FourFans

@BashiChuni Have you read any of these? 'Principles for dealing with the Changing World Order' - Ray Dalio 'The end of the world is just the beginning' - Peter Zeihan 'The Fourth Turning Is Here' - Neil Howe

“Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar; and still there are things worth fighting for.” - Norman Schwarzkopf I didn't articulate it clearly enough. Yes, some nation will eventually claim victory in Ukraine. That's not the point. My concern isn't about who is victorious, it's about the fact that the rest of the world will have to deal with the aftermath. The bloody unstable aftermath in which no one really won and lots of people died. My sentiments are not based on squishy axioms. My sentiments are based on the cold hard reality of the seeing the business end of events that armchair quarterbacks call 'engagements' and 'warfare' when in reality they are organized death, chaos and the destruction on a scale most humans alive can't comprehend...and Ukraine is a meat grinder compared to the horrible things I personally witnessed over the past twenty years. No one here should ever advocate for war. Conversely if it comes to the point of violence, we need to be the baddest mothers in the valley and make sure it ends quickly and decisively...which is precisely the opposite of what's happening in eastern Europe right now...and yet people talk about some kind of victory being attainable there. It isn't. The only options are a bad outcome or a worse outcome. Yet some here want to church it up like there's still a possible glorious victory to be had. Many these days are content to talk about 'winning' the war in Ukraine in the same way they talk about 'winning' in sports. Sure, someone will come out relatively victorious. (My prediction is a stalemate that leads to new borders and a war that never really ends until the next major conflict) But we need to stop talking about who's 'winning' in that war. None of them are, and it's currently going nowhere. All that's happening now is the blunting of Russia as a nation against the cast iron of Ukrainian lives. All that's happening now is useless death. I understand it's the russian way of warfare, but having been witness to enough of that over my career, I'll thank everyone to stop celebrating it. Nailing the point home about our American divorce from the realities of war is that I have heard several people, on both side of politics, ADVOCATE for a civil war in the US. Most recently it was a retire AWACS pilot who said, "we just need to have this civil war already." I wanted to choke him. THIS is my point. Stop pretending that war has no cost. It does. The Ukraine war is going to end Russia as a modern state...and probably Ukraine too. The outcome is very important to us, as it will define whether we have to put more US troops into Europe or not. It will also define just how bad the world wide post-war economic slump is. And then there's the power vacuum when Russia loses. Power vacuums are never a good thing. Go read "The Dead Hand" to get a glimpse of the scary shit an imploding Russia would leave behind for all of us to deal with. If you think America gets out of dealing with the aftermath of this war politically and economically, well, then you're just ignorant and I can do nothing to help you (that's a royal 'you', not you specifically tac airlifter). A decisive victory was possible at the start of this thing. It isn't anymore. The only victory to be had will be the most costly kind, and we all get to help pay the price in some form or fashion. That's history. It's happened before and will happen again.

Indeed. If nothing else, the west is getting a re-introduction into the Russian (or even Eastern) way of war where body counts don't matter to the leaders so long as strategic objectives are met, or even appear to be met. Make no mistake, Ukraine is not western in its thinking. I'm not a Ukraine studies guy, but my gut says they'll keep fighting with or without western support. We have to take the world as it is, not as we want it to be. What's happening there is tragic and sad, but it can be leveraged for a strategic outcome that is better for Ukraine, and all western nations.

No one. That's who's winning. It's war. No one wins in THIS war. Counter question: What do you think would happen afterwards if Russia were allowed to go unchecked by western support? US and NATO stops supporting Ukraine, as you think should happen, and Russia dominates and takes the entire of Ukraine. Then what? You think he'll stop?

Apparently you can't see through the rhetoric. Being globally aware and engaging the power we (USA) still have is simply responsible for our own well being, forget the rest of the world. We have options now that we won't have later. You can choose to stick your head in the sand now, but that only leaves tomorrow you two options: A: Try to become globally aware and engaged later with options, power, and leverage you might not have any more. B: Learn Chinese. That's not an opinion. That's fact proven by history time and time again.

That chick looks crazier then a bag full of cats.

