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Good to see HIMARS getting work done, hopefully they’ll start accurately putting Russian pigs in the dirt.

How about this? I would say the points below are pretty mainstream for most of my conservative friends, I don’t speak for the extreme: -People don’t chose to be gay -Homosexuals are human beings and should be treated as such -Homosexuals should receive the same rights in the eyes of the government as heterosexuals, to include the benefits of a Civil Union…to that point I don’t think government should be in the business of marriage, period. -Churches should never be forced to marry homosexuals. To your earlier point on Catholics, gays would be welcome in any Catholic Church, it’s only their lifestyle that wouldn’t be approved or validated - I’ll bet you any money on that. -Homosexuals are welcome in the military, I couldn’t care less who you bang. Bring your same sex spouse to work events, you should not be treated any different because of your sexual preferences. -Have your pride parades off base, don’t care, it does not belong in the military and Nellis AFB should not be having drag shows or drag queen reading hours to kids. In fact, just leave kids out of this discussion until they are old enough. All they need to know is treat everyone with respect. -Not everyone is going to approve of your lifestyle, that does not give you the right to bully, intimidate or cancel. The gays who are still bullying the Christian bakers are the worst of people. -There are two genders, you cannot change genders. That’s basic science. Transgenders are still people and should be treated as such, those with gender dysphoria should seek mental help, and with no negative stigma just like any other disease. -No, the military shouldn’t have to pay for gender hormone treatment or transition surgery. I as a commander have better things to do than teach transgender awareness training. -BL, whether you are gay or straight, don’t be an asshole, and we can get a long just fine.

Do you have kids? Were you ever one? To imply that a bunch of 16-17 year olds supposed to have the experience and rationality to ignore/refute/buck their parents, teachers, role models, politicians, etc is just absurd. Just like when the boomers complain about millennials and genZ getting participation trophies. Well yeah, clown, who exactly bought the trophy? If your argument blames teenagers, it's probably a pretty weak argument.

Always somebody's elses' fault. Convenient. Try harder or smarter. Not feeling one bit of guilt.

I just want to add my .02 regarding the Ashley Bobbit part of the discussion. I'm in law enforcement (fed - Immigration) and like many others have gone on orders to get away from work (for a variety of reasons). As far as Bobbit and "resisting arrest", we'd have to know what the Capitol Police Use of Force rules are for deadly force. At my agency, there's no way we could have fired at her -- to put it in very generic terms that don't spill any details regarding our UoF policies, we can only use force that is equivalent to what's being used against us or another. If she wasn't armed, she wasn't a threat that needed to be dealt with using deadly force (i.e. firearms). The caveat is that they (Capital Police) may have different policies for protecting members of Congress. So, unless we know that, we're all speculating to some degree. I'll also throw in something else about law enforcement and immigration in general. During the Trump admin we were sending people to the SW Border for rotations to enforce US Law (Title 8 primarily). These were involuntary TDY's, and although many weren't excited about forced TDY's, at least we doing what we're trained to do (law enforcement). There are TDY's again under the current Admin, but these are simply to assist in processing aliens and then releasing them with a Notice to Appear (NTA) before EOIR at a later date. They're released into interior and almost none ever show for their court date. This is a deliberate decision by policy makers and ultimately the President himself. None of us can understand it. The border was quite secure until 18 months ago. Now it's wide open. A friend working at an airport for another immigration agency said he doesn't know why they bother processing pax or looking for bad guys. He said if anyone really wanted to harm us (like the 9/11 hijackers), it's easier for them to just go to Mexico and cross our southern border. At that point we wouldn't even have a record of their arrival and they'd have free reign within the country.

Yes actually. People should have a say in how war is waged on their behalf. Would have been better off doing it that way than letting the egghead pretend-academics/pretend-warriors try the same thing harder for 2 decades while promoting themselves and laughing at common sense proposals.

The chain of command that said we were winning for 20+ years?

Soooo…where can I get some of these? Google Translate says the flavor is “Chinese Gas Pedal”.

The root cause is shitty/lazy parents for sure. They wanted to be their kid’s best friend instead of their parent and mentor. And because of that they’ve produced kids who are entitled, lazy, ignorant, etc. And did you call me a clown for buying trophies? My son’s participation trophy he received in t ball years ago went directly in the trash at the field - he learned a valuable lesson on attitude and effort that day. Several millennial parents were mortified, the difference years later is my son doesn’t have an attitude or work ethic problem, where as their “best friends” do (I know some of them personally, their kids are everything we’ve been talking about). And now that I think about it, my boomer parents (and friend’s boomer parents) worked hard to give us kids a good life within their means. They parented and mentored us instead of coddling us. They actually did a hell of a job raising that wild pack of animals (err, kids) back in the 80s and 90s. The point - blaming someone else (especially in the past) while sitting on your ass gets nobody anywhere. Again for the 3rd? time, adapt and overcome or be a whiny bitch who will go nowhere. It’s actually pretty simple.

Generations past, to include those who came here prior to us being us worked hard, tried to make it better for their off-spring. If the off-spring don't appreciate it, but rather blame their parents (which every generation has done), then who really is to blame for outcomes? But, what the hell, get the vaccine. You'll be GTG in life.

