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Brother...for pennies on the dollar and without loss of American life (other than those who volunteered to go over), we have helped humble a superpower and a direct threat to the United States. The damage done to Russia's military, population and economy will likely limit Russian aggression in Europe for many years to come. A peaceful solution should not include Ukraine surrendering even more terrain after we promised to provide for their security when they gave up their nukes. Any ground they reclaim, including the Crimea sets Putin back even further, I don't see how he survives.

Term limits and campaign finance reform are the only way to fix this mess. Corporate donations should be outright banned. Out-of state donations should be outright banned. The candidate running for the 69th district of Georgia should not be getting financial backing from Dick Suckerburg in California because the candidate’s job is to REPRESENT their constituents, not the interests of some billionaire 1500 miles away. As far as terms go, I think the house needs to adopt a four year term, rather than two, so that they aren’t constantly running for re-election. For term limits, I’d say no more than six total terms in the House/Senate combined. That would give you 24 years in the house, 36 in the senate, and somewhere in between for those that transition. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Geez, you guys are taking all the fun out of war!

I dare say we have learned more from this conflict than anyone else. We've watched the Russians employ some of their best technology and we have discovered many Achilles heals relating to technology and tactics. Some of the assessments I've seen believe this conflict has given China reason to pause and contemplate if their kit is good enough to take Taiwan....Our other adversaries can observe Patriot (older version), Javelin, Abrams M-1 tanks, and a shit ton of old HARMs. Some of the real lessons from this conflict: 1. The Russian Army is hollow, poorly trained and using WWII pound and ground tactics to bad effect and outcome. 2. Corruption is still rampant in the Russian system. It is estimated that 25% of the Russian military budget was siphoned off by corrupt generals. 3. Putin's circle is smaller and incompetent. Realistically he is listening to six flunky yes men and he has paid a price for that decision. 4. We ALL witnessed another paradigm shift with regard to UAVs, especially Group 1 and 2. 5. Maneuver warfare doesn't work unless you fully integrate land and air. The list of reasons why I disagree with you is far too long to list. Actions and intel the past 10 years would most certainly say otherwise. How many Ukrainians would die if we let Putin steamroll Ukraine? He is shelling cities before he rolls through to level buildings and conduct genocide. Have you not heard of Bucha in the Donbas? Just let Ukraine surrender and all is well? I never said a word about regime change...I do think Putin's grasp on power is very tenuous right now. Probably why he just rounded up a bunch more generals today who will soon be falling out of windows. Rumors of leadership purge in Russian military swirl after alleged detention of top general Surovikin, but that was never a goal.

I thought Bashi was Bashi’s troll account? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bookies list Hunter Biden as favorite to be White House cocaine culprit Why is the liberal mainstream media so outraged by the assumption, is there another crackhead running around the White House?

I can't tell from this article if there's actual allegations of fraud, or if it's just bitching that we're spending money in general. If it's the former, there are avenues to address that and they don't include "Cut Ukraine loose, let the Russians roll through Europe and upend the free world order." If it's the latter, well, it's time to grow up and realize the US Government is a vehicle for shoveling money out the door to accomplish policy goals. And at ~$300 per American to stop a genocide and cripple a major threat to US foreign policy for decades, it's pretty cheap. We spent on COVID bailouts about 45 times as much as we've spent on Ukraine. It's a rounding error in the budget.

It’s time for the Air Force to cut loose any ideas of retention, drop the bonus to $0, and focus on growing our way forward. You only need one-two gray beards at the top to run a flying squadron. The rest can be O-3 and below. Higher risk? Sure, a little. Push people through UPT in 6-months, FTUs in 2 months, double the output, and GROW our AF out of the pilot shortage. Retention is a useless fight at this point. Drop the bonus to $0. We will be just fine.

Homework? It would take you 5 seconds to give the blatantly obvious answer that there is a lack of basic human decency from the family toward the child. You wouldn't be bludgeoned for it, and I think many would give you kudos for acknowledging a real moral failing instead of attempting to protect your politics.

Nothing, absolutely nothing is off limits for this family if they will do something like this. It’s because of the way they are handling this that makes me convinced that they have done everything else they are accused of. Along with the mountains of evidence of course….

