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Someone earlier asked what exactly Bashi has been spreading of Putin’s platform, and primarily it is this. This is directly from Putin’s talking points.

Haha! Thanks. Sopwith didn't have good cockpit ergonomics, ya know. Surgery went well and I'm in recovery mode. I hope to be flying around late September again.

The only thing that wouldn't have "provoked" Russia to war is letting them reconquer the entire former Soviet Union and the former Warsaw Pact. That's a couple hundred million people who have made it emphatically clear over the past couple centuries that they DO NOT want to be ruled by Russia. I don't think it's the US' right, power, or in its interest to tell those people crying for freedom that it's too bad, they need to submit because we don't want to offend the Russians and then have to kill them. Europe tied it's entire energy sector to Russia to give them a reason not to have a conflict - and that didn't work, either.

Good question. Yet here you are, quoting me in a post that was not directed at you. "Attention in the terminal, last and final call. Flight @nsplayer to Whogivesashit is now boarding. All remaining passengers make your way to Gate 69 for an immediate departure." How many times are you going to announce your departure? I try very hard not to use name-calling or personal insults and I don't believe I have with you. I simply don't like many of your opinions. If me challenging those opinions causes you to fold up your lawn chair and run off, were those opinions really that strong to begin with? Will they be missed?

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

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.

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.

@BashiChuni, it's like you don't listen dude. That, or you're just fact-immune. Your argument rests on this presupposition that "buh we provoked Putin". As laid out for you back in September, this is not the case. But, to humor this argument, even if it was hypothetically true, that does not justify Putin invading an independent third-party nation. Your argument is without merit. How you can literally not see how he has used this meme as a pretext for something he wanted to do anyway is baffling. I have to assume you are being intentionally dense in order to frustrate other posters on this board. "NATO expansion became an excuse post facto..." for Russian militarism and autocracy. "The ability of countries to determine their own foreign policy and their alliances, is written into the UN Charter...written into the 1975 Helsinki act...written into the 1990 charter of Paris for a new Europe...written into the 1997 NATO-Russia founding act...Russia's signature is on every one of those documents. Moscow signed the UN Charter, it signed the Helsinki final act...signed the NATO-Russia founding act that places no limits on NATO expansion..." etc, etc. Russia's signature is on every one of those documents. Russia's signature is on every one of those documents. Russia's signature is on every one of those documents. Get on board dude. You spouting Russian propaganda is not a good look for someone who represents themselves as a military officer.

oh look its prozac and nsplayer wearing masks running away from facts, logic, and a good argument

Spoiled brats…who earned the benefits promised to them. It’s not unreasonable for there to be some rancor if the deal is changed.

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

Pretty sure that sad **** isn't an active duty military officer (at least not anymore), which is probably the best case scenario for everybody involved.

You know this is just Bashi’s troll account right?

The retirees keep dinging people's cars on the 1st of the month at the BX. This means airmen have to take time off of their busy days to get those door dings fixed. Its causing a lot of problems, especially in Turkey.

You've been repeating the same thing over and over for months, regardless of the varied and diverse discussions happening here. And you managed to do it in a way that comes off is just, I don't know, juvenile? Impetuous? I'm not exactly sure, but it doesn't feel like another adult in the room engaged in the conversation. Yes, the expansion of NATO has been provoking, but pretending like Russia has been some innocent and compliant neighbor throughout all of this is laughable. There is a reason the bordering nations have wanted to join NATO in the years following the collapse of the USSR. But I'm not sure anybody needs a lecture on critical thinking from someone with the rhetorical complexity of a speak-and-say.

You should know: General Chang is actually James "Don't Call Me Jimmy" Slife

Sadly, you both arrive: intellectually dissonant and unable to answer a straight question. Were this a formation debrief: You're both weak souls who don't even deserve the honor of a backhand. Weak Dick. Oh, did that offend you? You both claim to be USAF aircrew members from the combat arms, yet you get touchy about political issues? Really? Get sack and man up you bitches. I've read much of what both of you have spoken here, while neither of your have even once asked about my values. Both of you value family. Sincerely and in ways that I admire. Both of you purport to stand stanchly by what you believe, which I also admire. I gather that neither of you would leave your children alone with any Biden, Trump, or Clinton male family member, yet you shrug when one of those same 'men' refuse to acknowledge their own offspring. Neither of you would do that. I have faith that both of your have stronger convictions then these individuals that lead our country, yet you defend your support of them. Why? Please, be intellectually honest. Why are you defending those asshats by denying a clear response here? You @nsplayr claim that you have good in-person relationships with people you disagree with when you are physically with them, yet when you are have no skin in the game, you cannot overcome differences. That's not some relational virtue, that's being a coward about your real beliefs when physically present. If you cannot see the cognitive dissonance there, you are either emotionally or cognitively impaired. All men are reduced to their lowest form of maturity when allowed to be anonymous. It used to be while driving. Now it's on the internet. You both were asked a very simple, direct question. No one will come after you physically for your answer, yet you dodge like you might be mugged for what you say. You claim you'll be bludgeoned. Seriously? Are you so emotionally weak that you can't express your true believes in a venue where NOTHING WILL HAPPEN YOU YOU? Your maturity is thus exposed. I'm guessing at least one of you (if not both of you) is a captain at a major airline, and I find it sincerely sad that someone with such broad exposure and high responsibility would be so emotionally and mentally frail. Be men. Do Better.

That's why he's our favorite troll.

