Lord Ratner

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

The FCC involvement in Kimmel getting fired is concerning. I'm not sure if that was what pushed everything over the edge, but it was a completely unnecessary interjection, and it is contrary to any conservative conception of what the government should be doing. I suspect ABC was just looking for a reason to cancel yet another of the dying-breed late night shows, but now because the FCC had to open his big stupid mouth, he turned to win into a a gaff. Also, I don't care how stupid the left is, and they are really stupid, if you are in a position of power in the government you should not be responding to journalists with memes

I went and shot the Kel-Tec PR-57 again, and... Damn it if it isn't a fun gun to shoot. 5.7 is just a neat little round, even if the ballistics aren't fully tested yet. And between having the longer barrel and the lower recoil, I shoot better with it than the Sig p365, but that's not surprising. And 21 rounds feels like you used the infinite ammo cheat code 🤣😂 ~1 rd/sec @ 10 yards

My favorite thing to say in the cockpit when one of the boomers goes on an anti-millennial rant... "Uh, and who exactly bought the participation trophies?" Silence

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.