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Your second sentence is inaccurate and isn't backed by history or the current US position in the world. The US has certainly made military and foreign policy mistakes post WWII. Most historians and foreign policy experts would agree that Vietnam, US actions in Iran pre-1979, and probably now Afghanistan after 2004-5 were large failures. Iraq 2003 is also one IMO but that one is still being debated. I'll cover the last 30 years of Chinese relations in a sec. There are most definitely others I can't think of off the top of my head but those are the big ones. Many times our failures and mistakes overshadow our successes. Korea, through the lenses of history, has been a large success. As was the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Just Cause, and Desert Storm. Our foreign and military policy also led to the fall of Soviet Union and winning the Cold War after 45 years of effort. The United States is still currently the most dominant nation on the planet in terms of both hard and soft power (China has made large strides over the last 30 years to catch up but they're not there yet). Our network of allies and alliances have given the American public a security that few countries have enjoyed throughout history. The American people enjoy a standard of living matched by few other countries, based on our economic successes and our place in the liberal international order (I would agree that this is currently at risk due to short-sighted outsourcing of goods production, but that's for another post). The US Navy still dominants the seas and ensures the flow of goods both to and from our economy. No other country on the planet currently has the capability to conduct inter-theater military and humanitarian operations the way we can and do. The number of people across the globe wanting to emigrate to the US is testimony to how desirable the American way of life is. None of those things listed above happened by accident; if everything the US has done post WWII was a "disaster", our place in the world and our ability to wield hard/soft power and influence/effect world affairs wouldn't be even close to what it is today. If the invasion of Ukraine has proved anything to the Western world, it's that the last 30 years of thinking Russian, and more importantly China's exposure and integration into the world economic and information systems was going to lead to them embracing Western values and governance. The number of mass graves and destroyed cities in Ukraine should put the final nail in that coffin. That, IMO< has been a huge failure that we'll be dealing with for quite a while.

How worried were the Russians about inciting nuclear war while they were supplying, training, and equipping during Vietnam?

The fear of nuclear escalation will ALWAYS be there. However, at some point we'll have to face Russia and China and demonstrate where the line is. To me, Russia did us the favor by invading Ukraine. Now is the time to teach them a lesson. One that hopefully China pays attention to and learns at the same time. The West and the free world seem to be waking up to the fact that Russia and China are not our friends, and welcoming them into and allowing them to reap the benefits of the free world will do nothing to assuage them. Put simpler: F@&k Russia, and F@&k China.

Post WWII has been the most peaceful time in human history, largely due to the world order set in place by the U.S. Have politicians made mistakes that costs too many American lives? Sure. However, giving Russia tacit approval to invade Eastern Europe does not make the world safer. I grudgingly admit that the administration is doing a decent job of protecting American interests without getting directly involved in the conflict.

Yup, that there is the rub, isn't it. They don't need to get all their nukes airborne to cause a big ruckus. Or even some of their nukes. They just need one.

Especially when there is an internal push to start prioritizing certain Hornet E/F guys to SEAD/DEAD as an acknowledgment that it’s a highly skill intensive specialization and not something you can just generate on an ATO line. There is a reason we are simultaneously seeing news articles about how great the paring of 35C and 18G are as a strategic collections package, but also talk of just shitcanning a couple squadrons. It’s like your wife implying you how much more sex you’ll be having if you buy her this _____. It’s a trap. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok. I've been waiting for this since being passed over last year. Time to make some calls! Thanks for the heads up, if you need info on the process or expectations PM me and I can share what I got.

You are completely blinded by bias.

If every single one of you is getting an offer or more from the big guys like AA, UAL, DAL, SWA, FedEx, or UPS, as soon as you post your app, then I would agree that there is probably a pilot shortage. Remember, United's Kirby (quoted in the link) said this at an investor meeting... to investors. So when he does something, like buy another flight school, create another regional flow, start bus service (motor coach, not FiFi) on short routes, the investors say, eh, makes sense, pilot shortage. The real shortage is probably at the regionals. Between wages, archaic flows, etc., and the higher potential to jump up to the major off the bat, yeah, I can see them struggling to fill seats. Funny anecdotally, recently met some new hires and some came from just about every other major out there. It's a very good time to fill out that app and say no to the bonus.

