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I'll tell you hwat though, I've got mad respects for this President Zelensky. This dude has been fighting like hell on every front to keep his country free. I mean, every diplomatic, economic, information and now military fronts. Dude stays in Kyiv, makes phone calls to world leaders all night, puts out statements, condemns Russia at every turn, then drives a truck into the center of Kyiv and hands out rifles to every man and woman that can hold one. It's the middle of the fucking night right now and he's on Twitter live streaming known Russian advancing positions to his people. Dude doesn't fucking sleep. I know propaganda is real and I'm not certain how much fighting he is actually doing from a combat standpoint, but from a simple being there and making sure shit happens standpoint this dude is leaps and bounds ahead of the fucko that fled Kabul last year. Its amazing how much one charismatic leader can motivate people to stand their ground for their values when they are willing to do the same. Wonder how many of our politicians in Washington could attest to that.

I really want this to be true because this is some gangster-ass shit from a president

9/11 happened because AQ were assholes who wanted violence. Ukraine invasion happening because Russia are assholes who want violence. Brainstorming ways current & past policies could have slowed or prevented things has value to future policy decisions. But Russians are responsible for Russian behavior. I get your point and it’s fair, but you also have TDS. Recommend pointing your anger at Putin; Trump is not relevant in this moment… and likely not ever again.

Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.

Or, it goes to show how easy it is to create mythology in 2022 and people will really believe anything no matter how outlandish. The reality is likely that most of the Ukrainian kills have been through SAMs/Manpads and most of their air force was destroyed on the ground with very few if any air to air kills.

Yeah it's telling when official casualty numbers have yet to be released by Russia for their side. That probably means: this is not going the way they wanted it to be going.

& the dude was a comedian playing the Ukrainian president on TV until he actually got elected to do the job for real. The guy is the epitome of real leadership. I really, really hope he and his country survive this.

IMG_0798.MOV

As compared to...

He was president for four years after the Russians took Crimea, and Putin did nothing but wait. Biden steps in and Afghanistan turns into a national disgrace and in less than a year Putin moves. Trump was a clown, but he was a clown who understood power and narcissism. Biden is a dunce, surrounded by a bunch of Obama staffers who have never once stepped outside of their elite Georgetown/Harvard/Yale undergrad study groups long enough to realize the rest of the world doesn't think like they do.

Posted on Instagram, former Thunderbird Pilot/Eagle guy Dozen Aldridge says that he has reliable first hand sources that say the “Ghost of Kyiv” was Colonel Olaksanser “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko. Retired former Ukrainian SU-27 demo pilot that came out of retirement for the war. Unknown veracity of any of that and I haven’t personally reviewed the HUD tapes or 781’s so scoff away.

Photo from 2013 but I still like it

I'd man up a Flanker if I weren't scared of the potential blue on blue...

I was discussing this at work the other day and one of our intel guys who is super sharp was blown away at the feasibility of the “Ghost of Kyiv” based on capes of a Ukrainian Fulcrum vs Russian jets (radars, weapons, etc). All valid points but it truly goes to show that weapons and all of that are important, but the people using them are what truly matter. Kind of like John Boyd using the E-M theory and stating that an F-4 could never beat a MiG in a dogfight because the charts showed it performed worse. I doubt that story (Ghost) is true, but I know for certain that the Ukrainian military/people have shown one hell of a fighting spirit. It makes the Afghan military really look like shit bags with all of that tech and training they got over 2 decades just fold.

After watching this invasion, filtering out the trolls that are on Reddit/Twitter misinformation, I’m convinced that absent help from China and not lobbing nukes, Russia would severely get their asses beat by the U.S. in a conventional war. Their training is obviously shit and it sends a message that Russian commanders have such little faith in their conscript troops that they follow them around with mobile crematoriums once they’re killed.

Watched the entire Putin speech. He essentially feels disrespected by bigger nations, gets visibly emotional, and repeats the classic “we have no other choice” line about invading Ukraine. Said that if he didn’t, then Russia will cease to exist. Shades of Napoleon, Tojo, and Hitler. Small penis confirmed.

Amen. All this stupid political horseshit in our country aside, there’s been a lot of Ukrainians in the last two days charging a steep price for their farms. So far their leaders are stepping up big time.

Ughhh. Can we not turn this into another political pissing contest. I understand why many here aren’t enamored with Biden. I even get the sentiment that he projects a less than strong image. Go ahead and criticize all you want. It’s a free country. It’s certainly not treasonous to criticize a sitting or former president. What IS troubling to me are the number of people seemingly willing to get down on their knees and fondle Putin’s balls in order to make their point. At that point, you’ve crossed a line and are actively making your country look weak while making Russia look strong. Putin is not playing chess. He’s essentially smashed the chess board into a thousand pieces. I’m tired of hearing how smart he is and how he’s out maneuvered the West when all he’s really done is make Russia a pariah state that’s even more of a joke than it already was.

The importance of the Ghost of Kyiv isnt to us but to the Ukranian people. Its a symbol of hope in a desperate time and despite how weak the veracity of the story is, its important for the people of Ukraine, if you support them, to keep it alive. The very idea of the Ghost of Kyiv is motivating its citizens to perform extraordinary merits that really outweigh the heroics of the Ghost of Kyiv is said to have accomplished.

Whoa. Crazy. Thanks!!!

Nailed it.

Good article discussing the wake up call the West is receiving at the moment. Hopefully voices like this become dominant in the current geopolitical discussion. It’s time to acknowledge reality and wean ourselves away from the illiberal, totalitarian influences in the world. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/02/us-europe-russia-putin-new-world/622917/

Valid. These were my first thoughts when I saw that DCS video: 1) I want to believe this is real. 2) The deck is the deck! 3) Where was the IRCCM?! 4) A viscap can f*ck up anyone's day.

Dan Crenshaw maybe?

America so desperately needs someone that can unite us. Political infighting is fucking us over. The Russians are absolute paper tigers, especially in a conventional offensive. The dangerous part is they would resort to nukes when backed into a corner. Like a homeless guy with a hand grenade. I love our Intel guys, but lately too many bros have bought into scary intel baseball cards with long range threats. A sniper rifle out ranges a platoon of Marines, but that’s not going to keep them from advancing.

With the Ukrainians doing this well on their own, imagine what they could be doing with a little help. Putin clearly miscalculated. Think he intended to show that Russia was back and the USSR resurrection is inevitable. Instead, he is showing that Russia is having a hard time conquering more than 100 miles of a country less than 10% of their size. Rather than scaring the west with Putin's military juggernaut, this should embolden us to action.

Thing is we know this and it's not a secret. He was enormously offended in 2014 when the Barrack Obama refered go Russia as a "regional power" and not a super power. As I mentioned earlier, Russia doesn't think they lost the Cold War. They believe it ended mutually and they are still on the same platform as the US. They become offended when Americans regard Gorbachev's approach as folding or surrender. Russians believe they made a great sacrifice to their own interests to end the Cold War for the benefit of others and they are unfairly labeled losers for it.

There's a run on Canadian banks following Treudeau's dictator move. If only there was a way to think about second and third order effects...

This Administration is a clown show: https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/02/25/this-is-embarrassing-jen-psaki-tells-peter-doocy-why-u-s-will-continue-to-work-with-putin-in-key-areas/ Hate the political slant of the website if you wish, but the fact is, the White House said it will continue to cooperate with the Russians on "areas of mutual concern." Implying that Ukraine is not. So enough with the "treason" cheap shots. It won't sanction oil/gas revenue streams. Enough with the Biden's a foreign policy wizard. This won't get serious until the Russki keyboard wizards interrupt the re-runs of "Matlock." Meanwhile, have fun getting a loan to fill up your car. break, break: Kill Putin? Sure, why not? Nothing says full-on fight's on like killing the leader of a nation. Of course, you can't be too outraged when someone Hellfire-skis our leaders in that case. But, Putin has laid it all on the line. If he fails, he's literally gonna be gone, as in dead. At 69/70, perhaps he was willing to roll the dice since most of his years are behind him. Go big or go home, if you will. Something to consider in our calculus of this.

The last Russian Empire collapsed in 1917 after Russian soldiers/citizens got tired of the Tsar's shitshow/slaughter on the Eastern Front and back in the homeland. Hopefully we will eventually see a repeat (Round 2) and Emperor Ras-Putin will meet the same fate as Tsar Nicholas II. Eastern Front 1917/Movie Clip. Most of the actual Russian military units that mutinied were on Ukrainian turf.

If al-Baghdadi taught me anything it's that a man can survive a hellfire 2, 3, 4, 9 times and come back to haunt you.

Hellfire the President of a sovereign nation that has more nuclear weapons than we do?

The Russians didn’t modernize their logistics train in the past 20 years. C4I, combat systems, etc, sure, but they are using old trucks and old equipment to move said combat systems. It’s a recipe for disaster. Logistics is what makes war. Without it, the Russians have hamstrung themselves. In my layman’s view, they only have enough beans and bullets for a few weeks. If the numbers coming out from the Ukrainian side are accurate, the Russians may be in for a helluva lot more of a fight, and sustaining said fight, than they may have bargained for.

Got the email today. Palace Chase approved! Request 6 months and they approved it for 4 months. All-in-all my app was in the system for a little over 5 months and at SAFPC for 6 weeks. Best of luck!

