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It's just SWA being envious of UAL, DAL and AA: now, SWA can say they are "an airline with Wide Bodies".

When Germany starts acting like they actually believe Russia might expand past UKR and fight NATO countries, and is willing to commit serious money to that problem, that's when you've got my interest. However the current situation is that we're rushing to rescue Western Europe who doesn't feel threatened or inclined to break the bank investing militarily due to ann imminent Russian invasion. At the same time we have ever more serious domestic issues. The reply always seems to be "it's not either or, we can secure our border and the borders of Ukraine" except we can't, or we already would have. No love for Russia here, but I 100% believe our over-investment in Ukraine is strategically foolish. CH, I get your point on pre-WW2 isolationists, but I am unconvinced Russia is analogous to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It looks like a regional dispute to me. And instead of engaging in thoughtful discussion to convince me, the prevailing approach is to bully me by claiming I'm parroting Putin talking points like a stooge. If Covid has taught us anything, it's that people yelling thoughtless demands and name-calling must be ignored.

An oldie but a goodie. (Babylon Bee) CNN Forced To Cut To Commercial As New Political Commentator Adam Kinzinger Crying Again

The good news for those of you worried about the (tiny fraction of the) debt imposed on your children due to Ukraine spending is that, if we just let the Russians roll over Ukraine and a few other countries, your kids won't need to worry about the debt, because they'll be too worried about dying in a conflict with Putin's successor when he invades the Baltics or Poland. Deterrence is always much cheaper than the inevitable fight after appeasement.

My company’s Roth 401k doesn’t accept Roth money. Apparently they didn’t pay Fidelity for that option or somesuch. I had to transfer my Roth TSP to my Roth IRA. regardless, it’s all done online from the TSP website. Your receiving custodian will receive a mailed check from TSP. The only identifying information on the check is your name and account number at the receiving institution, so be sure those are filled out correctly on the TSP web form. Total evolution: 2 weeks. In my case I then had to buy something with the cash they deposited. A 401k will auto-buy whatever you have set up.

Unless the elections are cancelled..... https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-birthday-grenade-b1b82e4f84eb5a39286d1500cf49fcd1

Oh man…some of the most dangerous words I’ve heard or read. This means that my liberty and freedom only exist to what elected officials allow me to have…since they were voted in.

An argument I was replying to was essentially that we must protect Ukraine in order to defend NATO from follow on incursion. You're making an unrelated point, which although laudable, is not good enough reason for me to support continued un-audited spending on UKR while our border remains open. Sorry dude, US first then I'm open to your perspective.

That is more or less exactly what was said in Congress last week. Look Bud, I love that you’re passionate about Ukraine. I like that you’re hanging out with Polish Generals. I’m certain your current job offers plenty of insight on the conflict that most don’t have. Having said that, maybe next time you’re home and your trip to Walmart costs 4 times what it did a few years ago, or bounce around to our once thriving metro areas and witness the epic nosedive into 3rd world cesspools, you might just gain a little understanding on why so many of us deplorables are slightly hesitant to donate even more of our great grandchildren’s inheritance to Zelensky and pals.

Exactly! Me "dipping my toe" in to check the temp:

This is why libertarianism is ultimately a failed ideology. Honestly I put it into the same category as communism. Romanticized ideals of how the world should be, that never survive contact with real societies.

Which would seem weird if not for the fact it’s permitted under their law in time of Martial Law/War. That then opens up option 2 for popular referendum/revolution but the polling is showing something in the 70-80% of Ukrainians being against holding an election with a large portion of their population unable to participate. So that’s not likely to materialize either. The political pressure in Zelenskyy to hold an election and potentially change the course of the war effort isn’t coming from Ukraine. It’s coming from people on our side of the Atlantic choosing to use it as a justification to end funding they’ve called to end before any announcement was made. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0g4NfOLu0t/?igshid=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==