Biden family's rejection of Hunter's daughter with ex-stripper could do major psychological harm, experts say "President Biden refuses to acknowledge his seventh grandchild's existence, consistently saying publicly that he has six grandchildren, not seven." "Hunter, for his part, has refused to let his daughter take his last name and has gone to court to lower his child support payments to Roberts. He has reportedly never met his daughter with Roberts." Hunter is a crackhead, what is Joe's excuse? Unconscionable morally broken sack of shit to PUBLICLY punish a child for something she didn't do. Deny her a name, deny her existence, and from other reports the girl is aware who her grandfather is the President of the United States, a fact that for every other grandchild would be a point of pride. Sick family.

Equivocations and Whataboutisms, I'm certain.

The jokes write themselves!

Maybe it’s to the little girl’s advantage? Certainly won’t have the financial assistance that foreign interests have lavished upon the family, but without the Biden name, maybe she’ll avoid growing up to be a huge sack of shit, like the rest of the clan.

Sorry, should have been more specific. Income taxes.

To where, and how much? I'm not saying you're wrong, but that is a very non-specific claim. Either way, the amount of the money being expended is small potatoes compared to other problem areas of the budget, therefore my concern is proportionately minimal. I guess if you consider fraudulent claims to be beneficiaries. We certainly aren't benefitting from the ensuing inflation. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/09/1145040599/ppp-loan-forgiveness Who is making that claim? It wasn't a paltry sum, it's just that the other sums are unfathomably large. Further, what Russia was capable of was not as important as what the world thought Russia was capable of. We are now free of the illusion that Russia poses a meaningful threat to the world, especially after the loss of military lives and equipment, and the decisions made in light of this revelation will allow us to better allocate resources for the next few decades. For $100-200 billion? That's a steal compared to the annual DOD budget alone. Less of a waste, sure. Neutering a geopolitical adversary is a good thing. We don't have to do it, but if the opportunity falls into our lap, we should take it. Geopolitical stability is always the result of intense violence and the will of the victors in the aftermath. The experiment with McDonalds diplomacy has failed, and Russia is a nice little warning shot to China (the real threat). And how much of a waste is important. SS, Medicare, and Medicaid, and CHIP were about $2.4 trillion in 2022. If we round up to $200 Billion for Ukraine, that's less than 1/10 of the cost of the big-ticket waste, for the annihilation of much of the Russian military. Not bad. I'll try to make it understandable. First, "it's better to try and doom adversaries than try and help ourselves" is a strawman. That option is not on the table. We are not going to get our financial system in order. It is not going to happen. Governments are not going to willingly give up fiat currency, and voters are not going to willingly cut or cancel their government-provided benefits. That leaves only one possible outcome, other than complete global collapse, which I do not believe will happen. Hyperinflation will lead to societal instability, which will lead to political upheaval, which will lead to monetary and fiscal reform. At the end of that road we will once again be in a world without fiat currency and with limited government spending, until of course the cycle repeats in another 50-100 years. Let's call the point at which the monetary system collapses "the reckoning." I don't know when the reckoning will happen, but it will happen whenever the amount of money being printed exceeds the productive output of the society supporting it. So between now and the reckoning we will spend XXX trillions of dollars. That money can go towards supporting senior citizens that didn't plan for retirement, Ukraine, repaving the interstate system, a colony on Mars, or anything else. Some of those things might actually increase the productive output of the society (the ideal purpose of government spending), but most will not, pushing us closer to the reckoning. So yeah, with the inevitable demise of the spend-anything era of modern governance looming, I would rather we spend the money on something like clipping Russia's wings (or China's), rather than paying people not to work, or building museums to celebrate nonsense cultural anomalies, or funding weapons systems that go nowhere, maintaining military bases in countries that aren't interested in their own defense, or keeping old people from dying of natural causes, or shoveling billions into the pharma companies to protect us from a new cold, etc etc etc. The money will be spent, so instead of tilting at windmills trying to stop the bleeding, try to redirect the spending to something that might set us up in a better position to "win" the great-global-reset. I wish it wasn't so, but the Trump era should have clearly demonstrated that there is no group interested in responsible spending. None. So let's win the game we are actually playing, not the game we wish we were playing.

