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I actually kinda hate the TACO line of criticism against Trump. Yeah he backed off his red lines and stupid ultimatums, but he did so in the direction of de-escalation. If you don’t like this war, this news was objectively a good thing. It’s like making fun of your friend for “chickening out” of robbing a bank. No, just be happy your friend isn’t doing something stupid. Now granted, we never needed to be in this situation or issue stupid threats and ultimatums in the first place. But I will give credit where it is due and in an absolutely wacky turn of events I’m now in here saying good job to Trump for being the only person involved in this thing who seems even slightly interested in deescalation. We’ll see how long this ends up lasting.. for all I know our foreign policy messaging could have done a 180 just in the time it took me to type this comment. I hope Trump can withstand the external pressure because you can bet Netanyahu and the Mark Levins and Ben Shapiros and Adelsons of the world are working overtime right now to get the war turned back on. Just one more month of bombing guys that’ll get rid of the IRGC 👌👌

It's obvious that the person is important. What's not obvious is that what you are suggesting is true. That removing or replacing that person is some sort of catastrophe to the goal at hand. I suspect replacing McClellan, Burnside, and Hooker had consequences, but I don't think anybody suggests that they should have been kept in place just because the civil war had not yet ended. And if that's what it took to get to Grant, so be it. In fact replacing military leaders in the middle of an ongoing war has happened in every major conflict that I could find. And in this case, the flag officer we are discussing is not even responsible for the current hostilities. He's in a primarily administrative role, exactly as you described.

If an enemy is really adamant that something needs to stop, that is probably the thing that needs to keep happening.

I don’t know your wing, so I’ll just have to take their words at face value. That’s a dumb way to operate in my opinion, but doesn’t mean it’s not a thing.

What’s said in public is sometimes different than in private. Yes, the blockade should remain.

i know you're being intentionally obtuse since your not your guy is continuing to knock it out of the park, but: surely none of those are important in an active conflict 🤷‍♂️

Just read an article on how Hegeseth was pissed due to SECNAVs close relationship with Trump and how he skipped the DOD with the 'Trump Battleship' pitch :)

Does the SECNAV wage the war? I thought that was the combatant commanders' role.

SECNAV out! Good...not like the Navy is doing is anything important these days. MAGA

I directly asked about the age issue, and was told mine is not a problem. While at the bar, I heard some discussions, and two pilots made very clear that they never hire anyone on their first interview. As that was my first interview, and I haven’t heard anything overtly negative from my pilot contacts, that’s mostly what I’ve chalked it up to (admittedly a complete guess on my part). Does that fit with you experience running boards?

Iranian leadership has said they consider the blockade a violation of the ceasefire and won't negotiate unless it's lifted. I say fine keep it in place. Sounds like it's got them squealin from the feelin and relatively low risk to our personnel.

We should be - continue to destroy the IRGC. They are basically a terrorist organization with a lot more money, materiel, and organization than others. They only speak death and destruction; diplomacy is a non-starter. Continue diplomatic discussions with the more moderate civilian govt while specifically targeting IRGC.

The only actionable thing I can suggest is attempt to get more specific feedback from a pilot on the hiring board. Doesn’t have to be the board lead, just one of them who was there. If it’s age-related, I would think they’d say that outright. If it wasn’t for age reasons, then it could be: 1) You just don’t personally mesh with them/some specific people who have a lot of sway in the squadron 2) They already had their “winners” picked and nobody, including you, was going to change their minds Those two hypotheticals are potential reasons - not saying one or both are the situation, just saying they both are real across many squadrons, and it’s not crazy that your squadron may have one or both at play.

Raw is law.

It’s because they want Mythos since it’s the closest to AGI. It’s also because they’re realizing that OpenAI/Sam Altman are dog shit.

One of the good things that might happen if this conflict drags on is the world may see a new baby boomer generation start to form. The bad thing that could happen is the world might also experience an explosion in VD cases. Condom prices to skyrocket as Iran war strains supply chain for world’s top producerKUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Karex Bhd, the world’s top condom producer, plans to raise prices by 20% to 30% and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive said on ‌Tuesday. Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters in an interview. “The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive… We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to ⁠the customers,” Goh said. Karex produces over five billion condoms annually and is a supplier to leading brands like Durex and Trojan, as well as state health systems such as Britain’s NHS and global aid programmes run by the United Nations. The condom maker joins a growing list of companies, including medical glove makers, bracing for supply chain bottlenecks as the Iran war strains energy and petrochemical flows from the Middle East, disrupting procurement of raw materials. ETC: Condom prices to skyrocket as Iran war strains supply chain for world's top maker, Karex

If you haven't seen the news about OpenClaw's massive vuln's I'd encourage you to use it in an extremely protected environment with zero access to any of your personal information or credentials. It has massive supply chain risks with real world impacts on people. EDIT - apparently this thread started in Feb and I'm too stupid to see dates. Leaving this here for shaming purposes.

TACO. Strait will be "open" again on Friday. Buy your options/commodities now you regards.

I did two interview prep sessions with a paid service, and about 5 with all of my ANG pilot contacts. I was told that my interview was „very impressive.” I think the socializing went well, but didn’t really get direct feedback from it.

Just to clarify for the heavy guys: Fighter RTMs all have 96 sorties. So two sorties per week, over a 48 week training year. So they calendar determines the size of the pie. It was a big "ah-ha" moment for me when I figured that out. That's about what we were talking about at ACC back then.

RTM adjustment isn’t that onerous. Starts with DOC statement - primary vs. secondary missions. You make CSAR, CAS, SCAR (e.g. Counterland) primary missions and OCA/DCA secondary. Secondary missions do not need to get much love on the RTM. Good example is F-35 can knock out all CAS reqs in a 2 week training phase per year. Similarly, ANG vipers in this hypothetical could do about 4 weeks of A-A focused training and call it good for the year.

Thanks for going back to the non-tile version. This look is so much better!

Did you do any interview prep? How much, and how well, do you perceive you interacted with pilots in a social setting?

True, I would just try to make accomplishing those beans as easy as possible to accomplish, there is a bit of pencil whipping to that I’ll admit but with everything trade offs, compromise, risk acceptance, etc… are facts of life.