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Cameras on - Greetings and handshakes. Back room - talks All done, cameras on, "We had a productive discussion" and handshakes. Leave the nastiness where it belongs, behind doors.

Trump using Russian talking points. Not surprised.

Don't forget, at least he was the second highest compensated airline CEO. Now he can afford more turtle necks.

Dibs on Katy Perry before she departs though

Copy. You're against a nation fighting off invasion and trying to keep it's people free, ie, their cause. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.

I see you lack the ability to convince others or defend your thoughts, that's unfortunate. I'm sure relationships are difficult. For the record I don't, he is an evil dictator. But as a thought experiment, how do you think the war will end? You'd advocate for more UKR funding and close yourself off even further to discussion. Ok, we've tried that for many years and UKR is slowly bleeding to death. Do you have any ideas on how to solve this conflict?

What’s embarrassing is the hundreds of billions of dollars (that we’ve taken on as debt) that we’ve given to support their cause.

In case you missed it, I don't like Russia and their actions. I don't like anyone in the US Admin making public statements of justifying Russia's invasion. Why Russia did it is for internal discussions when trying to figure out our strategies and decisions. Trump hates Zelinski and the video above kinda shows that because, IMO, he was part of the impeachment. Trump/Vance put on a show. A stupid show. That wasn't negotiation or talks, that was bad cop worse cop. Is that how America is supposed to treat leaders of other nations? <--- Honest question.

I think I posted awhile back that when the official file drawer is opened, a few moths will fly out. Seems like Pam just witnessed that. Those files with names are long gone.

On that note, our A-37... the only one flying in North America... will be at the March ARB Airshow on 12-13 April. Although I'm one of the two pilots, I don't fly it in airshow aerobatics, but the guy that does is absolutely top shelf. And the jet has the best smoke system of any jet out there. It is currently spending the winter in the Warhawk Museum at Nampa, ID. It has a unique history in that it was captured by the communists, who then flew the jet in combat against the South Vietnamese. Yes, it flew on both sides. It's one of 10 A-37's that were bought from the commies by an Aussie, and finally purchased by the current owner who spent 20 years restoring it himself. He has photos of his jet with both the North and the South, and it looks exactly the way it did in 1972. If you make it to the March Airshow, swing by and introduce yourself. I'll be wearing the bright orange flight suit with the HUGGY name tag. I look like a traffic cone, only bigger. Hard to miss. And yes, those fuel drop tanks actually work. The jet is thirsty and you need them to go anywhere. But that thirst translates to a lot of power. It puts out in MIL what a T-38A puts out in MAX.

monopoly? on what? cars? superior tesla car orbital internet? superior product spacex? superior launch platform at a cost savings from other competitors. elon is the richest man in the world he doesn't need more money. the dude is driven to fix problems and his resume is evidence of that. https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/06/05/did-spacex-really-save-taxpayers-40-billion/ "General Hyten, [then] the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told me last year ... the fact that we have competition now on going to space -- just for the military -- has saved them $40 billion in launch costs." Now, $40 billion is a big number, and it's not entirely clear how Hyten came up with it. Still, SpaceX has been launching government satellites at significant discounts to the prices charged by space companies such as Boeing (BA 0.46%), Lockheed Martin (LMT 1.12%), and Northrop Grumman (NOC 1.12%) for about a decade."

getting terminated by the guy you bought your car from is crazy. that sucks dude, and i'm genuinely sorry you got caught up in this mess. in another life i did a lot of work with veteran resumes if you would like to PM me yours for review/feedback (feel free to remove your PII)

So for clarity, how would you achieve this humiliating defeat Putin deserves? I don't disagree he deserves it, but it's not happening. Would you just continue more of the same? I understand your emotion, i'm hoping for a practical answer.

With Putin’s forces walking back across the sovereign border in the humiliating defeat he deserves; certainly not with the POTUS using Putin’s figures and arguments in public to force “peace.” Russia can end this anytime. Putin is using Trump to achieve his ends, and you argued above in favor of that. F that.

I'm sure it was all 4d chess because trump is such a generational negotiating talent /s Definitely not him getting into a shouting match because he's an easily offended boob with no filter

Every developed nation is basically broke, with collapsing demographics. But also, AI potentially replacing lots and lots of office work. The future is weird.

I noticed the veiled threat by Zelenskyy. Wow fuck that guy.

