FourFans

I had to do a little scientific self-education, but the fact they were HOPING to clear the tower, and then actually made it through max-q (the highest dynamic pressure point which will highlight any weakness in the design) with multiple failed motors is a great telltale. I'm not an individual stock buyer, but it seems like SpaceX is here to stay for a while.

Maybe we should just bring back the phrase: Let me see your papers

Have you ever actually read any of the history you're quoting? Seriously, some of what you're stating is on par with claiming that germany won WWII. If you make a claim without supporting it, don't expect anyone to pay it any respect. For example: Please defend your central theme of "The Bible is every bit as brutal as the Quran". Do you mean it's a brutal story? If so, then...yes...history is brutal. Do you mean it's brutal in the directives it contains...such as stating all non-believers must be either converted or killed? Because that dictate exists in only one of those two documents. As a baseline to kill the "exclusive truth" argument: All religions are by their very nature exclusive. Literally. Please define "LU fundamentalists". You started by comparing Liberty University to Muslim extremists, then shifted to "LU fundamentalists". You introduced a new term and presumably a different people group. Define it. You addressed "Bigoted violence". Are you addressing only violence conducted in the name of religion? Should we assume you include the innumerable protests in the past few years that were clearly bigoted against the rule of law as demonstrated by several attacks and vandalism acts against state and federal government facilities, judges, and employees? There are several people around here on a 'high horse' about such violence...while simultaneously ignoring the same exact kind of violence that doesn't fit their view point or narrative. Please explain how you understand the word "bigot" Standing by for factual statements and logic to back up your claims.

Seriously. I just heard from the bobs at my AFRC unit that the people on high have directed that anyone coming from AD to our unit who is current and qualified will be gained as an overage without hurting our manning/hiring numbers. Our unit is healthy, but big blue is bleeding pilots so badly they have to dictate such measures. In other news, this is my last day in the AF. Thank God.

I was passed over in 2016 and 17, so the data is a bit dated. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the process hasn't changed at all. Expect continuation to be offered if you're in a critical career field. It's an individualized letter you get and are required to sign, so read everything carefully. If it's confusing, grab a personalist to de-code it before you sign. If passed over, you're supposed to get a sit-down with your commander to cover all the details and what to expect next. Grill him on details in that interview and get your ranking as he pushed you out of the squadron, as well as your ranking in the wing. That's less about fixing something and more about accountability. Any commander worth his salt should already be digging in to see exactly why you didn't make it. After all that, you get a one-on-one phone counselling with a AFPC civilian who's whole existence is promotions and passed over stats. That is about looking at the numbers for your entire promotion group and examining some of your peer group packages that were right on the cut-off line to see what they had vs what you had. That's what's supposed to happen. In my case, I got a phone call from my supervising O-6 who was two countries away saying 'sorry, you didn't make it, good luck'...and I had to figure all this out on my own, so beware: mileage may vary. I will simply highlight that it's your boss's job to dig all this up and explain it, but there are also a lot of useless bosses out there. As your profile says you're at RND, you should be able to go direct to the source for councelling...or simply to kick those AFPC clowns in the shins...

That's a fair point. Hell, they're probably still using some of that left over "support" in the way of trucks as it is.

Nothing new...and it still happens. If I'd have stayed active duty, my 18-19th year would have been spent in Kabul...on an air staff...during 2021. All while my family would be finishing the move to Abilene or Little Rock. I still haven't heard what they did with guys that were on a 365/180 to Kabul during the collapse. Did they get sent home, or re-deployed somewhere else to finish their sentence?

Sadly, in terms of Russian history, they call that a warm-up.

Did you actually read his post?

Perhaps I didn't use enough sarcasm. Protests should not occur in those chambers. That's just naked intimidation. Moreover, the elected leaders shouldn't be actively leading those protests. It wasn't ok on Jan 6th and it's still not ok. Acting like a thug has no place in our civics. As for if it's actually allowed? I have no idea what the law says about that.

Yes. Weirdly enough it took almost 10 minutes of google searching to find out that Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson used a megaphone because, after stating their opinion in the assembled state congress, they didn't like the response they got from both republicans and democrats of all races, so they used a megaphone to shout down their opponents and excite and and embolden protestors. CNN claims it was a "rally" (because rallies happen in congressional chambers...obviously) when in fact it was an assembled session of congress. It was almost like google didn't want me to get the raw facts...weird. This wasn't the first time they disrupted sessions, and obviously the state leaders were tired of their childish behavior. They are 27 and 28 years old and, according to google, haven't done anything with their lives outside of politics. But google and CNN say they were ejected because of their race and the fact they were supporting gun control...not because they were acting like petulant children and refusing to let the state legislative body proceed with it's business. The 60 year old lady with them wasn't expelled, but she says that's because she's white. Seriously, these are people responsible for leading a state. Apparently Jones isn't new to the megaphone. If people don't like what you say, yell louder until they respond the way you want them to, right? They are nothing but entitled bullies.

