kaputt

I haven’t once said that. This whole burst of debate was caused by another poster claiming that the US is at fault because we “expanded NATO to Russia’s door step”, which is such a load of bullshit it’s laughable. Yeah, yeah, you’ll both follow up with that, “that’s just your western opinion man”. That’s such a lazy statement and you could literally counter every terrible thing that’s ever happened in the world since the beginning of time with “well the other side saw it this way”.

Sorry man, but the bolded part just proves your arguments aren't based in any sort of reality. The only way your argument makes sense is if we could all travel back in time to the dissolvement of the Soviet Union and disband NATO at that time. I think there is a small case that could be made that a move like that may have been the right call to reset the clock in Europe in 1990s. I would also say our distraction in the middle east led to the Vladimir Putin problem going unchecked for too long. But none of that can be changed now and suddenly we're back to facing a ruthless autocrat showing signs of a desire to re-divide Europe. We now have to approach the world in the current reality, not look back on what if's and coulda, woulda, shouldas. You've kind of been all over the place in what you're arguing, but it seems ultimately it comes down to you have a disdain for the NATO alliance in general. NATO has its problems, that's for damn sure, but at this moment in time it's probably the only thing keeping one man from re-carving up the continent to fit his personal whims. So yeah, I do think defending Lithuanian sovereignty is a worthwhile objective because that defense goes beyond one country and is an answer to ruthless, state-controlled system that has no place in the modern world.

Dude, everyone here gets what you're saying. The Russians (well, mostly Putin) view NATO and its growth differently than we do. That's not in dispute. Decades old promises from former US and other world leaders is great, but geopolitics changes and, like it or not, the people that lived in these former Soviet republics get a say in how they want to live and be governed, and they have overwhelmingly clamored to be part of the western system and NATO.

The events in Ukraine since 2014 have proven that is not the case.

It’s also such a fucking cop out to say “this is our fault for not listing to Putin”. No, this is 100% the fault of the mad man in Russia who is possibly the most evil world leader since Hitler, who decided he would rather completely waste a neighboring country for his own satisfaction and ego than face the fact that his autocratic style of leadership is a failing ideology. The Ukrainian people chose to move towards the west. We didn’t force that on them, they chose it for themselves. To have your entire country destroyed simply because it’s political views don’t align with its neighboring nation is so abhorrent, it’s almost indescribable. Fuck Russia and fuck Putin.

So is intentionally causing a melt down at a nuclear power plant the same as using a tactical nuke?

So is the Ukrainian dude with 6 kills legit? I really want it to be legit.

Some pretty wild video out there of a Russian jet attacking a target that either is a civilian residence or is in close proximity to civilian homes. Of course unsure if it’s legit or not and I saw it on Instagram, so can’t link it here. It’s probably floating out there on Twitter too.

I find it hard to fathom that had we simply just said “Ukraine will never join NATO”, that we would have avoided this whole thing. From my view, that opinion, and Tulsi’s opinion, is too black and white in the other direction. That’s all irrelevant now anyway since Russia is there and currently steam rolling.

I'm not sure it was going that in depth, probably just speaking to the general make-up of the situation that does in many ways resemble the late 1930s.

I think he meant the similarities between the Munich Conference in 1938 with Hitler and the other main European players discussing Hitler’s desire to annex the Czech border lands; vs the current ongoing meetings, also taking place in Munich, between many of the same European nations, but this time replace Hitler with Putin, Germany with Russia, and the Czech border territories with the eastern Ukraine ones.

JFC… Surely he will be removing himself since he too is a middle aged white male.

I do hope you're right. If part of this plan is to export a product to partner nations, that airframe makes sense in a lot of ways.

As much as I would love to see it, I cannot fathom in any way the modern Air Force choosing a tailwheel aircraft. So it’s between the AT-6 and the MC-145, and let’s be honest it’s going to be the AT-6 because that’s how lobbying and our acquisitions system works.

This is the guy that runs the city with some of the strictest COVID mandates in the world.

Dear god, the thought of having to choose between Stacey Abrams and Donald Trump in the next election sends shivers down my spine.

This probably could also go in “What’s wrong with the Air Force”.

How convenient you forgot this gem from 2012. "The 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back," Obama said, seeking to paint Romney as out of touch on a key foreign policy issue. Russia annexed Crimea less than two years after this comment.

I know you said “before someone suggests ForeFlight”, but if this is what you’re looking for, ForeFlight makes this incredibly easy. Garmin’s EFB has a logbook too but it’s not as good as ForeFlight’s. If obsolescence is something you’re worried about down the line, just save your logbook as an excel file from time to time. Pretty much all of them allow that to my knowledge. FWIW, I used to use Excel but switched to ForeFlight.

Not sure whether 🤨 or 😂 is the appropriate response to this. It not THAT personal, haha. If you're really curious you can dig through my post history for it. I've discussed it on this site before, just didn't feel like sidetracking the discussion in here since most of it is focused on major airline hiring. Just easier to handle via PM. To those that PM'd, thanks. I'll try and respond shortly.

Anyone here currently at a Regional or have recent experience at one that would be willing to have a conversation through PM? Have a bit of a unique (and personal) situation that I'm curious how the regionals might handle. Thanks!

Absolute gem from our Vice President. Real solid leadership right here. Also, how's the border? And still 3 more years to go, at least...

Freebeacon.com has what appears to be a copy of the original email. Some googling can get you to it pretty easily. I won’t link it here because it has the personal phone number and name of the individual in question listed on it, which is poor form imo, regardless of the potential need for a whistle to be blown. However, that statement from the 3 Star on social media sure sounds a lot like beating around the bush of the fact that most everything in that email is true. Let’s all be honest here, it’s far more likely than not that today’s Air Force is going out of their way to push a social agenda over actual capability.