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One aspect of this idiotic argument that has bothered me since day one is turning the acronym MAGA into a bad thing. What is so wrong with making America great again? It hit a nerve and the left knew it, they controlled much of the press so suddenly it became racist to want America to be great. Pure insanity.

Please baby Jesus...bring some justice to this douche canoe.

I love this about the CMP surplus sales. You can travel to the armory, hand select a rifle, and they mail it to you…no FFL. Somehow this is different than ordering a new bird gun from a sports outfitter. Ridiculous laws. Can’t wait for these solvent traps to change Amazon descriptions, ha!

Point of order: Biff_T's WTF meter just pegged. We are out in new territory here! ...and yes, way fucked up. I mean, I can understand, but damn...

The real question…why weren’t they deported under Biden? Is it that Biden and the Dems literally didn’t want to remove these horrible people?

Well, they should have re-engined or replaced the T-1 with a comparable aircraft. They should have budgeted to buy T-6Cs, or a Tucano if they are unable to sustain the current T-6A fleet. They should have ordered T-50s instead of the dumpster fire that is the T-7. None of this would have been cost prohibitive, but it would have meant asking for more money or cutting other programs, which big blue is incapable of doing. The Air Force could make a course correction, but I don’t see that happening until they’ve suffered multiple class As that are attributed to the pathetic training that was the result of AMF-S, direct FTU, and now IPT. They won’t be quick to admit that either, something else will be found causal as mishaps occur. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Too many students were taking the VR headsets home to “chairfly” and returning with sticky controllers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Lord Ratner Makes sense, didn’t think about the fact we’re really just trading one for another. I personally would still spend a lot less on unnecessary stuff if the sales tax was high enough, but admittedly that “high enough” definition is very subjective, and perhaps you’re right that for the majority it’d just be seen as a wash and not really move the economic needle an appreciable amount. A big part I do like about replacing property tax with high sales/use tax is I can somewhat control the latter via life choices whereas I have no control over property tax (outside of choosing where I live and what property value I choose to live in). At least if I’m paying a ton of sales tax it’s predominantly on me for deciding to buy new trucks, ski passes, a new TV, etc. Regarding landlords, apparently I made a poor assumption about people not being retarded. Business 101: know your operating costs and plan accordingly.

True. American exceptionalism has been a target by the left for decades. A claim that America is, or at least was, great implies that it is greater than other countries, which the left can't accept. Everything must be equitable, so if something is greater than other things, it must be broken down to be only as ok as everything else.

UCT select: 98 PCSM, 89 Pilot, 60 hrs., no PPL. 1/1 at the Wing, 1st time applicant. Not the results I was hoping for, but glad I have the opportunity to go to UCT. Currently on the fence about what I am going to do. Any insight on how long it takes until UCT begins once selected?

Fine, I’ll say it. dibs

KDLF 25-05 T-1 Sim: AC-130J Hurlburt B-52 Barksdale C-17 Hickam C-17 McChord C-17 McGuire C-146 Duke KC-46 Travis KC-135 Fairchild KC-135 Grissom KC-135 MacDill KC-135 Mildenhall KC-135 MI ANG 2x MC-130J Kirtland RC-135 Offutt T-6 FAIP T-38: F-16 TBD F-35 WI ANG MC-130J Kirtland 3x T-6 FAIP 2x T-38 FAIP T-38 Langley

His wife needs a pardon, she is the real criminal for letting it go on for so long.