I'm not imagining 'deployed' as the desert, and I'm well aware that we use civilians on the daily for target practice. Hell, I've done urban E&E myself. It's great training, and it's needed. There's a reason it's not readily disclosed how and where we practice with military skill sets. Civilians simply wouldn't understand. However, being on the business end of an ISR lens, bombsight, empty barrel, or HUD is one thing. Doing practice interrogations in public lodging is something completely different. The deployed locations that mirror a major US city where DoD would need these skills are many and varied. We definitely need to train for that. That's why we have secure facilities specifically built for the purpose of replicating those environments (with obvious limitations). There are times when a major US city is the only place to practice employment, tradecraft, etc. But, practice interrogation should not be happening in a civilian environment for the exact reason that they hit the wrong target and didn't immediately realize it. That's all kinds of unsat. Interrogation...as in get information. If they are brand new to this, it should happen in a controlled environment. If they aren't new, the instructors should be fired. It should have taken all of 5 seconds for the instructors to realize they had the wrong dude/wrong room. Field interrogation is one of the few times we question someone without knowing much about them. I get this guy probably just sat in a tub while an academic situation was occurring, but that is precisely why this kind of training should never happen in a civilian environment. FBI training DoD, I get it. There's nothing wrong there. But they HAVE to weigh the risks of making a mistake like this though. It really does make them look like the gestapo, especially in today's social and political environment. Hitting the wrong target in a person-to-person environment, possibly even disclosing some ways and means, speaks to a serious problem in the system. Risk vs reward analysis is way off somewhere in that training process. I sincerely hope this isn't an indicator of the proficiency levels in our federal agencies. That all assumes this was actually a training event. I'm not willing to discount that it could have actually been a real event that missed it's target. "Training event" would be a likely cover story for such a miss. That's no conspiracy, just a statement of fact. We can't be immune to the fact that this is precisely how federal agencies interdict bad guys. All the more need for well planned training. Either way, I think you're right: that dude's getting paid.

WTF are federal agents doing training in a public hotel? So, in the room next door there was some poor bastard waiting to get interrogated? I know a cover story when I see one. Whoever wrote that one didn't work very hard. How many deployed environments look like downtown Boston? Taken another way: the federal government is practicing invading public lodging and interrogating citizens, presumably without waking the neighbors (which is the only logical reason you'd practice in a place like that, train like you fight). That's straight up gestapo shit. In the broader context of how federal agencies have been acting recently, this is concerning.

I broke rule number one about arguing on the internet. As we've resorted to childish taunts, I'm clearly hurting sensitive feelings. I'll stop de-railing the woke thread. Back to the discussion of how to have community without religion. Good luck with that.

Oh look, thin skin. -edit to stop derailing this-

-edit to stop derailing this-

This would solve 60% of it:

I think you mis-understand the argument. It's not about Christianity. It about the moral and ethical foundations of the country. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values, principles, and morals. In the same way as a house, if you try and move the structure off that foundation, the whole thing collapses. Imagine Iran as a whole suddenly being forced to shift to Hindu, Buddist, or Christian values. The society would collapse. Same with America. The difference being that in America, so many people have had liberty and freedom that they paid no price for, for so long, that they don't appreciate what they have, so they are ignorant to the facts of our society's structure. There's reason Wokeness hasn't caught on in Russia, Iran, or China. Freedom and liberty, unfortunately, often result in ignorant arrogance after a few generations. So it's not about Christianity for Christ's sake, it's about Christianity because those values are the foundational structure of our country.

I've been wondering the same thing. It's probably because they have no clue what real racism is. Oddly enough I have yet to see the gay-pride flag version of corporate symbols and logos on anything at all in the middle east commercial market. It's almost as if the big companies only believe in DEI when it's instituted in the USA. Weird, right?

The truth usually is. That's why thin skinned people get butt hurt in debriefs. That doesn't mean we should back off from saying it.

So...ops normal for an airlift unit commanded by a crossflow turd snorkeling tanker clown?

FIFY.

@brabusI can't upvote that post enough. I will add this simple note to answer your "I want to actually solve the problem" point It's simple. Incentivize men to stay in the home, providing with and for the mother with whom they create kids. Protect the family unit, and America will survive.

Wait, you mean calling legislation "The Inflation Reduction Act" when it does nothing at all to reduce inflation because it increases the production of money and spending on A LOT of things (like Solar which is useful in, some, places) but decidedly insists on using more money...which has to come from somewhere... BY DEFINITION, INFLATION: "Monetary inflation is a sustained increase in the money supply of a country" I ask any liberal poster here: would you run your personal budget the way the liberal agenda supporters want to run our countries?

@nsplayrA sincere thank you the specifics behind your stance! Also, fully agree about the "biggest shit show" ...sigh...can Trump just go away, please? Curious question: Are you familiar with the research and books of Peter Zeihan?