ViperMan

Better us than Russia / China. Like it or not, this action opens up the possibility of getting things straight in this part of the world and countering negative influence by multiple malign actors.

Dude. Engage in the discussion. Fine. But go back and re-post this using your non-sockpuppet account. We all know this is someone who's been here for a while.

This is objectively true. You only have to finish top 50% to continue to fighters. Getting a fighter on AD would take finishing in the top 10-25% (ish). Those who finish below that, but above 50%, are your huckleberries.

This is definitely the case, which is why it's such a perfectly corrosive maneuver. I saw a talking head on CNN bring up a good point, however: what would be the difference if it were the joint chiefs of staff putting out that video? Would that have been a problem? I think we all agree it would have been. Now, the fact that Mark Kelly is no longer in the chain of command makes a difference, but he also knows exactly what he was doing.

I have never seen such an absolutely despicable and disgraceful posturing from any government official. Mark Kelly has been a disappointment for a long time, and this has put him squarely in the category of irredeemable.

Certainly there are platforms that benefit from a construct like this, and if that is the reason for the renewed discussion you could say I'm all for it. Limiting it to platforms that are in high demand with inherently low flight time available makes a lot of good sense. That said, I have a feeling that this subject is coming up because of the UPT/FTU pipeline problem, which was wholly self-induced. And if that is the reason, all I can do is shake my head.

That part makes sense, and I'm glad other people are recognizing and trying to solve the problem. This one is particularly frustrating though because it's so obvious what the solution is, and also so painfully obvious what the cause was. No doubt the whole circuit will get promoted. One half for "solving" a production problem. The other half for "solving" an experience problem. Everyone wins I guess. It's called UPT.

To pile on, everyone always gets screwed. The people who get screwed the most are the property owners. The people who get screwed the (distant) 3rd most are the poors who get to benefit from "affordable housing." The people who get screwed the 2nd most - close to the 1st most - are the people who never get mentioned: the people who would otherwise be able to afford said apartment at market rate, but unfortunately inhabit the 'in between' - the wide span of those individuals being too rich to qualify for "affordable housing" but to poor to afford luxury apartments; i.e. the entire middle class. This is all to say that there is no such thing as "affordable housing" - but such is the core nature of Leftists' favorite social programs - none of them describe what the thing really is. In reality, there is only "taxpayer-subsidized-housing-for-a-select-few-lucky-enough-to-be-among-the-chosen-few-to-receive-it-housing." If there was truly "affordable housing," you and me would be able to purchase it at that rate, but as we all know, we can't.

I'm honestly not trying to be overly critical here. It's just baffling that something like this is under consideration.

This is from the cheap seats, but everything being discussed in this thread strikes me as the whole point of pilot training. What am I missing? What is the USAF missing? Is this a serious proposal? We cut pilot training in half, but then add a program like this shortly thereafter? WTFO?

God damn that's delicious.

This. https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/pe-ch40.htm "Communist society passes through two phases of development: the lower phase known as Socialism, and the higher phase known as Communism." That's from the writings of the Economics Institute of the USSR. As Brabus said, it's merely a pit stop on the way to a communist society. Even Marx and Engels didn't really distinguish between Socialism and Communism in their writings. To them, it was all part of the same project. I'm not even convinced anymore that the Left thinks it's a good, workable economic system. I think that's a mask they use to hide envy and a misanthropic desire to destroy things that they can't have or otherwise haven't achieved. It's a hope, desire, and bet on future Schadenfreude.

The problem isn't limited to simply the scale of what is being spent. The problem is also what the money is being spent on. Marshall plan? Expensive? Check. Money well spent? Double check. Rando GS-8 sending out emails to gather data that some other government agency already gathers? Expensive? Nope. Money well spent? Double nope. The point is we should have cut the BS many years ago. Now though? The deficit is running so far out of control we don't have the luxury of making precise choices. Slash and burn as much as possible. In my view at least half (more) of what the government does it has no business doing, so you won't see any tears from me.

I hear you, but the time to use a scalpel was about 25-30 years ago. Now, our government his hard-broke, and there ain't no gaining of compromise with the other side to agree to cut spending. Exhibit #1 = our current government shutdown over public healthcare accounting. So blasting caps and chainsaws it is. I don't like it - and I know you don't - but it's the inevitability of having grown complacent at the trough for far too long. So feel free to direct your ire towards past decisions. I hope you take a proper lesson from them going forward. The deficit spending has to end, or getting people back who are "actually needed" (as you say) is going to seem a quaint problem when we achieve total system collapse because the rest of the world tells us to fuck off with our BS debt issuance grift. So right now, this is what a hard choice looks like. The path you suggest is allowing the tidal wave to continue building. Hard no from me on that.

I'm here for all the firings. The government is bloated and ineffectual anyway. May as well stop paying for it. It's ugly, but finally someone is holding the line vs the insane out-of-control dem spending that has been unaccountable (literally) for years.