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Good thing I’m enlisted 😎 F*** the president and the establishment! Totally kidding, I mostly like the guy’s work and it’s been a HELL of a lot better in the military since Biden and that dipshit secretary of defense left. Pete isn’t perfect tho.

RuAF Su-35 (shot?) down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBcFdznH7I Unconfirmed, 3x F-16s and a Patriot worked together to do it.

And yet here you are defending them. "Human animals" is pretty generous for what those people did on October 7th. No, the children of Gaza did not participate in the rape and massacre, but they also weren't targeted. They were positioned like sacrifices by their parents and their parents' friends to make sure they would die when the Israelis attacked. "Human Animals" does not come close to describing that level of depravity. You can whine and moan all day long about the asymmetry and unfairness of the situation, but there's no amount of poverty or oppression that justifies sacrificing your children. If your moral compass is so defunct that you can't wrap your head around that, honestly it makes the rest of your positions a lot more understandable. It doesn't make them any less wrong, but at least there is an underlying consistency that can be predicted. “We love death like our enemies love life.” - Former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh Killing monsters is never an atrocity (or genocide), no matter how many of them you have to kill, and no matter how many of their children they hold up in front of your weapons. It's ugly and tragic, and an inescapable feature of war for the entirety of human history.

Anyway sorry for the thread drift. Let me know when this new round of bombing changes literally anything wrt the strategic situation around the SOH, which as a reminder, was completely open and un-tolled before this entire stupid thing started. I dream of a day where we can get back to the status quo we spent 10's of billions to detonate

Turns out you don't need to resort to asymmetric attacks and suicide bombing when you have F-35s and JDAMs and AI to tell you when "daddy's home" so you know when to flatten the whole apartment complex. And no I haven't heard a street rally of Israelis calling for death to all muslims. But I have heard Israeli leaders call the people of Gaza "human animals" who need to be totally eradicated but I'm sure you're about to explain to me how that's totally different. -Yoav Gallant (Former Defense Minister): On October 9, 2023, declared a "complete siege" and referred to Gazans as "human animals". -Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister): Invoked the biblical narrative of Amalek in a October 28, 2023 address, which some interpret as a call for total destruction. -Isaac Herzog (President): Stated on October 13, 2023, that "an entire nation" in Gaza is responsible for the actions of Hamas. -Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian (COGAT): Stated in October 2023 that "human animals" in Gaza would face destruction. -IIRC a viral video just surfaced this week of an IDF soldier flashbanging Gazans inside a car at a traffic stop while holding the doors shut.. -Oh and there's this. "According to United Nations and UNICEF reports, at least 21,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since the war began, with some figures from humanitarian organizations and local health authorities placing the toll at roughly 20,000." No. No you don't. You judge societies based on immense and crippling pre-conceived biases and ignore the atrocities committed by "the good guys" while constantly pivoting back to "the bad guys" who no one here was defending in the first place.

How many pseudo-governmental militias does Israel train, fund, and direct within and surrounding Iran? You guys bend over backwards in ways that make a stripper jealous, all to excuse the acts of a bunch of islamist lunatics who are literally awaiting the prophetic arrival of the 12th imam. I'm a simple man. I just judge a society by what they say and do. And in ~75 years I have yet to see an Israeli street rally calling for death to the Muslims. I haven't heard the orgasmic phone calls of young Jewish men telling their parents they had raped and slaughtered Muslim women and children. I haven't seen any of them strapping bombs to their chest or jumping on buses with knives to kill as many Muslims as they can. You shed alligator tears for dead Palestinian children who are only dead because their parents decided that the 72 virgins in heaven are worth more than the lives of their kids. How many is too many, you ask with no conviction or thought. Because you know that if it was your daughter or wife you would kill every single one of them if that was what it took to stop them. And if you wouldn't, your wife or daughter deserves better than you. It's always been very simple for those of us who don't let the emotion get in the way of the reality. If the Israelis put down their weapons and opened up their borders to the Palestinians, how many Israelis would be left alive by the end of the week? And if the hypothetical was reversed? And let's not pretend like it's just because the Palestinians are oppressed. Absolutely nobody was oppressing the Iranians. No one was oppressing the Pakistani rape gangs in the UK. No one is oppressing the immigrants in France. Not all cultures are equal, and we will continue to support the ones that don't believe in the forcible conquest of the rest of us. If that means we print some more fake money to give to the Israelis so they can give it right back to us to buy the weapons that we make with other fake money, so be it. I'll worry about foreign aid to Israel and other allies once we stop mortgaging the future to keep old fat people alive forever.