Considering they just tested an ICBM.. pretty sure they can get some nukes airborne. Obviously we are all happy to see Russia display massive incompetence, but that doesn't mean we can write off all of their nuclear capes because they can't effectively coordinate the ground invasion of a whole country. While it sucks for Ukraine, the status quo (without escalation) is actually pretty good for us right now. Keep funneling weapons, chipping away at russias military/reputation/world standing all while milking this absolute intel goldmine.

The Hunter story gains momentum and more and more details of the Fusion GPS story leak. The Dossier Hillary paid to have built and disseminated in order to sway an election then attempt to overturn an election through impeachment. Now emails are coming to light (below), showing how Fusion GPS, knowing the story was fake, worked with an all too willing press (NY Times, The Washington Post, ABC, Reuters), to name a few in the documents below), who lapped it up and with ZERO due diligence. A complete failure of journalism because they were so jaded with hate. When you think of division in this country remember it was Hillary and the DNC that drug us all through the mud with lies when we could have been focused on helping this country. See for yourself what reporters knew and how they participated in the Russia Hoax, John Durham just revealed hundreds of emails between Fusion GPS and The PRESS.

such a poor argument. countries invade other countries all the time. it's not our interest to be involved in policing these actions. fuck man our track record post WWII has been a disaster

Can't speak for everyone, but here's one data point for you. Recently started terminal after ten years of flying the line on the C-17. Good resume but absolutely nothing special/unique/better than your average guy. Applied to AA, UAL, DAL, and SWA and was offered interviews at each almost instantly. Never heard from FDX/UPS because I already had a job at my #1 pick before I could finish their apps. Started class a couple weeks ago, life is good. Couldn't agree more!

Prototype aircraft delivered 5 years from now in FY27 when the jet is literally already operational in AUS?? Laughable. Our USAF is broken, and a joke.

I am sure all self-proclaimed non-douches are eagerly waiting.

First, more does not mean better and I hope you can see the difference. Notice in the chart below the vast majority of what would be considered the mainstream media organizations are well left. Among the worst is NPR which we as taxpayers subsidize, which is simply not right. Second, even if you gave equal credential weight to all of the sites lists, the number of left leaning sites is double what leans towards the right. I would disagree mainly because the problem became FAR worse under Trump. Under his term the Liberal media lost it's mind and went from bias to outright cheer leading and actively working for the DNC to win. They were (and still are), active and willing participants in suppressing news stories in order to shape the election. A bit of denial and hubris here brother. The Dems made great theater of their supposed outrage for most of Trump's term pushing a Russia Collusion lie based on a fake dossier that THEY built...all the way to impeachment in the house. Have you forgotten the live telecast of them slowly and painfully walking the articles of impeachment over to the Senate? They were also active participants in suppressing the Hunter Laptop story which most certainly would have impacted the election. Again, not saying Hunter is guilty, but as has been discussed the amount of evidence CLEARLY cleared the hurdle of an honest an unbiased press investigating what happened. Sadly the 4th estate is dead.

Just a few of your many biased points: -You assert republicans aren’t putting forth “reasonable” candidates, yet fail to define reasonable. You and I likely disagree on that definition; it is arrogant to presume you arbitrate what is and isn’t reasonable. - you say democrats aren’t pushing “insane conspiracy theories” but they are. Calling Glen Youngkin a white supremacist racist is in fact an insane conspiracy theory (Curious if you consider him another unreasonable republican candidate) because there is no proof. For that matter all the talk of white supremacy is a fringe conspiracy with no factual basis. Unlike the many factual things censored by democrats, which precipitated this conversation. I could go on. You are blinded by bias while being certain you aren’t.

A classmate of mine is on the SWA hiring team. Lots of things SWA can be doing better, but hiring criteria has generally been on point. Haven’t flown with a douche during my (almost) 5 years here. The hiring guys attribute that to 2 main factors: an overarching philosophy of “who would you want to fly a four day trip with?” and ultimate pilot control of who gets hired in the form of a decision board of chief pilots and line pilot inputs. Anyways, according to my buddy the number of qualified applicants dropped over 20% between hiring windows earlier this year. The team had to adjust their philosophy to “who COULD you fly a four day trip with?” Also the extra time it takes to hold a decision board means even more candidates are bailing after getting their on-the-spot CJOs from OALs. Add to that the perpetual uphill battle of only offering unsexy flying in an unsexy airplane and suffice to say my buddy’s extremely pessimistic about the candidate pool by the end of the year. Side note: for any of you non-douches reading, do I have a job opportunity for you!

For me, yes.