I'm not sure US debt default is the actual problem looming. Other nations would have to stop buying US debt, and they're all in worse financial situations than we are. I'm pretty sure you're just using "default" to generally mean economic calamity, which I am sure is coming. What happens if the US is always the least drunk of the sailors on a spending spree?

Has anyone received TDY orders to MFS yet? If so did you also see training populate in your CDB? While I am MFS complete, I'm betting that there are assignments contingent upon how quickly folks are getting those approved. I'm also struggling to understand the delay in assignments when the decision to send folks to UPT was made back in November. Anyone in here have experience that can breakdown what happens between the board to results and results to assignment drops? Specifically how some of us receive assignments in what seems to be a short time and others not so much. More or less ready to have an idea what the future holds so I can figure out to do with my house, pets and family lol.

Would have to kill that and Medicaid to have a chance. But nobody from either party wants to do that because it’d be political suicide. The people will yell about taxes and debts, but they are simultaneously hooked on their gov free shit/programs. Voters want their cake and eat it too. Pragmatic people know we’re never getting out of debt without significantly curtailing entitlement programs and/or significantly raising taxes. And so the march to defaulting continues…

Uh, no.

Thanks, Biff. After seeing your post, I can't recall if I posted this. Not only fuckin' hilarious, but the guy has his facts pretty tight.

And he’s using his influence over the Executive to ensure his monopoly and amass more. He doesn’t care about any political views or the voters, he cares about his business.

Chang's return must have rattled JQP out of his retirement, because Tony Carr has a new article: https://radarblog.substack.com/p/rise-of-the-gutless-air-force-colonel

It's one thing to put forth money into R&D and create a successful company that beats out competitors in the market, but its another thing to be in a huge position of power, call out your competitors and say "hey Gov, this guy...buy my shit." Yes, the Gov needs to hold contractor companies accountable. But to see a "winning" accountability metric for the Gov side the entire acquisition's process needs revamping. The legalese and red tape required leads to a high effort to low reward for the Gov, and the process continues. Getting even more philosophical, eliminating bloat, or improving process efficiency is inherently inefficient as the process exists in the first place. IMO it stems from having ambiguous or nonexistent end goals, saying "go figure it out" and things get out of control. I can plan a Joint rescue mission, with the inherent goal of IP reintegration, if given METT-TC and some contact numbers. I can't fix or improve (in an effective manner) a HAF directed training course by just being told "here's the 10 Teams and SharePoint links". It comes down to a productiveness vs efficiency vs effectiveness issue, and too many damn "priorities."

what y'all know about buckethead?🫣

Biff, since you like the Sabbath, here's the War Pigs cover you didn't know you needed. Also, the lead guitarist (left) is likely channeling some Hendrix and Eddie VH. Drummer is killer too.

For 20 years, I have copied & pasted 10 bullets from my friends' OPRs -- modified them to make it not too obvious; and then made creative use of punctuation to fill in the white-space. If five lines for Elon is too much, you need to find a new line of work.

One for @HuggyU2

LEDs are a lot cooler than the kerosene lanterns you guys had to use as landing lights back in the day.

Everyone else on this thread rn

Therein lies the prime issue. We’ve fucked up for too long, time to rip the bandaid off and start fresh, which means there will be short term pain in a lot of ways, but as a society we’ve been way too focused on the now and barely even aware of what does 5, 10, 20 years down the road look like? As Tree said in another thread, we’ve already fucked unborn generations - it has to stop now. If we do, maybe 3-4 generations from now will be free of the financial impacts of their predecessors idiotic decisions.

Ah yes, just like Putin isn’t driven to remake the Soviet Union. Your awareness of the world is suspect, but he absolutely is driven to make monopolies (now by using his influence of the executive to shut the door for any competition and steer contracts). Edit: “Why Nations Fail” Chapter 6 regarding Venice: creative destruction creates new players who outgrow the old money, but then change the governmental rules with their newfound influence to box out any further new money ideas. Growth and innovation stagnate.

Correct. They have "done the math," and it's cheaper to deal with a few huge meltdowns than to have the excess capacity to deal with large weather disruptions. You can give all the overtime pay in the world, it doesn't give you spare aircraft and it can't free up the jet bridges when you land too many aircraft at a hub. Unfortunately the management team that has done this math also runs the least profitable legacy airline...