No worries at all. Just want to make sure my position is clear, I am not anti-taxes. Personally, I would just boost consumption taxes into the stratosphere. If that makes the public lose their mind, great. People should know what governing costs. However, if we accept the "necessity" of a wealth tax, then it must be set at the time of taxation. So, whatever you paid for your house is what you will be assessed at. This is Prop 13 in a nutshell. More broadly, however, we need to cut the budget in half, at a minimum. We simply pay for too many things that we don't need to pay for. But that's not a taxation problem, that's a political/voting problem, and outside the context of the discussion. It's not a coincidence Elon is in charge of DOGE. Twitter was a shot across the bow for every organization on Earth. Cutting 80% of your staff without changing the function of the organization reminded a whole lot of lazy capitalists that just because you are spending resources on something doesn't mean it's contributing to anything. That's not really a punishment though. They need the government funded roads more, they pay more. That is offset by many reduced costs in rural areas. Renters don't pay property taxes. Using that logic reduces all transactions to community purchases. Landlords charge what the market allows. If that covers property tax, great, but there is no mechanical reason why it has to. A parent renting to a child might be losing money on the transaction. A landlord who signed a 10 year lease doesn't get to raise the rate mid-term because the taxes went up. So no, renters don't pay property tax. But I'm not 100% sure what point you're getting towards, as I have never argued for a pure use-based system of taxation. Further, we do not in fact need EMS/LE equally, but again, I'm not sure that rabbit hole gets anywhere useful. Why would it crush the economy? The people paying the highest property taxes are the ones paying the highest sales taxes (nominally). You would have to make allowances for the poor, which I endorse, and you actually have a more controllable way of helping the poor without creating loopholes for the rich. Here are some basic examples of sales-tax-only rules to cover social considerations: No sales tax on grocery store food purchases (limit on max exempt transaction amount) No sales tax on school supplies in August/Sept (many states do this already) No sales tax on the first $x,xxx of rent No sales tax on the first $x,xxx of a vehicle purchase No sales tax on daycare You put caps on these exemptions to prevent some billionaire from sending their kid to a $300,000/year "daycare," but you still end up exempting the poor from taxation on "human needs" while actually directing the charity of the tax system towards the things we want to help the poor with. No more using government money on drugs and vape and other non-essentials. And as a benefit, every American gets these benefits, not just the ones who are deemed poor by our overlords. No monitoring or verification required. All tax benefits are calculated at the register and applied on the spot. And no more filing taxes, a stupid industry unto itself. But that's just one way to do it. There are lots of proposals in this arena from much smarter people than me.

When factions of the Democratic Party hate this country through its foundations, and have actively pursued policies detrimental to this country, it is natural that the thought of making this country great would trigger them. Mental help is always an option.

Seriously? You really think anyone that supports Trump Or Musk is incapable of criticizing them? Look back through this forum alone and you will find many people that voted for Trump (like me) criticizing his policies and him personally. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly. Give you a break? How about give us a break from this stupidity. What else has Musk done that would make you think he has any Nazi sympathies? And if he did, do you really think that a guy as intelligent as Musk would be stupid enough to make a Nazi salute at a large event where there had to be dozens if not hundreds of people filming it? This whole thing is an absurd witch hunt. The left hates them, so is willing to grasp at any straw to say that they're evil. Remember it is the Democratic big cities that were holding Anti-Israel rallies where many people were chanting death to Israel. Did you hear anyone calling Biden a Nazi because of that? Also, not all Democrats are Islamic terrorists, but all Islamic terrorists are Democrats and there's a perception (far more obvious and objectively quantifiable than the MAGA movement) that the liberal movement in America is inherently racist. See how dumb that sounds? Bad sections of society support both parties. Constantly bringing those bad actors up in relation to the entire party is nothing but an elementary smear. You said that you're not calling Musk or us racists, but you're implying that he's a Nazi or at least a Nazi sympathizer since he gave a "Nazi salute" in the middle of a speech, so you're implying that he's a racist. And it would be difficult to support an overt racist without being racist yourself. Stop pretending that you're taking the high road by "not... claiming that Trump or Elon (or you) are racist" when your post clearly implies the opposite.