You do realize that being in uniform is not the issue...right? Under Article 88 commissioned officers are legally prohibited from using "contemptuous words" against the President, Vice President, Congress, and other key government officials, in uniform or out. Sometimes I wonder if people realize what they signed up for and the rights they no longer have. This site will never out anyone and extreme to say, but those on active duty who are posting against the above on this forum are technically breaking the UCMJ.

The SIB is final in AFSAS.

I'm not so sure about that. I don't think Vance is winning any favor with Trump over the Iran negotiations. That's not even necessarily a critique of Vance, but Trump believes himself to be the world's best negotiator, so if he sends Vance to Iran and Vance comes back with nothing but trash, especially when Vance is the voice of anti-interventionalism in the administration, I think he is going to get cross with Trump. And to be clear, I think literally anybody, no matter how good, who ends up disagreeing with Trump on something will be in his bad graces. But Trump was never an isolationist, so it's just more likely that he and Rubio will be aligned more on foreign policy than he and Vance. Also, as we learned with Obama, the power of the charismatic president does not transfer over well to their endorsements. So Vance may be the heir apparent, but Rubio is still going to be the more marketable politician.

I know a couple guys that did Project Season in the 1980s which was UPT grads going into Guard units. Results varied. The lack of structure compared to an AD unit resulted in lack of training/mentoring. Also, brand new idealistic Lt.'s witnessing sketchy documentation of training/checkrides and flying practices then calling them out ruffled some Guard feathers. I'm assuming the expansion of TFI had improved the program since then.

Did Putin win yet?

Absolutely agreed, but Vance will get Trump's full backing for whatever that's worth! It just would nice not to have to consume a full bottle of Pepto Bismol when voting this next time! But if the Dems put up Kamala, Gavin, Buttigieg, AOC or any of the other clowns they're considering; it looks like I'll be voting R again unless they totally screw up their nomination. Rubio/DeSantis would be my favorite ticket but as we all know, Vance is the heir apparent...

So using an outdated scoring key they security forces actually scored HIGHER...dear god that's epic!

Be prepared for some pissed off SSgts at the gates after 13 July... 😮😮😮 Air Force rescinding 135 promotions after test scoring error: 'This is going to be hard' (STS) The Air Force on Monday acknowledged a human error involving an outdated test answer key corrupted this year's technical sergeant selection process, forcing officials to revoke 135 promotions and award those slots to other troops who rightfully earned them. The error affected only the service's security forces career field, where officials rescored all 2,285 eligible airmen after discovering an outdated scoring key had been used on the Specialty Knowledge Test... (Full article at title link)

Going to a first assignment non-AD unit has been occurring much more recently than the 80s, I dropped a TFI Sq in the Guard out of UPT and that was in 2010.

Not evil and not a conspiracy. They just lobby exclusively for the interests of a foreign government in perfect lockstep with that government's policies, which I think easily rises to the definition codified by FARA requiring agencies to register if: they are acting, quote: "at the order, request, or under the direction or control" of a "foreign principal." No, Israel has massive influence for dozens of reasons, some of which I listed and only two of which you've even attempted to address. And exactly what percentage of foreign aid would be problematic? 10%? 20%? 50%? Because they're getting 1/20th when there are 180+ countries in the world so at the very least it already seems disproportionate. But it's not even just 4.7% because we pay off the other countries in the region to leave Israel alone while they go flattening gaza and starting wars with everyone, so the indirect aid they get through our bribery of everyone else is far higher. When we're 37+ trillion in debt, and devaluing our currency to be able to afford all this foreign aid, yes I am against it. All foreign aid should stop immediately and only resume once we have a solvent domestic budget. And yes I know cutting all foreign aid tomorrow would barely make a dent in the debt. But it's more the principle of spending money outside the US when we can't even fund our own stuff. It's like buying your neighbor a car when you're bankrupt. And it's especially annoying that we're robbing our own citizens to fight wars on the other side of the world on behalf of a country whose technical prowess, espionage, and military capabilities you guys can't stop glazing. Sounds like Israel is shit-hot. I believe you. Maybe they're so shit-hot they could even fight the fights they pick on their own.

My Wing put out the call for applications today, 24 August. Good to know they are tracking. Everything is ready to go!

Full rate production decision delayed 2 years https://www.airandspaceforces.com/gao-t-7-delays-push-full-rate-production-decision-back-two-years/ Again, hedge your bet, interim trainer acquisition, continue T-7 program but have an option. PC-21 or M-345. Versatile enough for both intermediate and advanced training, if the T-7 works out, awesome, keep flying them as trainers or special program aircraft (demo, test/chase, training support, conversion, etc…).

Such hypocrisy!! ‘We will never use them’: the California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns | California | The Guardian https://share.google/eTQkqLdFhkBYZO4AC

Casual Encounters

Let’s recap on what Pooter’s arguing: AIPAC is evil/a conspiracy/aligned with foreign actors/etc. because they oppose candidates who don’t share their values/desires and they support candidates who do…like literally every lobby group and PAC in America. It’s a sign some dark actor is controlling our government. If you want to make a credible argument along these lines, then feel free to say all the same things about every PAC out there. At least you’d show a consistent viewpoint - care to do so? Israel has massive influence and control in our government because we give “the most FA” to them. Except that number is 4.7% cumulatively since 1948; yawn, doesn’t even reach the level of “weak argument.” Giving FA to the only ally we can rely on with shared objectives in a region, so we can advance our agenda in said region is crazy, fraught with dark motives and definitively means this ally is controlling us. So for consistency, you should be against FA entirely. Are you? That’s the highlights anyways.

Who is denying that? It's in the name. You are not called being called out for describing them as pro-israel. You're being called out for giving them a completely unjustified amount of power in your mind. This is exactly like when liberals bring up the NRA Boogeyman, as though the NRA has controlled American politics, ever. The NRA did not create pro-gun politicians. It merely supports them. Now remove the NRA and replace it with AIPAC. Some of us believe that supporting the only pro-america democracy in the Middle East who happens to be a technological powerhouse is a no-brainer. The fact that we can share intelligence with them is another bonus considering they are probably the best espionage outfit on the planet. I also support dumping a shitload of money into Ukraine. So I'm not sure where your narrative holds up there unless of course zielinski is hypnotized by netanyahu and so really it's Israel all the way down 😂 Edit: oh and you can bet your ass if another country that shared our values and priorities was surrounded by barbarian cultures that sought a religious revolution that spanned the globe, constantly trying to exterminate them in the most horrific ways, I would definitely support us spending 5% of our foreign aid on that country.

I don't know any of the tech billionaires who believe the crazy stuff and believe in God. So while Peter Thiel has a couple screws loose, I don't believe Vance has the same pathology. Also I don't want my politicians to be blue collar, I want them to have blue collar backgrounds. Vance fits that perfectly. He's for damn sure not a tourist 😂🤣. I find his foreign policy however to be mostly incoherent/irrational, far too close to Tucker Carlson. And since when is going to Yale bad? If he went because Daddy was an alumni, that would be one thing. I've got my fingers crossed for Rubio. He's been the surprise hero of the administration.

Well this explains it…

Y'all wanna talk blue collar...fucker is in deep with a guy so rich, he isn't sure the human race should continue to exist. He's holding "discussions" on his view of Christianity. This isn't a Gates, Cuban, or even Ramsaway. While I believe there's few/no "good" billionaires, Thiel is extremely concerning to me. I'm in politics, I know the money game. But the true "tech bros" involved in politics have some extreme beliefs. Maybe it's because I deal with people like them everyday for work that I'm too deep in that environment. The tech bros are like finance bros squared. Same with Tucker and his "blue collar" appeal. Dude is deep with a family fortune. Fuckers on both sides of the aisle being poverty/blue collar tourists for some reason pisses me off probably more than it should. Vance went to Yale. No idea on next president. Shit, I might even support Rand Paul, at least he has values I can appreciate and isn't gonna steal from America. Same with Rubio depending on how Trump 2.0 stinks him up. Depends who the Dems put up. Am I likely to vote R? No, but I have in the past and likely will in the future, especially locally.