busdriver

What a low bar you have. Rotorheads....

I wasn't clear then. I agree. I think the short term is quite dangerous, a starving predators being aggressive sort of thing.

CH, I would offer this perspective: I think the entire China collapse hypothesis is probably better scoped as: China as a rising/risen global power is done. So I don't think it is dependent on a popular uprising, just a withering. Not saying the CCP will become North Korea, but that's a halfway decent example of withering while maintaining control. I tend to agree with you that Xi is more dangerous as he gets backed into a corner/feels control slipping though. The next decade is going to be interesting.

In what corner of the world do you sit that you think conservatives abandoned the south will rise again stupidity in the last 5 years? Go fuck yourself in the corner with a hot curling iron.

The one on the left looks to be fake. I'd guess AI. Big ole man hands on the old lady if it's real.

I've been thinking the current climate must be what it was like watching the F-105 get fielded as TAC went whole hog into everything nuclear.

Then you haven't been paying attention. In this very thread, no less.

Not really an intersectional thing. The Black Hebrew Israelites started well over 100 years ago. Just good old sectarianism.

The bonus is and always has been about exactly this. It is question to people who plan to stay in till 20; "what is your free agency worth?" It has never been about keeping people in, the AF can't afford those dollar figures. AFPC processes are built around numbers, if they can get people to give up their free agency, AFPC can then count on a minimum amount of bodies to plan for the future. The only actual change in this latest release is that folks have to decide to stay a year (or 2) before previous generations. Good advice has already been given, if you've already made up your mind to stay to 20 then by all means sign the bonus. But only extend out to 20. There is life after the military and once you hit 20, you really want leverage and choices again.

There's no reason to get all weird with your conspiracy. Declining demographics in the developed world are more than enough to explain a desire to "proactively import migrants."

Creepy thought: Ukrainian winter wheat planting period starts in July.

This is correct. Also: After reading through the actual indictment, Trump is very stupid.

Not Dems/GOP. This is really a Trump thing. Partly of his own doing I will grant. Like I said, if there were any sort of actual fairness in the world, all of them would be held to the same standard as the naïve and stupid Navy kid that took pictures of a submarine for keepsakes. But that isn't reality. In the real world precedent matters, without it people lose trust. A big chunk of the country thinks the FBI/DOJ is Hoover level corrupt. Trump is playing against that. I honestly vacillate back and forth on how much forethought I'm willing to assume he has in all this.

I'm positive CH knows this, but DIsco did you watch Comey's testimony to congress? HRC somehow convinced investigators that she may not have understood portion markings. Let that sink in. An original classification authority, read into TS/SAP/SAR that had worked in government for decades including being the first lady (package deal). It's an absurdity. Reference #9&10, from Politico, Link. Simple truth: the rules are different for the elected/appointed. For fuck's sake, Sandy Berger got probation and a fine for straight up steeling classified documents. I am 100% positive that Trump is some kind of weird narcissistic classified document hoarder. And if there was any actual fairness, all of the schmucks would have been judged by the same standard that Kristian Saucier was held to. But that isn't reality. But the double standard is obvious.

You two are making my brain hurt arguing about news sources. Here's a link to fbi.gov and Comey's press statament. https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system

Just to clarify this for the younger folks, you obviously know this and have made up your mind. ------------------ Those numbers are all eligible O-5s in the zone, not just those who "tried to move up." You really need to see the % numbers for with and without SDE/DP/AAD/CC to get a good picture. As an example: back in 2016, the common O-5 board results ended up around 75ish percent promotion. But if you factored in P/DP, the results ended up almost 100% promotion with a DP. So if you went to the board with a P, it was roughly 50/50 in the zone. Which is what makes IDE and, depending on where in the sin wave we are, a masters important. The "lack of" is a negative highlight. Anything that makes for an easy time to find that cutline will end up being used. It's just how it goes. SDE, AAD, graduated sq/cc. If you have those things on your O-6 board and a DP, you're getting promoted (high probability).

Do you want to be an O-6? I'm not being sarcastic, but you really need to look in the mirror first, then at your family and honestly answer that question. There are pros and cons to pinning on that rank. What do you value and want?

The "left" has been catastrophizing for years. Before that round, the "right" was the moral majority, and catastrophizing all over the 80's. We're certainly not remotely close to the political violence of the 60's/70's, so I agree that the hyperbole is over wrought. But this pattern does rhyme. Incidentally: Anyone else think the terms "right" and "left" have lost all meaning? They're just team names at this point.......old man cloud yelling about lawn.....

One year ago, the DNC/Clinton campaign paid $113k to the FEC for violating campaign finance laws. The violation was paying Christopher Steele to conduct opposition research on the Trump campaign and then documenting those payments as legal services (familiar sounding..). In the grand scheme of campaign finance violations, that's a trivial sum considering millions of fines are handed out annually. All of that is to say, that is the precedent that has been set on the level of "seriousness" of these types of charges. Which makes the current charade in NYC seem a little out of proportion. The inevitable tit-for-tat that will come is going to be bad. The internet troll case is far worse however.

If Peter Zeihan is to be believed (the first bullet is his point, he has explicitly said what follows is what he's heard from some folks), here's the calculus at the strategic level: -Russia will not stop with Ukraine, they will continue expanding till they have secured defensible borders. They view it as an existential problem. -The Russian military has proven to be awful and would get monkey stomped by the western/NATO coalition that would meet them. Which means there is almost no way to avoid a nuclear exchange. -So the Russian military needs to be attritted in Ukraine. Win, lose, or draw, what remains needs to be incapable of continued offense. If that is actually what is going on in the head-shed. I'd imagine this is a blank check.

Yes. It has always been a case of roll the dice on where the needs of the Air Force sit when your time comes. Also who your commanders are at that point in time, current command climate, etc. etc. It has always been a gamble, the odds have just swung back in the other direction.

Masked when I was a LT, unmasked as a captain, then remasked as a major, then retired last spring, now unmasked again.

Ballistic tolerance to 7.62 is built in to modern military helicopter designs (at least UH-60 and AH-64), and the skin material has nothing to do with it. Fixing a composite structure isn't super hard, just different and requires different tools. People have been building composite planes in their garages since the 70s. Nerd Stuff: Everything VTOL has severe weight penalties to performance, so whether aluminum or composite the skin is very thin and provides no ballistic tolerance benefit. Armor plating inside is more about keeping rounds from hitting occupants than protecting the airframe. Instead, the components themselves are designed to be damage tolerant (keep functioning after taking a round), systems are redundant, and less critical systems are used to shield more critical systems.

To be fair. Twitter hasn't looked good from a financial perspective, ever. It simply isn't a profitable business, and its "valuation" has always been nonsense. Also, characterizing a muzzle loading pistol (alongside a picture of Washington crossing the Delaware) and a sci-fi video game prop (from a game in which totalitarian corporations rule the world) as a picture of "handguns" is well, missing the point I guess.

Modern social media is the youtube comments section, without the videos.