If anything we need to make voting less restrictive. Whether someone “provides input” into the system in your opinion or not, they are still effected by that system and as an American should have a vote. Especially since the reason they may be unemployed could be due to shortcomings of said system. echo what captain morgan said, campaign finance reform is a far more important issue to tackle

This is an internet message board used to exchange ideas / thoughts; let's not avoid the subject by trying to come up with a fully fleshed-out, 40000-page tax code that addresses all your nitpicks. I think my broader point is clear. There is a sizable portion of this country that provides no input into the coffers, yet is gaining an increasing share of political power and is able to exercise say over how money is directed. That is moral hazard, and should not be a thing.

Thanks for your service, now F off.

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.

don't feed the troll, bro.

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.

This is a necessary money move. Retirees can deal with it instead of acting like spoiled brats.

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.

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.

Equivocations and Whataboutisms, I'm certain.

From the plea deal to the conduct of this investigation, the system is completely corrupt. Search warrants, including one to a storage unit that would demonstrate a link to Joe Biden himself, suppressed by DOJ...but it gets worse...DOJ then notified Biden's defense counsel of their interest the storage unit. How do you even remotely defend this?

Bus time is bus time! Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

So they can ensconce themselves in leather, head to toe from Pop’s!

“Bobba, I give you best friend price!” kicks kid in the ass to fetch you a Tuborg.

cheesy bread

Just replace that ‘p’ with and ‘r’ and you’ll figure out what Navy life is like

Again, Russia does not have the right to dominate the lives of 300 million people outside its borders. We "provoked" Russia by letting democratic states align with us instead of Russia? That's like a wife-beater saying his victim provoked him by trying to leave the trailer park.

false

so many of you guys have zero critical thinking and just parrot what the media tells you to say/think. nato has provoked russia since the early 90s with expansion. it's a fact. you can say its russian talking points as many times as you want....still doesn't make it not true.

no we moved NATO to the border of russia you wouldn't like it if china violated the monroe doctrine and incorporated mexico into a chinese military alliance. same thing.

not saying they're innocent...simply saying we aren't either. and sending boris johnson to kill a peace deal was a nice touch diverse discussion? most of it is PUTIN BAD!!!!!!!!!!

You have two assumptions here I disagree with. First, financial doom is guaranteed. It is possible to be fiscally responsible in the US. There was a recent article regarding Indiana vs. Illinois. Budget surplus vs incredible budget deficits. So you can have a government that is not spending money they don't have.If "they" are going to spend us into oblivion, it is our duty to use democracy against them. That may sound naive, but we've strayed a long way from the founding principles of the country, and I think it's worth the effort to try and right the ship instead of abandon it. Second, that Russia was ever really a threat that necessitated us to not only exacerbate our financial problems, but also increase the probability of a nuclear exchange. All of this "our intentions are noble and pure and they're pure evil" is just a page out of the propaganda playbook that gets rehashed over and over and over again. "They got yellow cake! They're using chemical and biological weapons! They're using torture!" They can't operate a few miles from their own border, they certainly wouldn't be leaping across Europe. The claim that the cost of our inaction would have been higher than the cost of what we're doing now doesn't pass the smell test. "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." It's all propaganda. This is another position that bothers me. Earlier it was claimed that Russia was our geopolitical adversary and it is ultimately in OUR best interest that they are weakened/defeated. Why are we not also fighting them ourselves? How can it be claimed that we're doing moral good by sending tens of thousands of Ukrainians to the meat grinder so that we may benefit from it? "It's a bargain! Best money we've ever spent!" If the Ukrainians wish to fight, why do we only hear from Zalensky and rarely from average Ukrainians? Many Ukrainians are being forcibly conscripted to fight. Off the street. Thrown into a van. It's a tough sell to say that we have the moral high ground when all we lose is money while they lose their lives. If Russia is our enemy and we as a nation determine that Russia is actually threatening our precious bodily fluids, then let's declare war and go fuckin fight 'em. Paying someone else to do is kinda shameful. The word "evil" gets tossed around a lot, but is rarely defined outside of some cartoonish image of bond villian. I recently heard someone say that "Evil is someone trying to control someone else in a way that is not their best interest." Sure, Putin probably has evil intentions, but so do the other players. It's as if we're watching bunch of mob families go to war while we try to decide which one to pay protection fees to. I don't think this is true. It's not going to take decades for this to play out. Go check out some of the charts at the FRED website. Lots of indicators are exponential, in a bad way. I think we do have a chance to "flatten the curve", but it's as if our leadership has decided that it's better to loot what's left of the economy before it crashes down than try and save it. You keep saying you'd rather go through the hard times now than later. If it's as bad as you say, there is no later. What comes after will not resemble our current way of life in the slightest. It'll be a fiery hellscape for as long as we and our children live. If the US goes down, so goes the world. Your chief concern won't be geopolitical rivals on the other side of the planet, it'll be fighting a woke transexual feudal warlord from District 9 over a bag of rice. 😄 Our Nation and the world has problems, but online negativity notwithstanding, my first hand experience with our way of life is still pretty fkng decent. I still want to preserve it even if it may seem futile. There are better ways to outcompete China and Russia than risking thermonuclear war so some politicians and elites can line their pockets. Cheers.

@Best-22 Why do you only downvote posts, yet never contribute to the discussion? No one cares about your downvotes, least of all me. This isn't Reddit. Likes and dislikes mean nothing. If you have an opinion on these issues, posting is super easy. I'm more than happy to hear you out and discuss your concerns. But if you're going to take pot shots with your BB gun from a distance instead of actually engaging with a single original though, it really makes you look like a giant bonus hole. Edit: I'll give @nsplayer and @Prozac a little credit here, at least they have (had) the courage to put an unpopular opinion out there. You never did. Weak.