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Musk haters attacking Teslas because they are built by a Nazi! Those of us who drive Volkswagens!

To be fair there is nothing stopping MAJCOMs and subordinate units from establishing family days. I guess sucks for you if you’re in ACC with Wilsbach.

This is the key assumption undergirding trump's entire tariff plan, and apparently also bill oreilly's argument. The only problem is for the most part it is completely false. The vast majority of countries are not "hosing" us in trade. China and a few others actually have predatory trade practices, but dozens of countries we have now pissed off were pretty solid allies that simply have a trade deficit with us. Many had free trade agreements with us and near zero tariff levels. And one more time for the folks in the back: A trade deficit is not a ripoff. But that is exactly what trump's tariffs were calculated from. Just as one example, we already had a free trade agreement with South Korea--a hugely important ally. Their effective tariff rate on imported US goods was 0.002%. But trump's make-believe math says they're tariffing us 50% based on his nonsense deficit formula, so now we're dunking on a close ally that has crucial chip technology and was (until now) very strongly aligned against China. We are literally punching ourselves in the dick and then doing mental gymnastics to try to frame it as a win. You guys can rail on the neocons and the globalist elites and whatever other boogeymen all you want, but I know one thing and it's this: until 5 minutes ago, stock market performance was the ultimate bellwether for a president's economic policies in right wing circles. But now that trump has tanked the market, suddenly a lot of people are doing 180 pivot and demanding patience while he enacts some 50-year grand plan to revitalize american manufacturing. GMAFB. The dude is an illiterate clown who thinks "trade deficit" means we are literally losing money to these countries as if we aren't getting goods and services in return. Deficit = bad word. Must fix bad word. It's as simple as that.

I guess Ackman feels differently later in the day Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

No one thought the Ukrainians would fight like they did, and no one thought the population of Europe would rally in support. We got too used to the Muslim nations and forgot that nationality exists in the rest of the world

I don't disagree with this sentiment, Trump's "shock and awe" playbook is absolutely disrupting stability. We are in a position now where we get to wait and see how the dust settles. Right or wrong, what's done is done. Maybe Congress will stop ceding power to the executive branch, or the R's will get trounced in '26. If his strategy is to create chaos and get to a negotiating position, perhaps it's working, or that's my misguided optimism.

You said trillions. 2 of your sources are 1-2 billion and one was apple. The difference between 1-2 billion and 1 trillion dollars? About a trillion dollars. This is nothing. To apple, if you didn’t know, they do this every presidency to gain favor with the public. They promised 430 billion in 2021 and 350 billion in 2018 that, yep, never materialized: 2021: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apple-commits-430-billion-in-us-investments-over-five-years 2018: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/apple-accelerates-us-investment-and-job-creation/ The TRILLIONS in investments are not existent. You’re buying in to either Fox propaganda (that says there are 5T of new investments with no source), or you’re looking to find something that fits your worldview and not question it. I sincerely hope companies do, I really do, but it’s ridiculous to say they are right now.

But they aren't. This system did not work as promised. We engaged in free trade with the world and the world took advantage of our generosity. And certain Americans took advantage of the regulatory and labor arbitrage to an incredible degree: This is only possible because of the many ways globalization allowed what we now call "the elite" the leverage cheap labor, disparate taxation regimes, subsidized industry, and currency manipulation to maximize profits and then keep them sheltered in foreign lands. Income inequality is irrelevant, but there's no scenario where the distribution of *wealth* should ever look like the chart above. It is the direct result of Fed Reserve money printing, which is only possible because of our status as the reserve currency. Why does that matter? Because without the reserve dollar, trade deficits are almost impossible. It's so wildly simplistic to say "They are entirely unrelated." Trade is good. For sure, no doubt. But "free trade" is a myth that cost Americans dearly. *If* Trump can stay focused, which I doubt, and if the Republicans can let go of their Atlas Shrugged fantasy long enough to strong arm the rest of the world into "fair trade," which I also doubt, we could have an economic renaissance. Personally, I think Americans like cheap TVs and debt too much to fix it, but I'm hoping to be proven wrong.

It's legit. Hey acting SECAF, tell me your were a douche bag missileer who never deployed and never felt the impact on families without telling me.

This was literally the goal of the CHIPS act with respect to semiconductor manufacturing. We realized we needed to be less reliant on Taiwan-manufactured chips for advanced military hardware so we wanted to bring some of that capacity back to the US. Problem is the act was passed almost 3 years ago and the chip plants are still under construction. Turns out.. building a megafactory for the world's most advanced microchips takes a while and is a big gamble by companies sinking billions into manufacturing infrastructure, so they need some market stability and predictability from the administration. They had that from 2022-2025. But if trump's argument is he wants to bring back manufacturing across a variety of sectors, you should be able to see that we can't have the leader of the free world inventing new reasons for tariffs off the cuff and flip-flopping on international trade policy on an hourly basis and expect any company to take any level of risk building up their infrastructure. It's simply unrealistic. FWIW I don't actually disagree with some protectionist trade policies surrounding crucial defense capabilities. But I don't think clawing back T-shirt manufacturing from Vietnam or tariffing Madagascar for bananas fits that description. Oh and by the way Trump openly shat on the chips act less than a month ago so take that for what you will. source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/technology/trump-chips-act.html

Yeah, you've said that. I get it. You're wrong, but that's ok.

Perhaps because it was a bad deal. Globalization ≠ Free Trade. That was the big lie.

Who would have known they had so many uses!

No time in a Pilatus but impressed with their planes (pc-12) that I’ve seen, flown with. My advocacy for them and specifically the PC-21 is just based on casual internet research in this thread but it does seem like Pilatus has cracked the code with the PC-21 being a possible, maybe one platform replacement for the T-6 / other mil trainers. I would prefer it to be a Phase 2 trainer for the US military, but if the money men demanded only 1 mil trainer (cancelling existing and forthcoming trainers) then I think it could achieve what is needed to produce a mil trained pilot. I think a good 125 hour syllabus in a PC-21, with a good 125 hour in GA training aircraft (single and multi engine) could produce a well rounded aviator. Still would want a third trainer but the end result could probably be met with 250 hours in those planes. I may have just drunk the Pilatus kool aid but I think they make a good plane(s).

And that was just one TDY. Fucking. Legend.

I've mentored a LOT of people through the years...some still on this very forum. The video below is a GREAT story about how one interaction can change someone's life and getting to see it come full circle Screw all the BS politics discussions...chase your dreams, work hard and be a good dude/dudette.

69% of this forum is people talking to themselves on different accounts.

This is like saying you have leaky sink in your house, and then decide to burn your house down. "See, my house is burning down! I knew there was a problem!" Yeah but you didn't diagnose the problem correctly or apply an appropriate corrective action, and ended up hurting yourself more.

The boat comic is exactly the opposite of what’s happening in the U.S. leftist have been setting fire and killing anything that challenges their idiotic anti-human flourishing worldview. Nice try though.