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1. Russians are definitely the bad guys, but they’re on the other side of the world and have zero impact on my life; whereas progressives are banning free speech and trying to trans my kids. It’s not even close which of those two are my opponents. 2. Everyone criminally associated with Epstein and pedophilia in general should be beaten to death with hammers. If you have proof Trump is guilty of something let’s hear it, but the man had every possible avenue of prosecution against him explored and the D controlled DOJ didn’t link him to Epstein so…. Shenanigans.

At least now we know what the bargain was to get the qataris to abandon Hamas and force the ceasefire. This might be another bit of 4d chess on behalf of the Trump administration. Giving the qataris a no shit facility in the United States is going to tie them to us in a much more concrete way than simply having a base in their country. My suspicion is that the Trump administration has decided that we are going to buy the qataris away from the Chinese and the Iranians. And we're going to lock them in with a deeply integrated military, similar to how we have locked in the Saudis. Obviously the 4D chess bit is tongue in cheek, but it's just another example of the Trump administration making a decision and buying into it 100%. In an era where the dreams of a cosmopolitan worldwide alliance have fallen apart, if the Republicans commit themselves to the concept of a Balkanized world again, we can start making moves to make sure that our sphere of influence is the more powerful one. The real problem of course will be the the pseudo-utopians on the far right and the far left that have turned into New age isolationists. They'll bitch and moan about the duplicitous nature of the Qatari regime as though that's not an inescapable facet of international relations. It's got to be a rough time to be a libertarian.

Norvell isn’t the guy. The Coliseum was incredible. My daughter wasn’t thrilled when we had to leave early due to my unruly son. I’ve only been to the Rose Bowl once - 2013 National Championship. Hell of a game.

Reminds me of the 80s movie Gung Ho, make 15,000 cars a month or else…quality be damned Banking, enrichment training, etc…. If 1500 aeronautical ratings per FY is the one metric to go by then wing’em but give them post graduate training/enrichment training post T-6 and winging. Choir preaching but if there is waiting prior to FTU then give the Bobs a “win” while fixing the glitch I’m just a rando on BO but the training / program I’d advocate for would be affordable in the grand scheme, earlier I estimated about $230k in training costs, probably it would a bit less. Call it Mobility Pilot Training, whatever but justify by accomplishing tasks that these guys would be doing in their MQT after FTU, giving training & familiarity with NVGs, STOL, etc… If the FTUs can’t intake, build an infrastructure that can productively occupy your recent graduates while reducing subsequent training costs and risk, better prepared students perform better in WAY more expensive to fly aircraft and sims. Buy the training you need not new airplanes if the Bobs push back on acquiring new iron. Establish 3 programs, feather in grads from each of the main UPT bases as availability allows. - STOL program using a ME aircraft like a Twin Otter or Cessna Courier. Application to ACE is self evident and time/experience building. - Tail dragger course. Builds stick and rudder skills. - Sim based course for Transport category, probably should be the last course but introduction to fully automated flight deck, management of systems, experience building.

Went to an NFL game there a while back. The walk into the stadium at sunset is pretty fucking incredible.

Add Napier to that list! Complete BS.

Definitely not them buying the F-15QA back in 2017...nope. Clearly quid pro quo for a 747 BBJ.

Amongst us non-politicians, it’s not partisan. Polls show the vast majority of Americans, independent of party affiliation, want all of it released. Now what some of the politicians do may be different. So it’s more accurate in this specific case to say political/elite class rot, not simply societal rot.

So, what did a "Free 747" buy Qatar? Seems like basing at Mt Home.

Another weekend that hasn't disappointed yet. Franklin may be sent packing after yet another loss. Dude was booed out of the stadium. They probably already planted for sale signs in his yard. Man, these refs are trying their best to get Georgia a TD before half. Not even an Auburn fan, but WTF!