Agreed. If that 80% ignored the other 20%, we wouldn't have any of this cancel culture BS. Companies go where the money is.

@Sua Sponte I get it, you’re talking to a poli sci major from a state school. But here’s the thing, I think my wife and I (technically millennials) are crushing life pretty well for us and our kids, and we got to where we are without anything handed to us. But I didn’t own what I do now when I was 25, or 30, etc. We steadily built our life today through effort and adapting around plenty of unexpected life hurdles. We’re not unique, lots of millennials have done this, many better than I did (the hookers and blow were totally worth it!) But like most things these days, negative news and whiny bitches get most of the “air time.” Additionally, I have millennial friends who never went to college - they’re crushing life much better than the art history guy. Lastly, I don’t define making millions on wall street from your Ivy League shoe-in job as the min bar to define “crushing life.” But if that’s your definition, well then I feel bad for your bleak outlook on life.

It’s completely true. College today is mostly bullshit and absolutely financially cripples people (in terms of cost and earning potential relative to loans), so we agree on that. But guess what, nobody forces these kids to go and get that expensive, but useless degree. Again, plenty of millennials crushing life right now, but they’re not the ones who refuse to take ownership of their life and make dumb decisions like go get an art history degree and expect to buy a house 2 years after the fact.

That’s bullshit. Sorry to hear that.

That’s a very valid viewpoint and I don’t at all blame someone for having it. In fact, I subscribe to it within reason. The millennial problem manifests when they don’t want to work for “the man,” but then complain when they can’t buy a house, the car they want, fill in the blank. Well, either start your own business and be your own boss, or suck it up and join the not-min wage work force and work as much as you need to have the life you want. Every millennial has the opportunity to make enough money to live a good life, but many of them aren’t willing to put that work in and expect “the good life” to be handed to them. Those individuals are the definition of entitlement.

Do you believe the tech industry represents the majority of millenials? Millenials who, keep in mind, are in their 40s, likely with kids? The tech industry isn't the majority of the economy. In 1980, the US median income was $21,020. Median home price was $47,200. Just over two year's salary would buy a home. Average cost of a 4-year degree for a student living on campus was about $9,500. In 2020, the US median income was $67,521. Median home price was $375,000. So now we're up to 7 years of work. Average cost of a 4-year degree at an in-state university is up to $101K for a student that lives on campus. Off-campus, closer to $40K. And many colleges are more expensive. You can wave around the high-earning tech jobs, but those are the vast minority of the employment landscape. The same jobs do not have the same earning power they used to. Hell, when I was making minimum wage back in the 90's, I could buy a car, go to the movies, buy clothes, etc. My daughter needed help buying a car, can barely afford to keep gas in it, and constantly has to make choices between going to the theater or getting fast food. And yet, we have senior leaders who can't recognize work-life balance, that working from home can be productive, or hell, even set up their own printers and monitors. OK...how many CEOs, VPs, or chairman positions are held by anyone under the age of 60? Damned few. I think we're in agreement about some of the causes of college tuition spiraling, but the fact remains that this entire generation was told, by boomers, all through their primary and high school education that they needed to go to college, all while the policies set by the same boomers placed college financially out of reach for them. Regardless of the reason, that is still a major issue facing younger generations. The millenials are the first generation to fare worse than their parents in terms of income growth, wealth accumulation, and quality of life.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Don't trespass, break down doors, shatter windows and hop barricades clearly meant to keep you out and you likely won't get shot...easy as that. Hard to feel sorry for someone like this.

Fixed that for you. Nobody fired randomly into the crowd. A reasonable, and quite forgiving, threshold for (proxy) self-defense was established by the officer and she found herself in position to be first to test it out. She was very deliberately targeted and she alone suffered the appropriate consequences. Nothing random about it. A completely disingenuous comparison as there is no reasonable expectation of threat to life. Do our enemies know that they can just waltz onto Whiteman and steal a nuke because SF can't actually do anything about it? It's just trespassing and theft, right?

You mean the video where the group of protesters were attempting to break down a barricaded door with armed police behind it; and then she subsequently tried to climb thorough? https://www.nbcnews.com/video/capitol-shooting-that-led-to-ashli-babbitt-s-death-captured-on-video-99180613572. How was that supposed to go down? What is a police officer supposed to do when faced with this situation? Were police supposed to help her through the door and thank her for her efforts in "discouraging the crowd"? What am I missing here? If there is another video or a different side of the story, I am all ears. What does this have to do with BLM? Are you suggesting the police officer randomly shot into the crowd? I fail to see the connection.

Wasn't she part of the same crowd that: Wanted to hang the vice president Physically assaulted capitol police in order to gain access to the capitol. Sprayed bear spray/pepper spray at police trying to keep them out Failed to comply with instructions to stay back/disperse with law enforcement who are sworn to protect the capitol grounds and members of Congress/staff. Tragic as her death is, the police were doing thier job.

She was straight up murdered. The cops own statements show that.

"I got mine, fuck you all if I made it more difficult for you".