gearhog

Dayyyyum....

When I used the term "reasonable expectation", that is a legal term and how I intended it. You seem to be applying a gut instinct as to what the term "reasonable" means to you. There are as many personal definitions to what constitutes "reasonable" as there are people. The use of deadly force against a non-violent criminal has probably been legally argued thousands of times. There are, in fact, Supreme Court rulings on the subject. Breaking and entering in and of itself is not grounds for use of deadly force by law enforcement unless additional parameters and assessments are met. Would you know what those are without having to look them up? They were actually argued in this specific case and it was found that the officer doing the shooting may not have acted appropriately, but it would have been too difficult to argue and prove that he did beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm not arguing on behalf of Ashley Babbitt or her beliefs. But as I said before, if you believe that any of us should have a reasonable expectation to be shot and killed for entering locked door in a government building, then you must also believe that it is reasonable and justifiable for law enforcement to do the killing. Perhaps there is nothing you feel strongly enough about that would compel you to protest your government, but don't you want there to be significantly high threshold for the taking of anyone's life should you one day feel the need? Should we have mowed down the Antifa protestors smashing windows and lighting things on fire? Most of us would admit a part of us would find it satisfying, but if you spend the time to sort through the logic and downstream effects of giving your government the authority use kill someone over a property crime... you may one day wish you hadn't.

If it is reasonable to expect to die, then you must also believe there is a reasonable expectation and legal justification to kill an unarmed person who has committed no acts of physical violence purely for the reason of attempting to enter a locked door. Surely there must be some law, or even Supreme Court decisions that address this.

Germany pissed off the Brits today by revealing British soldiers are, in fact, already on the ground in Ukraine and helping the Ukr army launch long-range cruise missiles against Russia. https://news.yahoo.com/british-soldiers-ukraine-helping-fire-195700593.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANthDvD7fFcnt40QA9svzNDCwc4UHmwd50vlnHruuR61ggiElu8UYv40vyJHe-WP6rwtK8swSSWMnl9GPVOHxyXSFKTx5mECVDXDTUOtSLlfa3RgPcJE6Q_ckCq9nebLncS1z3SHQo1flxAO-D2coNTlDb3fZdbbUfFh1QC6hFM6

Financial Times article from today details some leaked Russian nuclear doctrine, including the thresholds required for nukes to be used. https://www.ft.com/content/f18e6e1f-5c3d-4554-aee5-50a730b306b7

Tornado at Wright Pat fucked some shit up.

That's abrupt. Did the pilot shortage disappear overnight or do they plan on getting pilots buy some other means?

There's still an important distinction to be made. One committed a deliberate act to end his life, the other had no reasonable expectation to have her life ended while committing no acts of violence against herself or anyone else. If you're making the case consumption of unhealthy information leads to death, I guess you can do some logical gymnastics to reach that conclusion. But, only on one side do we see the completely irrational conclusion that self-destruction is a reasonable way to achieve a political goal. That's what makes wokeism dumb, and different.

False equivalence. Ashley Babbitt didn't commit suicide. Or homocide.

This one is fascinating to me. This is young likely middle glass white kid in the military. He's not Jewish, Muslim, or Palestinian. I'd say the probability he's been to Israel, Palestine, or immersed in the culture of any ME country is slim to none. The chances of him having a close relationship with anyone who has is also slim to none. Palestinians engaged in direct conflict with Israeli, and who should have the most reason to engage in extreme forms of protest aren't doing such things to themselves. His mind was hijacked by an idea that came only from second/third hand information on a screen he held in his hand. That information, which had no direct effect on his day-to-day life, consumed and compelled him to destroy himself to one of the most grotesque ways possible. Now imagine being able to create and distribute that type of information. Wokeness is deadly. It's a parasitc infection. We may cheer when a woke moron offs himself, but it's important to remember that the idea that caused it is propagated onto others. It's how leftism lives on even though its hosts do not. It's an old video, but one I think of quite a bit.