You guys see the warzone that is Portland? https://x.com/BoLoudon/status/1975665503759966258 Should probably call up federal troops to put down the uprising. Probably around 2003. Afghanistan was a good time where 90% of society was on the same page, ever so briefly - Bush overextended - here we are. Had a chance in 2008 to come together against the 1% who caused the financial crash but turns out they own the media and convinced that movement to focus on Obamas birth certificate instead of systemic class problems. Then citizens united happened in 2010 and the country’s fate was sealed. And voila, here we are. Many otherwise well intentioned people on here no longer know if the Russians are the bad guys - but they damn well hate the “progressives.” It is a deep symptom of societal rot when it is partisan to want to know who is associated with epstein.

I see you’ve Boeing’ed before… “Hey guys here’s version 6… massive improvements and upgrades over 4… sorry about taking away the ability to enroute RNAV.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In the US of today, partisan identity has replaced national identity.

But only ones that didn't used to be dudes.

Taking the family to tailgate and watch the USC-Michigan game this weekend. First game at the Coliseum, should be fun!

Do you know how many times I have had that exact same conversation, my PTSD just kicked in, thanks bud.

I think we need to stop kidding ourselves that anyone in senior leadership is concerned with actual skillsets or experience. What is happening is very simple: We can't maintain the jets we have and we can't acquire new ones in a reasonable timeframe. At the same time we must keep the slides green at all costs. The only answer left (short of offloading the entire operation to the civilian world) is to retcon what a UPT grad is. It costs AETC nothing to churn out crap and dump it into b-courses across the other MAJCOMs. B-course instructors will still wash out the weak swimmers, but at that point finding them a new home is an ACC/AMC/AFSOC/AFGSC problem. AETC's hands are clean (on paper) and the brass at Randolph have figured this out. They can even pitch the UPT cuts as #innovation and cost saving to keep the (even more out of touch) GOs in the Pentagon happy.

This is how beer goggles work.

Multiple decades, multiple platforms, communities, MAJCOMs, and GCCs. Have watched our support functions go down the drain across the board and the burden continue to be delegated to the ones on the pointy end that actually need the most support to do their jobs, take care of their families, and execute the Service’s core missions. But it wasn’t until leading hundreds of enlisted Airmen across scores of AFSCs that I truly felt the “what are we doing here” hit me in the deepest parts where I’d previously managed to keep alive that spark of pride of service. Showing up late, leaving early, doing the bare minimum and often not even that… some not even able to wear their uniforms, no interest in the actual mission (sometimes lip service and often complaining, but no motivation when given opportunities to participate)… an unhealthy focus on unearned awards, decs, inflated EPBs, and “good deals”… Get off the flight line for a tour or two into a job where enlisted outnumber officers by 100:1 and you’ll see. But at the same time I can’t blame “the enlisted”. It’s culture. It starts with accessions and boot camp, tech school, senior enlisted, and the officers that lead them. That is not to say a single officer can make the changes needed — despite higher leadership edicts and Dunning-Kruger-officer platitudinisms to the contrary. That may sound bitter, but I’m not passed over or at risk of not promoting again. It’s watching officer peers promote with half the motivation, half the understanding of the mission, half the time in service (when weekly input/output is considered), and embodying all of the same “enlisted” issues highlighted above, at senior grades, that is crushing… but they checked the boxes. It’s institutional, and maybe we should start there.

"Naked gunner hugs????". Not sure if that deserves a "WTF is wrong with you people" or a Seinfeld "Not that there is anything wrong with that." The only naked Hawg driver I recall was one of the guys on an Atlantic crossing going to the tanker boom stripped down to shock the chick boomer who was not impressed and unphased by stunt.

Yeah, we took our First Sergeant (medical I believe) to an Ex with a stop in Pattaya. Dinner on the outskirts of walking street - she about had a heart attack. This was after her perplexity that we didn’t use rank on the airplane. Truly different worlds we live in. Flight doc though? Took a shower in the airline club.

I hope the maintainer hangs that LOR proudly on his wall. And to the guy who wrote it, you’re a douche.

I have no idea what the majors were of people I flew with. Didn’t matter to us. As long as you knew/did your job. As long as you were someone I wanted to have a beer with afterwards. Sent from my iPhone