No journalist (aside from extreme fringes, and certainly nowhere in the NYP story) stated that HB was "guilty" of crimes, though they were easy to infer from the existence of the evidence. That the evidence existed, having far exceeded the threshold of journalistic verification, was the thing that was suppressed uniformly by big tech and outright lied about by the intel community. No big deal, right? The question becomes "what is influence", and at what level does that influence become direct interference and outright tampering with outcomes? Start with one of the most seemingly benign forms of "influence" that is so commonplace that it is at this point completely invisible though it is in plain sight: search bar autocomplete. Do you think that this feature has any influence on you or your thinking? Of course not, that's silly, besides, I use _____ (DuckDuckGo, Brave, etc.). I'm not nearly smart enough to answer, so I'll leave you with someone who is: Dr. Robert Epstein.

That's just it, isn't it? One day someone somewhere will deploy a nuke. Will it be one hundred years form now, or next week. It seems like our demonstration of this weapon in August of 1945 has held back a lot of folks, but that can't last forever. Here's a question. Does Putin think we will come knocking if he delivers one or two tactical nuclear devices to his favorite places in Ukraine? It sure seems like he might actually have that kind of mindset right now. He's already risked everything for this, by completely cutting Russia off from the west. How desperate does he need to be in order to use special weapons thinking that WWIII won't start? For most of my life, we've always had symmetrical nuke forces standoff - they launch, then we launch everything. Is this a unique opportunity for him to have a successful asymmetrical nuke fight? After all, we're not his main enemy/threat right now. Consider what your own reaction will be when you learn that two nukes have been detonated over Ukraine. Will you be saying, "Let's go kick Russia's ass?" Or will you say, "Wait a minute, maybe things will cool down, let's take a breath and wait." I wonder how many might say, "Let someone else go clean that up." Does it feel like a warm Gamma infused morning to you?

For the second time in this conflict the pundits predicted Russia would quickly dominate at least part of Ukraine. It appears the Russians shifted to the south and an apparent strategy to make Ukraine a land locked country by capturing all access to the Black Sea. Several weeks ago the experts said this would be a different fight on wide open flat ground where the Russian armor advantage would allow for maneuver warfare and a more certain victory. The Russian also changed commanders and brought in a brutal dude who leveled much of contested Syria. The new commander seems content to slowly grind forward using massive firepower to level everything in front of the Russian. The will change once past Maripol and into open terrain. If the Ukrainians are going to hold they are going this added armor but more importantly they are going to have to fix their interior lines and supply chain. I have a friend on the ground who is leading a group of former SOF folks who are training the Ukrainians. Despite massive aid from the U.S. and other nations, supply issues and shortages continue to plague their efforts. If you watch FlightRadar24 you can see the steady stream of C-17's and other platforms pouring into border nations each day. Word form the ground is we have no problem getting supplies and equipment across the border but the Ukrainians don't have a mature supply chain that can move things to the front efficiently. Also, it appears some local commanders in areas well outside the fight have been hoarding weapons and supplies. Understandably they want to be prepared should the fight come their way but the front line folks are suffering as a result. Talking to my friend on the ground he related a story about a front line commander who recently rotated out of the front for a day to resupply and reequip. That commander lost six men they day before, they all bled out at a casualty collection point due to lack of medical supplies. Interestingly this morning I read a report stating the UK MOD thinks Ukraine again controls much of its airspace. It remains to be seen if they can take advantage of this change and move equipment and supplies quicker and more freely without being interdicted by the Russians. If they can get their new armor and a portion of the many anti-armor missile systems that have been provided to the front, they may well be able to deter a Russian combined arms maneuver style attack across the south. The question is how will Putin respond if the Ukrainians stop them again.

DAL just hired a 23 yr old. He seemed like a good dude who has his shit together way more than I did at 23. So this isn’t to say he’s not “qualified,” but rather to say if they’re hiring 23 yr olds with just over a year at a regional, then many of you are well in the running for jobs at majors.

Oh yeah, before any of you overpaid self-loving douchebags get your panties in a wad, s/

Ok so hypothetically we big dick on Russia to teach "them a lesson" and then they retaliate by letting some nukes loose. What would that accomplish exactly? Are we in a better position than we started? Sometimes the thing you want to do and the thing that yields the best result are different. And right now the best result (for the US) is a strategically weakened but non-escalatory Russia.

