Smokin

How do cities not do a better background check on cops? That's insane he got rehired as a cop after a drunk hit and run.

Might need to break my ammo simplicity rule AGAIN and buy yet another round.... I'm guessing either he wears unusual clothes to hide it or he just keeps it in his vehicle. Looks like he's wearing a vest in the video, so that would make it easier.

Would be awesome if the government's response is basically, "yeah, that makes sense, we agree". Break break: That firearm for the Inn-n-out shooting is interesting. Anyone have a silencer on their EDC? I guess it wouldn't be too big of a deal for an off-body carry or truck gun. Also, depending on the round and the silencer, it might give the good guy a few extra chances of hitting his target before the active shooter realizes he's being engaged and from where, especially since his ears are likely ringing from the first few shots.

That's a legit wall. Is the release the same as the Walther? Tried one of those a couple days ago and it just felt all sorts of wrong. I guess James Bond never had to reload, so the mag release doesn't really matter to him....

According to Google, Missouri's per capita income is $67,587 while GB's purchasing power parity (not exactly apples to apples, but pretty close) is $67,559. But however fast we are to throw rocks at Europe for their massive social welfare states, we need to be just as fast hitting ourselves over the nugget with those same rocks. GB spends an insane 22.1% of their GDP on social programs. By comparison, the United States only spends 22.7%. You read that right, the theoretical bastion of individual freedom and capitalism spends MORE on social spending per GDP than the UK, Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. Much of Europe spends more, like France at >30% and Germany at almost 27%. The west is taxing and nanny stating itself into irrelevance. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/social-expenditure-dashboard.html I think you're spot on with the rest of the social stuff, in which the EU leads the US by a good 6-9 years. Maybe beating the war drum might wake up the population to look around and wonder who would actually fight for the country. Walk down the streets of London and I don't see many eligible draftees, let alone ones that I would trust handing a gun and fighting next to me.

And they've started issuing cards for flops, maybe this sport might finally take off in America.

The really rough part will be if the body had damage. Can't replace any of the fuselage since its all carbon fiber. Slight chance this will be a hull loss depending on how hard it hit. The front end of a 500K lbs airplane falling 6 feet could be a significant shock if the gear suddenly collapsed.

Just based on this, I'd consider voting for him.

I see what you're saying, but I'd rather go the other way. I cringe when they talk about how big the voter turnout was because a big voter turnout almost certainly means a lot of ignorant people showed up to vote and likely didn't really know what they were voting for/against. Instead, I'd love to see all electronic ballots that have pop up questions that you have to answer correctly for the vote to count. Three simple multiple choice questions that ask what the law is actually going to do. Nothing complicated, just a simple check to make sure you have some idea of what you're actually voting for before that vote counts. Or even better, you should have to bring in last year's W-2 when you vote. If the net taxes paid after any tax credits, welfare payments, etc is zero, then you don't get to vote. If you aren't paying into the system, you shouldn't get a say in how the system runs.

I'd say the T-7 is a last call 'what the hell, why not?' level sexy; certainly not on the same level as the Viper. Can it do a double Immelmann? Can the opposing solo do a sub 100 knot slow flight and then shortly afterwards turn around for a 555 knot low pass? Loops with enough of excess thrust that wingman can easily maintain position? How about a fast, high-g, min radius turn over show center? I don't know the answers (because I honestly couldn't care less about the T-7), but I suspect the answers are no. Also, for better or worse, the F-16 is going to be part of the AF for a long time to come. Again with the applicant pool. Is there a shortage of applicants? Along the personnel line of thought, T-Birds fit solidly into the fighter category of debriefs. I know multiple previous T-Birds and, as I understand it, they conduct long and excruciatingly detailed debriefs where every tiny mistake is discussed in a cold heartless fighter pilot style. I am sure that there are some other communities that are similar (prob Gunships and similar), but I've sat in on enough debriefs of other platforms to know that many pilots that were raised in other communities would have little tolerance for a gloves off fighter pilot style debrief. Pilots are molded by their communities and it would be difficult to remold someone with 6-9 years of experience. In the end, it seems like you are seeking a more diverse pilot group for the Thunderbirds. That's been tried and didn't go well.

At least a few minutes most flights. On the tanker (especially in the weather), battle damage checks, coming up initial in places that don't have tac initial, and if you are hitting the weather without the time/ability/desire to get everyone into a trail formation. My first pond crossing I spent most of the first 5 hours in fingertip because the weather was garbage and if you lost sight you're diverting to some random Pacific island that you don't want to land a fighter on. Flying fingertip while racehorse is a serious challenge.

I think this sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

When stationed in Europe, we usually just bought the full car insurance from the rental place. Guys with little experience driving in small parking garages and such equals scraped up vehicles. We would turn in vehicles with huge gouges up the sides and the rental employees would look pissed but didn't charge us extra. The no extra paperwork at the end was nice, especially when as many guys were in it as BQQips mom and no one remembered who scratched it up.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-built-and-defended-a-secret-iran-war-base-in-iraq-3590851a?mod=hp_lead_pos3 Apparently Israel set up and operated a base within Iraq without the Iraqis knowing about it. There's a reason Israel seems to always punch above their weight. When you're willing to take risks like that, and have the people trained well enough to actually carry it out, suddenly you have way more options on the table.

The funny part is you know there are people out there looking at those pictures saying "See! I told you they were real, look at that!"