Russia's response: Moscow, Feb 27 (EFE).- Russia on Tuesday warned of a direct conflict with NATO if the military alliance deployed its troops in Ukraine, as suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron a day ago. “The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to Macron’s remarks. “In that case, we would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict with NATO),” he said in reply to questions about a direct Russia-NATO conflict if the Atlantic Alliance sent its troops to fight in Ukraine. Peskov said NATO member countries must “assess” whether the conflict with Russia “corresponds to their interests and the interests of their people.” Macron said on Monday that defeating Russia in Ukraine was “indispensable to security and stability in Europe,” amid urgent pleas for more weapons from Kyiv. https://efe.com/en/latest-news/2024-02-27/russia-warns-of-direct-conflict-if-nato-deploys-ground-troops-in-ukraine/ In other news, Ukraine officially cancels national elections. It might sound counter-intuitive, but it's actually a necessary step in preserving itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy and protecting it's citizens from tyranny.

This is a veteran suicide, right? Does it get an asterisk?

I just saw that Russia pulled a ridiculous George W Bush publicity stunt with Putin supposedly flying one of their newest bombers. Of course, there is no way of knowing if this was a simulator or CGI. I think it would be entirely appropriate if we countered by having Biden fly a B-1 into DCA. https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-election-bomber-flight-navalny-facfaaacba57bfce3d61d810a426ec0d

I watch this video periodically to keep things in perspective. Mindblowing.

The official numbers have been released. For the first time, Zalensky discloses that Ukraine has suffered 31,000 troop losses since the beginning of the conflict. He also revealed that Russia has suffered over 180,000 deaths and close to half a million in casualties. At this disparity, the war should be over soon. Remember, the tax deadline is Monday, April 15th. https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1761802069575336026?s=20

Just getting caught up on all this Alexei Navalny stuff. Horrible. I'm infuriated that a country like Russia would allow the persecution, imprisonment, and death while in captivity, of political dissidents. God forbid we ever go down that path.

Let's not overthink this. Russia bad. We need to keep funding the war machine.

It's only cool when we do it. 😄 In 1962, it looks like there were only about 25 satellites in orbit. Today, there's about 7000-8000, mostly in LEO. It's a near exponential increase. Somewhere near half a million objects 1cm or bigger. Some believe we're approaching a number where loss of control and/or collision of a few satellites could create an uncontrollable cascading effect that would make orbiting the earth near impossible forever. That would suck.

Russia is going to nuke our satellites. We must nuke them first. Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated, potentially crippling a vast swath of the commercial and government satellites that the world below depends on to talk on cell phones, pay bills, and surf the internet, according to three sources familiar with US intelligence about the weapon. These sources gave CNN a more detailed understanding of what Russia is working on – and the threat it could pose – than the US government has previously disclosed. Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, set off a frenzy in Washington on Wednesday when he issued a statement saying his panel “had information concerning a serious national security threat.” By Friday, President Joe Biden had publicly confirmed that Turner was referring to a new Russian nuclear anti-satellite capability — but officials have steadfastly refused to discuss it further, citing the highly classified nature of the intelligence. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/politics/russia-nuclear-space-weapon-intelligence/index.html

Some of my best music memories in the AF involved drinking: Got stuck in Maputo, Mozmbique once. Too dangerous to go downtown, so we stayed at the Hilton on the beach playing poker in the bar with about 10lbs of their local currency coins ($5). Someone broke out into "Sweet Caroline" and both crews +support drunkenly joined in. Ice storm in St. John's NF over New Year's. Spent a lot of time in O'Reilly's Irish Pub and another down the street. Crews learned all the audience callbacks for "Big Strong Man" and the performers loved playing it for us. Also, "Whiskey in the jar" (Irish version) and a few other drinking songs. Knowing Jimmy Buffett when his music comes on during a TDY/Deployment should be mandatory. Listening to Suicidal Tendencies via patch cord over IRQ/AFG was always fun.

I was trying to think of some kinda-believable/kinda-ridiculous critiques for his responses that some pro-war fanatic might come up with, and I got nothin. gave up. It was just too good. I thought the "Dad" analogy was especially good.