Except we aren't talking about sanctioning/halting Russian energy exports. Sure, maybe Germany is putting a "pause" on it's pipeline...but it's just a pause. And our actions are none-existent for probably the worst reason...political. Biden knows his popularity would tank even more if gas prices went up higher (justifiably). So, instead, for domestic political points he avoiding really putting a rear naked choke on the Russians: I'd be willing to bet there are no long term US/Western sanctions against Russia (at least crippling ones) and Putin is betting on that COA as well. Temporary pain now for Putin, but he will still be supplying the LNG to Europe for decades while enjoying the view from his new loft apartment in Kyiv. And cutting out of Swift won't happen because everyone still needs to pay for that Russian LNG.

Baghdad bob style. Don't blame em. Gotta keep the citizen soldiers jacked up.

Germans give great helmet. Sorry just too easy to pass up.

Just said noone will truly understand his goals or what cost he is willing to pay for them but himself. That said, everything you said is a loss for us, not a win. Personally I prefer a world where conflict is deescalating. Restarting the Cold War isn't my idea of a strategic victory. It could be Putin's though. As someone else mentioned his entire world of security was built around the Soviet KGB. He may be looking at the world and saying "you know what, the Cold War sucked but we were better off then than we are now." Putin has a lot of grievances, including being continually treated as a minor power despite sitting on the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. It's easy for me to see that he recognizes the SU had way more political power than Russia does in it's current form. That why negotiating on the INF was a bust. Putin likely wants to develop out his nuclear arms because they give him platform.

Putin is smart though. And this is where people keep fucking up foreign politics because they want to believe their rivals are stupid and don't know what's good for them. Russia doesn't have the same interests as we do and they don't even have the same interests we think they have. Only Russia knows what Russian interest are. When you refer to another government as stupid, or crazy, or sociopathic you are basically shutting off any possibility of a diplomatic solution because you can't conduct diplomacy with someone who is irrational. Diplomacy didn't fail because Putin is irrational, it failed because western powers failed to understand some or all of Russia's interests. I would not count Russia as a pariah state until they are cut off from Swift and other major economic isolation mechanisms. But as of right now dozens of European and western markets are poised to buy a shit ton of oil and gas from Russia this week. Heres the thing about these limited economic sanctions.... They go away or become leasing meaningful over time. When you sanction, say, bank accounts to Russians sitting foreign minister, how effective is that sanction in 4 years when that dude retires and a new foreign minister replaces him? All the leverage it applied was lost. We know, and it is taught in security cooperation, that sanctions are less effective on Russia than say Iran or North Korea. Lots of reasons for that but they generally hit softer there. So in order to make an impact we need to ensure those sanctions are sharp and fast. I wouldn't place the blame purely on Biden, I think Europe largely slept on this too, and in actuality I think the US made a good move to air blast the Ukraine troop build up for the last few months. This did two things. 1.) It removed any implications that the US or the west was going to be taken by surprise like what happened in Afghanistan. 2.) It placed the onus on Europe to rally effort to turn this. They have more trade tied in Russia than we do and more of a capability to make an effect than we do. That said, Joe's diplomacy efforts were laughable at best. He wouldn't entertain what Russia said it's security interest were and instead wanted to entertain our security interest with offers like renegotiating the INF, something Russia really doesn't feel strongly about but we do. My diplomacy hopes were fully saddled in France and the UK but they were not able to close either. Great comments by Macron recently though reminding Russia we have nuclear weapons as well. All and all, whether or not this conflict was avoidable is hard to predict. The US Russian relationship took a massive hit during Obama's presidency. (Remember the disastrous Russian reset campaign? Or Obama publicly supporting Russia's colored revolution to overthrow Putin, something Putin was convinced the CIA was backing) I think of anything Trump came in with fresh ideas that were unconventional, and for the most part those ideas got headway. Biden's election though was a return to conventional foreign policy which could also be synonymous with Biden foreign policy. It wasn't working before so not sure why Biden thought it would work now.

Almost nailed it. Trump was a clown, but he was a clown who understood power and narcissism, and he also was a narcissist who liked power. which is why people like me would rather the dunce at the helm...easier to kick out when they screw up.

Treasonous to speak of a former President that way.

One year later - I finally got my suppressor. The ATF sucks, but the suppressor is awesome! Word on the street is with the new e-filing for Form 4s, wait time is now 90 day or less. So far have only shot my 300 BLK; could shoot all day without ear pro…the difference is pretty amazing. Also plan on using it on the 9mm PCC, .223, and 9mm pistol. The 300 BLK and PCC will be the best platforms for it, but might as well on the other two, because why not!

You won't even know what you don't know with your contract until at least a year in. If you find the hustlers and pick their brains you might have a good hustle by your third year. I'm at 4 years now and I probably qualify as an expert in the contract (from the perspective of a line pilot, not a union negotiator). Top 5% for sure. You will be comfortable as an airline pilot quickly. Don't let your comfort in the cockpit translate to comfort with the work rules. The more effort you put into learning the game, the better the job will be.