"10 percent for the big guy..." "I've paid his bills for years..." "I don't know what Hunter does in his business dealings and don't know his associates." - 2 x letters of recommendation for sons of PRC business partners of Hunter's. - Photos of ol' Joe with Hunter and his business partners at a DC restaurant - 19 WH meetings with Hunter's business partners while VP - Hunter accompanied the VP on AF2 to trips to Ukraine and PRC. Shortely thereafter, major business deals for Hunter in those two countries Now some $5.2 million in unexplained income earning for Joe "Cornpop" Biden in the period from leaving the VP to becoming POTUS, including paying Hunter's business legal fees. https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/04/26/joe-bidens-unexplained-income-starts-to-connect-the-dots-to-his-degenerate-son-n556356 The linked site is conservative. The facts presented are not of a political bent. They are simply dollar amounts that haven't been explained.

Hopefully getting dates soon? Updated timeline: AFOQT test: March 2020 TBAS test: May 2020 Interview & Selected as Alternate: Aug 2020 AFOQT retake: March 2021 TBAS retake: April 2021 Interview & hired: July 2021 Submitted request to FC1: Oct 2021 Received FC1 Date: Nov 2021 FC1: 18 Jan 2022 FC1 stamped: 1 Feb 2022 Enlistment: 6 Feb 2022 NGB Packet Submission: 16 March 2022 NGB Approval: 26 April 2022

What are you defending here man? What's your position? That tech shouldn't be regulated? Is it only convenient to decree regulation when it's an industry you find inconvenient or do you also believe we should remove all regulation on energy, automotive or lending? What a bizarre year this is. COVID-19 and tech meltdowns and suddenly progressives are pro business for big pharma and social media.

It’s just that the UTC hand runs on a Windows 7 emulator on a Linux box. Nothing to see there.

And rumor on the line is that we could only fill 1/3 of a class of 30 that started on last Tuesday. Ouch!

You do know about that whole ‘Cold War’ thing that we won right? You know, the one where we convinced our former enemies that it was in their interests to become strong democratic allies to the west. The one where we rebuilt a devastated continent that enjoyed relative peace and prosperity for the following seventy years. The one where we avoided nuclear Armageddon when it seemed all but assured. The one where we vanquished a totalitarian dictatorship without firing a shot and brought freedom to millions who hadn’t dared dream about it for decades. You know, the Cold War, four decades of American leadership (that has continued since) that made the world a better place to live for most of the people on it. Of course I suppose it’s possible that you and Putin and Xi are right. All of those things could have taken place without American leadership. Maybe there would be greater peace and prosperity if only the US hadn’t stood in the way of the great people’s communist revolutions of the world. In fact, every American action since the end of WWII has been interventionalist and destabilizing. Who are we to spread ideas like liberal democracy and freedom when there are competent, peace loving leaders like Xi who know that the best thing for their people is maintaining and expanding their own grip on power. Yes, we pesky Americans keep trying to fuck that up for them. We’re like authoritarianism cock blockers and it’s high time we and the free world realize the error of our ways and get out of the way while Putin and Xi date rape their neighbors.

and if you think that way you better be prepared to go all the way with a full blown US/Russia war. are you down for that mr. tough talk guy? cause one miscalculation and it's on. you ready for it? willing to trade a few nukes back and forth for Ukraine? a country NONE of you bozos cared about jan 1st? such reckless thinking from you.

That’s a fair argument. But I will again posit that we have a far richer media environment than we ever have in the past. By richer, I mean more (LOTS more), not better. We have always been influenced, whether it be television networks, newspapers (Remember the Maine(?)), family, neighbors, political campaigns, etc. Conservatives really like to complain about the media environment lately and how it’s stacked against them. I just don’t buy it. There have never been more conservative media options than there are now. Fox News is as unabashedly biased in its editorial/infotainment coverage (think Tucker, Hannity, Ingraham) as anything from MSNBC or CNN and the Fox shows have the highest ratings by a large margin. If Democrats were just steamrolling Republicans in every election you might have a point, but it seems like Republicans are holding their own just fine. If they would spend some time vetting reasonable candidates who were actually capable of governance (vs just stoking outrage over Hillary’s emails, Hunter’s laptop, Pat’s preferred pronouns, etc) they might find a few more votes (including mine) because the Dems are a mess too & their only real advantage is that they haven’t stormed the Capitol yet & they’re not pushing insane conspiracy theories. In short, stop focusing so much on the supposed outrages of the other side & tell me what you’re actually for.

none of this shit is good or in our interests to continue escalating this war

After watching Russias conventional military, I'm not convinced they can get their nukes airborne.