It wasn’t “worth fighting for” against the Nazis by your standard. If it had been we wouldn’t have needed 2/3 of our military to be forced into uniform while the rest of our population was told no there won’t be a new model of Chevrolet this year, we’re making M5 tanks though if you’re interested in driving one. And while it’s a popular myth, most of the people that served in the wartime position of Vietnam weren’t draftees. Draftees were bulk used to maintain commitments abroad. Only a quarter ever went to South East Asia as a theatre, roughly a third of that number served in support capacities in places like Thailand on the periphery. Now I’ve got no doubt when actual Nazis started hitting our cities directly there would be a realization by plenty that something needed to be done and the time to act was now, but that’s far to late to build a military out of which is something a short range problem focused populace will never be capable of understanding. That’s why we started drafting people in 1940 before a single bomb was dropped on our soil. The powers that be were smart enough to read the tea leaves. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Democratic coalition could make this divide go away on Ukraine funding tomorrow if they proposed paying for it via war bonds or tax increases paid by the investor / corporate class (top 0.1%) with passive income tax reforms AND immigration enforcement / border security / reasonable asylum law interpretation Do those two things explicitly to get Ukrainian funding and we can move to the next political argument Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean there’s plenty to pick on with the Germans. Lord knows I’ve seen it since I was stationed there all of 4 years. Still they’ve become the easy button to sell people on the populism message of “we gotta take care of our own.” It’s an old bias that I was happy to see Trump call out (callous as his normal method) but it’s not effectively true anymore. They are starting to fix their long overdue stupidity. The first step in that was getting rid of Merkle who for the whole of the Trump admin just adopted the contrarian position along with people like Trudeau rather than actually worked to strengthen NATO. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Populist driven policy of “let the people on the other side of the ocean deal with it” has led us to the more expensive and consuming outcome of two world wars. It’s even easier to dehumanize and detach from it when some are freely buying Russian talking points. Nobody is saying abandon the border for the sake of Ukraine in this argument. Nobody is saying send troops to Ukraine and fight directly, in fact that’s what we are all attempting to keep at arms length letting them play this out a phase line early. What we are saying is that in this new Cold War/slow collapse of the global supply chain we sit diametrically apposed to a party made up primarily of Russia/China. One of those two major opponents to us coming out on top in this is happily feeding its military capacity into a wood chipper whole sale. We would be idiots to stop paying to put gas in it when comparing the costs of other COAs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Penalty! logic error. 10 yards, replay the down.

Wait, was your last response to me? I don’t even know what the fuck a DCG is, solid NameDrop though. However, I do know that you and Bashi are never going to convert one another. I also know that very few Americans “want to give Putin Eastern Europe like it’s his” most notably because Eastern Europe is not America’s to give. I also know that many Americans are a lot less concerned about Ukraine’s borders than our own borders, which this administration clearly has no interest in defending. I also highly doubt Bashi or Gearhog are KGB, but you seem comfortable calling them Putin operatives quite frequently. So, could they start calling you a Maduro shill since you’re more interested in sending billions of $ to Ukraine instead of fighting a Venezuelan invasion right here in our own southern border? The point is, maybe a bunch of Americans feel that some of that fake gov cheese should be spent here instead of there. I know, I know, now I’m a Putin fanboy too. I best start shopping for this season’s ushanka hat.

We should have a NSFW thread on crazy Ex-GF stories.

Not to disparage the aging Coast Guard's 'nice toys', but the Air Force's new MH-139A helos is looking pretty good for the assigned Air Force mission set. The Coast Guard’s MH-65 Helicopter Fleet Is Headed For Trouble https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2022/01/28/the-coast-guards-mh-65-helicopter-fleet-is-headed-for-trouble/?sh=1a6210ec53e7

The North American Blue Falcon (Falco Douchebargensis) is a species pathologically incapable of answering any question in the introspective. You have to be a sapiens to begin to do that. Like giving a book to a chicken, it means nothing to them but it's hilarious to watch.

That's gay!

Read my lips, if you’re on a Forum spouting off Russian talking points about how Ukraine belongs to them historically, or that NATO expansion justified them invading by force a sovereign nation, or insinuating the CIA ran a coup to overthrow Ukraine’s government (all points he’s tried to make) you’re a shill. Putin has expressed his interest in realigning the old Soviet satellites as vassal states. Pretending otherwise would ignore the last decade of action by him. So yeah Ukraine is as many have pointed out the stepping stone in a lone of stones already crossed leaving us with the next step having a 4/5 chance of being a NATO country. I’ve got no interest in trying to convert Bashi, I’m pointing out to the rest of the room that may think he has a point how incredibly stupid it is. Why are you suddenly trying to defend him? If he stuck to points about budget he’s fine, but he is repeating known Russian talking points advanced and stimulated across social media. And DCG would be deputy commanding general. We have one currently and he’s Polish. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk