Blue

I mean, y'all are just throwing soundbites past each other, but the Trump administration's efforts to pull back from Climate Change hysteria has definitely been a positive.

How often is it done on a prepared strip, vs unprepared? Just curious, as the TWZ article seems to point to it being on a random patch of ground in the middle of the desert. Either way, understood about it being something that's trained for. Regarding the KISS principle, was more referring to Ospreys being more simple than the MH-6 / C-130 combo. Granted, that's putting a lot of faith in Osprey capabilities...... Again, spitballing from my comfy armchair.

Will be fascinating to read this whole story when it comes out, warts and all. Particularly the planning, and how they chose which assets to use. This TWZ article has more details on the MC-130J landing site in Iran, along with some background on the MC-130J / MH-6 Little Bird combo. Had no idea it was a thing, but apparently something the 160th SOAR trains for. The latest update puts the landing zone at "...............just south of Isfahan. This puts it about 200 miles from the Iranian coastline and roughly 230 miles from a land border." By my Google Maps analysis, maybe 400-ish miles from Kuwait City. This does seem like exactly the kind of scenario where the Osprey was supposed to shine. Shades of Eagle Claw, with us leaving helos and C-130s in the desert. Not to mention, the whole concept of landing C-130s in the desert in order to launch Little Birds out the back seems to run afoul of the KISS principle. Comfy here in my armchair, though.

This forum still needs a TDS button.........

You'd previously linked this video about Starliner in the Tactical Tanker thread, also from Ellie in Space. I'm not much for YouTube, but I found her reports to be comprehensive yet concise, and very well constructed. That video focused on NASAs report of findings on the Starliner mission, released in February, including a lot of NASA head Jared Isaacman presenting the results. He's pulling from his memo to the entire NASA workforce published last month, worth a read here. The report itself is linked at the bottom of this NASA press release. 311 total pages, including 9 appendices, but a good Executive Summary on page 3-5. In short, just kind of an all around shitshow, with NASA and Boeing both being incredibly inept. Many echoes of Challenger and Columbia. One bright spot of the whole affair was Isaacman. I was skeptical of his appointment as NASA head. I'd previously figured you'd want a politician in that spot; someone who was adept at going to Congress and battling for money. Isaacman seems to be the leader NASA needs. Doing a lot of saying the quiet part out loud, even after only being in the position since December. Couple examples below. Both are from only the past couple weeks, which is exciting to me. After watching NASA falter for so long, are we finally witnessing some real change with the agency? Does NASA need more money? Isaacman: No, the answer isn't more money. We have enough money. We need to focus on the needle-moving objectives. Execute with urgency, in iterative and safe way, and empower the workforce and our partners to get the job done. Then this bit below, which deserves to be quoted in it's entirety. NASA Watch article with the comments, originally pulled from this post on X. This should sound familiar to anyone who's had even a passing association with a NASA program. Layers upon layers of outsourcing, with every associated company taking a skim off the top.

I'm sure we'll see Crenshaw landing at a K street lobbying firm by the end of the month.

I dunno, they call out Duggan (the former Marine) by name in the press release as someone with "similar charges," but they leave Brown's co-conspirator unnamed. Have to assume there are more than just Duggan and Brown who fell into this line of work. Wonder how many have gone down this path...........

DOJ press release also includes the F-15 and F-16, but it's unclear if he was pilot or sim instructor in those. Looks like he went to China in Dec 2023, and returned Feb 2026, after which he was arrested. Seems like a pro tip would be, if you're going to go play these stupid games, plan on never coming back to the US. ETA: Press release mentions conversations with a "co-conspirator." Would seem to make sense this guy wasn't the only former US serviceman over there. Have to think the rest of them have taken notice, and plan on not coming back.

Wow. I don't have a dog in this fight, but damn. Pulling CSO and RPA LTs off of casual status en masse to go to UPT? That's pretty unprecedented if true (not doubting these posters, just questioning the second hand nature of the info).

Even two and a half years later, these posts are still relavent.

I voted for this: And I also voted for this:

Hill AFB Depot (Ogden Air Logistics Complex) completes it's final A-10 work. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1asgebWcC6/

What would you like us to discuss? News I've seen is that the latest "dump" is some x millions of pages, or along those lines. Not clear to me if that is indexed and searchable, one big file labeled Epstein.pdf, or what. So far, only story I've seen is something about Bill Gates getting an STD from a Russian? hooker. I keep seeing people trying desperately to tie Trump into Epstein's depravity, but I haven't seen anything conclusive.

Yup. I'm not privy to what the White House has planned for illegal immigration through the rest of Trump's term. I'd like to think that this current wave of ICE enforcement is just the first step, and that the items @pbar highlighted above are coming next. But I doubt it. My limited understanding of the matter is that there are already a lot of good laws on the books for dealing with businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, I suspect it'll be status quo. Some nibbling around the edges, and that's it. I'd love to be proven incorrect, though.

It really does feel like someone's trying to reboot the 2020 "Summer of Love." They want their George Floyd-style martyr. They want riots and unrest. I take a little bit of solace in the fact that, as I look around at the people I know who are always ardent supporters of The Current Thing, they're a little ambivalent. Oh they'll still give you a hearty "Fuck ICE" if you ask them. But they're not going out of their way. Not a lot of banners over their social media profile pictures like with Covid, and that sort of thing. I think people have run out of give a fuck, along with being overwhelmed just keeping their heads above water in our ever-deteriorating economy.