I just couldn't let it slide. I stopped short of answering all the other baiting-posts Chang made today...

Happy to see my tax dollars at work, nice of the Ukes to give us a 4th shout out.

Kinda what I was hoping for @Prozac. If you haven't noticed, I'm one of the guys over here that routinely tries to toss softball questions to help you solidify the legitimacy and rationality of your positions. That helps humanize you and helps all of us understand your arguments better. It's a forum. It's a place for questions, answers, and hopefully, mutual understanding.

Thought this was one of the better drop night videos.

Yes of course it takes a lot of work to prepare to fight China, thanks for that insight Brabus. Train/equip as if it’s likely? Sure. Is it actually likely? No, and I already have a nice bottle of whiskey bet placed on an over/under date.

Story comes from Elmer Bendiner’s 1980 memoir, The Fall of the Fortresses, based on some light research. Googling the aircraft led to a facebook post about recovering the tail gun that had a comment with the story below about the aircrafts ultimate end it would seem. The crew of an 8th Air Force B-17 has been recovered from a crash site in the Harwich Estuary. The wreckage of B17G Flying Fortress 43-37516 'Tondalayo' was recovered from the River Stour by the US Army CHLLI team, led by Major Todd Heussner, and assisted by Royal Navy clearance divers. The sole objective was to recover the remains of the aircraft's missing pilot and co- pilot, Lt Col Earle J. Aber & Lt Maurice J. Harper. Both men perished on the night of March 4th 1945, when their aircraft was shot down by British anti- aircraft defences .The tragedy unfolded around 9.15pm, when the Tondalayo , returning from a leaflet drop on Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, was crossing inland over the east coast. At the same time two enemy aircraft, homeward bound after a sneak raid, were heading easterly at a lower altitude, which no doubt confused the defenders. At 12,000 feet, over Clacton-on-Sea, exploding shells set the aircraft alight in the area of the waist gun positions, severing control cables and injuring the Bombardier, Lt Connie Morton., who sustained injuries to his eyes and right leg. The aircraft rapidly descended to 8,000 feet, and was heading for an emergency landing at Woodbridge when the aircraft was hit again, crippling her further and this time injuring the tail gunner. It was at this point the 'bail out' order was given. All the crew abandoned the aircraft apart from Aber and Harper. Captain Stonerock (navigator) was the last crewman through the hatch at 5,000ft, and later reported that both Aber and Harper had their harnesses on, but not their chutes, so it can only be assumed that they had insufficient time or altitude to do so. This all matt black special operations aircraft was attached to the 406th Night Leaflet Squadron based at Cheddington, and was the personal aircraft of the unit's commander, Lt Col Aber, being retained by him when the squadron converted to Liberators. Aber was on his 51st mission when he was shot down. Lt Harper had flown Spitfires with the RCAF, before volunteering for a tour on 'Heavies.' Recovery work began on June 9th 2000, when a salvage barge was positioned on the crash site located on the low tide mark off Wrabness. First attempts at clearing the mud from the site using giant vacuum hoses were soon abandoned due to technical difficulties, primarily with pumps and filters becoming clogged by heavy clay in which the wreckage lay. The recovery continued with a large tracked excavator. The operator worked blindly as the site was only visible for short periods of time. A vast quantity of wreckage was eventually recovered using this method. Parts included one of the aircraft's Cyclone engines together with several super chargers, propeller blades and an undercarriage leg. It was established that the entire tail section and rear fuselage was compressed into little more than eight feet, all of which was painstakingly worked through and sorted until the remains of Lt Col Aber and Lt Harper were found in the area of the bomb bay. Work finally ceased on June 28th when it was thought that sufficient remains of both men had been found. DNA tests later carried out at the US Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii proved their identity. Both men now share a joint grave in Arlington National Cemetery, with Colonel Aber having an additional grave at Cambridge in the American Cemetery. Pilot Lt. Col E.J Aber Co-Pilot 2nd Lt M.J Harper Navigator Capt P.S Stonerock Bombardier 1st Lt C.R Morton Radio T/Sgt C.P Valley Top Turret T/Sgt M.Silber Ball Turret S/Sgt S.Dombrowski Tail gunner S/Sgt R.W Ramsey Waist Gun S/Sgt F.W Thomas Waist Gun S/Sgt J.A Trexler Waist Gun 2nd Lt R.W Billings

So if you didn’t want to go to war in Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein, were you in the camp of appeasing murderous dictators? Or does this only work certain murderous dictators? Another point—you can be anti-Putin and anti-supporting Ukraine with (what seems) an endless huge amount of taxpayer money/arms.

Donald Jr doesn’t look drunk. It’s just an unflattering snapshot taken while he was talking. Meanwhile, Hunter’s teeth have rotted away due to hard core drug abuse. Good old meth mouth. I can’t get past the situation with this granddaughter. The American people would love to see Joe stand up behind a podium and say that his son has another daughter and that he understands the situation isn’t ideal but that the Bidens will love her and accept her anyway. A moment like that would go pretty damn far for him morally, politically, etc. But nope. They spend huge sums of money on attorneys trying to deny this child in every way possible. It’s disgusting and it’s despicable.

https://babylonbee.com/news/awkward-supreme-court-rules-against-affirmative-action-with-affirmative-action-hire-standing-right-there

If we the people can’t be represented without access to millions of dollars, then it’s broke. Look at who we get for presidential candidates, senators, judges and etc… It’s broke. Liars who can’t pass a budget while making useless laws and dabbling with inside trading, that’s what’s occupying the seats set aside for leading this nation. We really need term limits for Congress. I think this would help. But it will be really hard to convince the people who have the power change this, to act.

Nice. Amazing what you can accomplish with a Sharpie. I was so moved by the judicious use of our tax dollars, I wrote my very first poem: Maxxpro. Easy come. Easy go. Those poor Ukrainians. What a tragedy.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a member of the C-130J community who doesn’t like the mission.

Maybe some of the crusty keyboard “warriors” in this community should put their money where their mouths are and run for Congress instead of typing the same drivel every week on this site.

You do realize Slife wants to take ALL the guns off the AC-130...and make the PSP a roll on roll off so the MC community can provide "fratricide"...I mean CAS.

i'm for the US taking a role to end this conflict peacefully. hardly the putin propaganda. seems like you're a slave to the US propaganda and lack critical thinking skills. sad.

For those interested in how we are being involuntarily indebted for $Billions on the promise that you'll work hard and pay an increasing amount of taxes for the rest of your life, here is a list of ways fraud is being committed and enriching others at your expense, with links to government websites touting how these expenditures will ensure a prompt Russian defeat and guarantee peace and stability throughout the world. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/27/gravy-train-independent-audit-ukraine/

You need to throw your hat in the ring for big jobs like Exec, CAG, DS, stuff like that. We need more pilots willing to help move the ball forward in the office, not on the flightline. If you want to get promoted, that’s your ticket- stay where you are at & become an invaluable desk jockey.

Fraud is deception that results in financial gain. It's obvious a very large portion of these funds are being redirected away from the advertised purpose of helping Ukraine defeat Russia. I'm against the COVID bailouts as well, but at least average US citizens were direct beneficiaries. I think it's hard to make the case Russia was a dastardly superpower capable and ready to steamroll across Europe while also alleging they were stopped a few dozen miles into Ukraine for a paltry sum. I think one should be careful bragging how cheaply we kill Russians, lest you sound like Lindsey Graham. https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/us-news/lindsey-graham-zelensky-russia-meeting-b2347305.html Your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are a waste, but paying for war on the other side of the planet is not? You know funny-money-printing is going to doom us, so it's better to try and doom adversaries than try and help ourselves? Does not compute.

i never viewed russia as a threat. how many ukranians will die in our proxy war? cause our resume of inserting ourselves into conflicts is abysmal since WWII. and regime change? yeah. that's worked out well for us in the recent past too.

Look for ground jobs that suit your fancy (Exec, CAG, DS) and volunteer like crazy for everything. That will create a lasting career. Trust me, you will thank me later.