No

Unbelieveable

Likewise. Simply sitting next to this buddy of mine at high school football games has been amazingly educational. The dude can see penalties literally before they happen.

I second that

To the idiots who love doing the instant replay lawyer bullshit: A: Second guessing the physical decisions that highly trained athletes make in the matter of nanoseconds makes you nothing more than a completely worthless critic. "That guy made a decision to hit the most valuable player on the other team and then clearly didn't change his decision because he didn't make a split second decision to change his tackle posture when that important player changed his posture at the last microsecond." Get a life you sunken chest spinless incel personification of virginity. Instead, put the beer down, and go compliment the ref who had to make that call with no access to replay before doing so, fully knowing he'd be second guess for the rest of his career. I know that ref, and he's a good man. He's an athlete and a man of intense integrity. In comparison, you are nothing greater than a raging fart snorkeler. If you haven't been in the arena, shut up and go do 20 pushups...if you can. //rant switch off seriously, I'm friends with a professional Ref who has to make these calls. The number of completely un-informed and un-engaged dudes that make idol threats to him is thoroughly UNSAT. If the ref called it a personal foul, I believe it. Those guys have seen some shit and know what they're doing. The guys on either side of a "that was a bad/good call" debate universally don't know a damn thing. Step out of the peanut gallery and onto the field, or STFU.

I want one

Wait...you're not calling dibs?

The 10 mm socket was never found...

***@Biff_T has re-entered the chat***

72 Clay Aikens

Copy. I'll be buying a pistol that will turn into a rifle for tyranny at close to medium ranges. Right now my pipedream is the Sig MCX Rattle Canebrake, which would require a proper stock, which is now apparently a pistol brace. The suppressor is a whole other story...but I'm patient.

Can someone translate the above ruling into plain English? I want to buy a rifle with shorter than 16" barrel and put a collapsible stock (pistol brace) on it. I've been putting that off because I didn't want to go through the registration BS. Can I do that now with no extra paperwork?

I have no doubt someone, somewhere in the test world is/has already started and/or completed the testing of an SDB with a rocket boost. Imagine the amount of highly accurate hate a B-52 or B-1 could deliver from over the horizon...

@M2 2024! With @nsplayr as the VP.

FIFY. Having worked in NATO...NATO cannot and never will be able to defend NATO.

Apparently they're called superprompts, and the new hotness is software design is building programs that create superprompts. Humans designing software designed to help humans communicate with a computer that will communicate with humans. What happens when you ask GPT to create a superprompt for GPT?

Like i said, agree to disagree. My wife and I are heavily involved in the local public middle and high schools. No woke. No pronouns. No gender ideology. No book banning. No LGBTQ shaming. Top tier academics. Top tier extra-curriculars. Tight integration with the local community, churchs, and public service volunteer organizations. I'm fully aware how unique it is, but it does exist. Bearing in mind that I assume a normal low level of all that stuff that has always, and will always be at the fringes of every society. Just because one kid claims to be LGBTQ doesn't mean it's a main stream in the school. I knew gay guys and girls in my high school growing up. It's normal and not the center of mass. The more people I meet from around the country, the more I'm realizing that the doom-and-gloom-nay-sayers on all sides of every aisle are usually the ones with low real awareness outside of their own community, and form their opinions of what's "happening in America" based on CNN, Fox, OAN, MSNBC or some other outlet that thrives on fear mongering. Reality: There are many local communities in America that are perfectly healthy and not saturated with either wokeism or anti-wokeism. They aren't in major cities. You don't hear about them because they don't make noise. Just because you don't hear about them doesn't mean they don't exist.

That fine print you can't read: "Please know that none of the content in the attached document was produced or validated by UPS. UPS is not, in any way, advising or encouraging any retired employee to contact PSA about this opportunity - nor are we suggesting that you take a new job. UPS has no knowledge of the actual terms and conditions of employment at PSA. Any employment decision between you and PSA must be determined solely by you and PSA." This is targeting the UPS dudes that just took early retirement. Not sure how it'd work for a junior dude who quits UPS to jump ship. My gut says: