those of you here who regularly watched hellfires hitting targets in IR, does this look like it? The hellfire comes in from the left. It looks like the hellfire is moving *very* slow. It looks more like liquid or lighting artifacts messing with the IR camera. Do Hellfire's home into a target, or lead it? This video shows the "hellfire" on a perfect trajectory from the side and slightly in front of the fast-moving target. The AI hive mind claims that hellfires using homing, which makes sense for a laser based targeting system, which this video purports. Looks like a contaminated camera, not an alien shrugging off a hellfire. Also is anybody at all interested in how an unidentified space orb got the green light to be shot with a hellfire? Does that really sound like our military?

How fascinating. The Trump supporters will continue to support him so long as he continues to align with their primary political concerns? And they won't abandon him based on personal flaws, big though they may be, so long as their political needs are aligned? Did you just describe... A representative democracy? There's hope for you yet.

Don't forget the part where the hundreds of people who were involved in the maintenance of the island, transportation of people, or the victimized women themselves who for some reason are also protecting the reputations of the alleged rapists. And of course the part where somehow Epstein was running an intelligence operation where dozens of powerful people were offered children to fuck, and somehow every single one either accepted the offer or independently decided to keep it a secret. I'm no fan of the ruling class, but to think they are *all* secret kiddie diddlers is a bit much. Like I said, it had potential, but it turns out he was just a child molester who also knew a lot of famous people.

The T-1 was a joke to fly, but it still gave you breadth and additional stick-and-rudder experience. And I was further improved as a FAIP by my time in the MC-12. You already have to overcome the myopia of being a FAIP to excel in the job, and this just seems like it'll make it nearly impossible. If there's no T-1 replacement then either all FAIPs should come from T38 training or send them off to get a couple civilian type ratings. I remember some pretty disheartening decisions when I was in AETC, but I truly feel bad for the students and instructors who will have to dig us out of this mess.

But Epstein!! It's the only thing that matters now, yet another conspiracy with no witnesses. I thought it had potential, but once Gloria Allred shows up you know it's a hoax.

Who cares? It's still cheaper to just blow them up.

When I was researching the different options it looked like a very small number of cases where the "insurance" didn't want to pay were overwhelmed by hundreds of examples of people getting their monies worth from the insurance if they had to use their firearm. It's not very expensive, and even if you have to sue them after the fact to cover you, that's still going to save you a shitload of money potentially. I wasn't very fond of USCCA because of how much they spend on advertising and swag. CCWSafe is pretty good. It's like $200. I feel like a few guntubers going absolutely crazy over some specific cases where the insurance companies didn't want to pay have made it seem like the whole thing is just one giant scam. That's kind of like thinking we live in a totalitarian police state just because the YouTube algorithm will bombard you with bad-cop encounters if you let it. But most cops are good, just like most insurance claims are painless.

Hey I was born that year! 🤣😂

? There are other rounds than just 5.56. 300BLK with a good can won't even wake up the kids. Then again, sometimes I'm pretty sure a 155mm howitzer wouldn't wake up the kids either 🤣😂

Typing in all caps should immediately disqualify you from all public office.