TDS ^^^^

This meme is so idiotic. All this talk about Elon's gesture being "taken out of context." Ok, here's some relevant context: First and most glaring, these pictures are stills. Screenshot as their hands happened to be up during a speech, or while being welcomed on stage. GMAFB. It's a far cry from the video of Elon. His hand to chest, and vigorously, with front-tooth overbite, hard saluting. Twice. Sorry, but motion and intensity matter. Body language matters. Expressions matter. The other thing that matters, concerning context, is the audience. MAGA vs. the lefty's in the meme. As I heard it put the other day, "Not every Trump voter is a white supremacist. But, every white supremacist is a Trump voter." There's a perception among many that the MAGA movement is, among other things, inherently racist. ....Not sure if that's a news flash to anyone. (*I am not, before you blow a gasket, claiming that Trump or Elon (or you) are racist. Only that it's a widely held view that many of their supporters are, not incidentally because of their actions, words, chants, clothing choices, endorsements, etc.) Does the same core perception exist towards Elizabeth Warren supporters or Taylor Swift fans? No. Beyond the stupid (....and I mean truly eye-roll-inducing) meme, the disturbing part of the response to Elon's gesture is the absolute refusal to criticize Trump or his minions. No matter what. MAGA folks won't offer even the faintest hint of doubt or disapproval, and this is why another core perception of MAGA is that it's a cult, or cult-like. Just try it. Once. Try criticizing a decision or an action of Trump (or Elon or Vance, etc.). You can make it a really gentle criticism to start. Doubt, in the form of a question, works as a really soft, muted criticism for recovering cultists. For example, try asking "...gee, should he have done that?" See how it feels. Then graduate to sandwiching a weak criticism between two strong compliments to continue easing into it. The thinking among most people has become totally dualistic and binary, and it's a serious problem. You don't have to say you're certain that he's a literal Nazi. And you also don't have to try to defend him completely. Try saying "Wow....that looked a little messed up." or "I agree. That was really strange. I wish he hadn't done that." or "Elon is a little weird and spectrum-y. I hope he gets some media counseling in this new role so this doesn't happen again." You'll know you've made significant progress when you can admit something simple like that and then say nothing else. In other words, without also making a comparison to a leftist policy or a "what about..." concerning a democrat. You can still support Trump and Elon. It's ok. Every human has faults and makes mistakes. If those mistakes are acknowledged, good things happen. They can be held to account for them and improve. On the other hand, if the Dear Leader and his friends are excused from any and everything, ......if we do things like pretend that Taylor Swift waving to an audience of gushing teenyboppers is the same as Elon's gesture to MAGA fanatics.......then those leaders become even more self-righteous and untouchable. The divide in our country grows, and each side becomes more cult-like.

“Nazi” is the new “racist:” a cheap attempt to win arguments by dismissing the messenger.

Let’s say funding and airspace access was a non-issue, so we start moving T-6s to airline bases. Some guys will jump on it, and most will stop doing it relatively quickly once they’re reminded why they left the AF for the airlines in the first place (summed up as “all the bullshit.”) The bullshit is un-killable.

im currently in AFE on the fighter side trying to go for an f-22 slot for my guard unit, and I have to say that AFE is a great choice. the job is fairly mild, and you see pilots DAILY. for example, you see them step, come back from flying a sortie, getting their gear to head to alert, and if they ever just need help with something. YMMV, but most of our pilots are super cool and will make small conversation. avionics is also a good one. ive heard of a couple guys prior enlisted get hired from that AFSC. as stated by jonlbs, crew chief is a good job as well because the pilots respect them a lot for their work ethic. They're constantly fixing up the jets so they can fly. however, its not a laid back job, that's for sure. the hours are shit and working in the hot sun all day just aint the most fun. ive heard a lot of complaining from that side, but we also have a couple prior enlisted hires from there too. barbus has some good suggestions too; SARM and intel get good FaceTime as well. it all depends on what you're interested in; do some research on the jobs on the good ole google. I really love the whole fighter pilot shebang and like working on the gear so if that's you maybe AFE is your pick. (biased? maybe.)

And NFA. I really hope those two bills make it to law…would be so amazing. And what’s really wrong nowadays is how I use the word amazing to describe actions that would simply undo unconstitutional shit. That’s how far we’ve fallen as a country - just getting back to normal/following the constitution is now seen as a feat of strength.

UPT select! 96 Pilot, 86 PCSM, PPL, #1 at the wing. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this forum, provided insights, and all sorts of helpful info. Didn’t get picked up out of ROTC or supplemental boards, but God did it!

Trump dropped 1500 Pardons last night...basically covered all the Jan 6 folks. Edit to add, he vaporized the security clearances of the 51 who helped cover up the laptop...LONG OVERDUE ACCOUNTABILITY!

This isn't the warthunder forum, dude.

Oh man, blast from the past. I wonder what Hacker is up to these days. Great dude, terrible King Air pilot 🤣😂