All Activity

Just to stoke the hate fires a little...

Pish posh...try the gunship, turned sideways looking through a HUD with NVGs for 4,000 hours...

Did I miss the memo, was Thursday failure to feed day? New AR and my trusty M-1 Garand both had issues. If you look closely the AR tried to feed two rounds...usually a mag issue. The Garand was the big surprise to me. Had my nephews down from Mass, first time shooting an AR...typical liberal brainwashing leading up to said event..."I hear it kicks really bad...terrifying weapon." .69 seconds after emptying the first mag - "this is awesome, I want one!"

Likely, but still.

Mission Accomplished! AP NewsTrump administration says its war in Iran has been 'termi...The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April.Or uhhh terminated?

Gerrymandering is bad—period. Neither side should be doing it. But let’s not pretend this is some new revelation. The reality is the cat’s out of the bag, and now it’s a full-on fight because no one wants to unilaterally disarm. Packing the court? Also bad. Undermines the credibility of the judiciary and turns it into just another political tool. Yet we’re watching one side openly push for it when they don’t like the current makeup. Killing the filibuster? Same story. It exists to force consensus and protect against raw majority rule. But again, one side is eager to toss it aside the moment it becomes inconvenient. And making Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico states—not based on some sudden principle, but because it shifts the balance of power in the Senate? That’s not about representation, that’s about leverage. Call it what you want, but changing the rules of the game to lock in power is a dangerous path. History is full of examples of how that ends, and none of them are good.

Agreed on the type thing, they're going to have to put you through training either way, I don't see having a type as much of a help. As far as the degree thing, that may be a thing at Giant, but a degree is still very much a strong delineator at my air line. I can only recall flying with one guy who didn't have a degree and he was a flow. It would be interesting to see how many were hired without degrees though. Besides a the Guard babies, most pilots will have the airline mins after a 10 year commitment. Doubtful that this type of flying would make much of a difference.

They weren't being divided by ideology, which you would know if you actually read the opinion. That would have included white people and Asians, and excluded some black people who aren't "Black Rights Activists." They were specifically drawing the maps based on skin color. Zero effort was spent filtering for ideology. The fact you are trying to equate skin color with an ideology is wild.

And just to be clear, I believe that all gerrymandering is bad, but cherry picking what we call bad and ignoring it where it is beneficial is literally just more gerrymandering. Either get rid of district maps being drawn by election commissions and just split the US into amorphous blobs fairly distributed mathematically. Or just go by popular vote. If New England is 40% republican, give them 40% of the seats. Give Texas 40% dem seats. Give California 40% republican seats. Sounds good to me and much more fair than what happens now. On top of that, give third parties a chance to gain representation.

Do you actually think Black Rights are not a political ideology by definition? A political ideology is not just Democratic and Republican. You not agreeing with that as an ideology or wanting to not over represent it is a different argument, but there’s no question that in 1965 and now, it’s a legitimate political sect. Just like white rights/supremacists.

So you think dividing people by an immutable characteristic (race) is the same as dividing them by political ideology? Yes dude, they're different 🤣

Could you point to the ad hominem please?

Ratner hyperventilating at his computer and retreating back to projection or Ad Hominem when he doesn’t have an argument, a tale as old as time.

Is your argument really that “racial gerrymandering is bad, but the partisan gerrymandering is different”? Because that’s what loudly complaining about democratic gerrymandering without expressing the whole picture is. Also wtf is “partisan” gerrymandering? Turns out both disenfranchise voters. To take your example to completion. Louisiana is choosing (not forced) to stop an ACTIVE election to redraw their maps in a way that will ultimately be gerrymandered more towards an already nationally biased republican advantage. Confirm that this makes sense to your principles? And to all points on New England, Texas has more registered democrats than Republicans and depending on year has 42-46% of the state vote dem for president. They are redrawing the maps to go to about 5 dems of 38 total reps.

It wasn't a come back. You're obviously upset about the things you read here, and it's not worth being on any website where the discourse is exasperating to you.

The F-35 is far worse on my mid/lower back than the F-16. The F-16 is worse on the neck/upper back. You will have issues and they will last your lifetime. But like Smokin, I’m in my 40s and am very active in a lot of physical things that most do not do. I have pain, and it does affect me, but I deal with it and it does not significantly alter my life…at least so far. Totally worth it. I also think nowadays with emphasis and money put towards pilot health/longevity, the younger guys may fair a lot better in the longterm compared to us older guys.

I’m 99.69% it’s the base honor guard practicing with empty caskets.

For reference, I flew the Viper for my entire career, so just over 18 years of Viper time after UPT. Neck pain is real and it will be for the rest of your life. For me it is mostly turning my nugget to the side (like checking a blind spot driving or talking down the same side of a table at a party) and then sometimes a constant low level pain after a physical day. Whiskey helps for both. Everyone that has flown fighters for more than a decade will have neck or back problems (back issues are more common in the F-15). It is likely that I will need a spinal surgery at some point due to damage that is calcifying and starting to impinge on nerves. That being said, it is manageable and it has not really ever prevented me from doing anything I want to do. I play full up with my kids, far more than most guys in their 40's. I do tons of physical things from back country hunting to working on the house, again, far more than most guys in their 40's. There are multiple things that are and will continue to mitigate this in the future. As more F-35s come online, they will be the new F-16 as far as force preponderance. The F-35 is not the BFM machine the Viper is and I doubt that F-35 pilots will have neck issues that are anywhere near as bad as Viper guys. I'm sure an F-35 guy is going to cry foul and talk about what a great BFM platform Fat Amy is, but he'd have to be drunk or delusional to think the F-35 is on par with the 16 or 15 in a visual gun engagement because that's not the purpose for which it was built. Another mitigating thing is the AF is finally putting it's money where it's mouth is in regards to pilot health and has started making dedicated physical therapists available just to the fighter pilots. I think this is going to be a huge long term win for guys' necks and backs and will be a huge help as guys start working with them as Lts. Also, you are largely in control of what you do with your neck in a fight. My first two assignments I wanted to win at any cost so if I thought rolling my nugget around to the other side while pulling full aft stick would help me win, I did. After I started to get more neck pain, I got smarter, kept my helmet against the seat more, momentarily let off the g's while moving, etc. More experience let me do a couple things that were not quite as optimal in a fight and still win but kept my neck from hurting as much. I could have done those things earlier and would have had less damage. Finally, I know plenty of people that never flew fighters that have had to have neck surgery. How dumb would you feel if you skipped the opportunity to fly fighters to keep your neck healthy and then ended up having neck surgery anyway? I have lots of physical issues from flying the Viper for my whole career, but if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change much other than being a bit smarter with my neck when I flew. I don't think I'll be one of those guys on my deathbed wishing I'd done more with my life. I for sure won't be one of those guys looking back wondering if I was good enough to do what I had really wanted to do all along.

Sick come back bro. You really showed me!

Brother, appreciate the response. Genuinely a better exchange than what I’ve gotten from most of the thread, and I mean that. Allies: we’re closer than you think. European defense freeloading is real, and pressing NATO members to hit their commitments is legitimate. No argument. Where I’d push back is on “vassal.” A vassal doesn’t get a vote on your force posture, basing, or overflight. Allies do. And when they stop seeing the value proposition, you lose access; not troops, access. That’s the part that matters operationally. We need them to want us there. Pressure them on spending? Absolutely. Treat them like subordinates? That’s how you end up renegotiating SOFAs you didn’t want to renegotiate. Believe me, I've been an EO and an Attaché, I understand their weaknesses and faults, but they still bring a lot to the table. Economy: you’re right about the structural picture. Fed policy, generational entitlement math, productivity versus outlays; solid analysis. Where I’ll push back is calling tariffs “miniscule.” The Yale Budget Lab estimated the current tariff regime costs the average American household roughly $3,800 per year in increased costs. That’s not macroeconomically transformative, but for the family making $50K, it’s a month’s groceries. Both things can be true: structural forces dominate the long-term picture AND tariffs are making the short-term pain worse for the people least able to absorb it. Science: I think we’re closer here than your first post suggested, and I appreciate you saying so. But I have to push back on “remove nearly all funding and let them produce profitable science.” Basic research doesn’t work that way. The internet came from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) funding. GPS came from DoD. mRNA vaccine technology sat in NIH-funded labs for decades before it had a commercial application. Semiconductors, radar, the Human Genome Project; none of those had a viable business case at the time they were funded. Private capital doesn’t invest in 20-year timelines with uncertain payoffs. Government does. That’s the entire point. If you strip that out and only fund what’s immediately profitable, you get incremental product improvement, not breakthrough innovation. And right now, China isn’t being incremental. They passed us in total scientific publications, top-cited research papers, and R&D spending by purchasing power. They’re not doing that by letting the market sort it out; they’re doing it with massive, sustained state investment in basic science. We can argue about waste in the system all day (and there is waste), but the answer to waste isn’t demolition. It’s reform. Climate: you didn’t respond to this part, so I’ll put it out there again. We agreed that technology is the answer. So here’s the problem: China makes 80% of the world’s solar cells, 70% of wind turbines, 70% of lithium batteries. They invested $1 trillion in clean energy in 2025; four times what they put into fossil fuels. EVs went from 6% of Chinese car sales in 2020 to over 50% in 2025, and they became the world’s largest auto exporter in that period. Ford’s CEO said publicly that Chinese vehicle technology is “far superior” and that if they lose this competition, “we do not have a future Ford.” Meanwhile, this administration killed EV tax credits (expire September), residential solar credits (expire end of year), wind/solar project credits (expire 2027), froze offshore wind permits, and is trying to rescind the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, which is the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases at all. That’s not “technology will fix it.” That’s ceding the technology race to China while telling ourselves we’re winning. If technology is the answer, where’s the investment? SAVE Act: “Fine then change how it works” is actually fair, and I respect that. But your ballot example (receiving ballots for family members who moved) is a mail-in ballot integrity issue, not a citizenship issue. The SAVE Act doesn’t fix that. It requires documentary proof of citizenship to register, which is a different problem aimed at a different (and nearly nonexistent) threat. Utah audited 2 million+ voters and found one noncitizen registration, zero noncitizen votes. There are better, less disruptive ways to verify citizenship (database matching through USCIS, for example) that don’t require grandma to dig up a birth certificate from 1948 or a married woman whose name doesn’t match her documents to take a day off work to visit an election office. I’m with you that election integrity matters. I just think this particular bill is a sledgehammer where a scalpel would do. Gerrymandering: sounds like we actually agree. Kill it everywhere, use a mathematical standard, done. I’ll take the win.

Lot of them are lucky that LEO shooting didn't hit anyone! Holy fields of fire!

3:20 mark is the shooting. Agent in suit is VERY lucky

That better be empty.

don't think he was actually in the administration but i get what you're saying

Re-read what I wrote: "The LEFT has engaged in RACIAL gerrymanderring for decades." Do you not agree with ceasing the practice broadly? Or should there be racial voting blocks in this country?