raimius

AI finance would probably start quoting you some reg (that doesn't actually exist, and it made up because it sounds bureaucratic) for why it denied your travel voucher/PCs expense/pay.

A Russia that is incapable/unwilling to invade their neighbors and a China that is deterred from making similar attempts would be good outcomes, from a NATO/US/"west" perspective. A sovereign, western aligned Ukraine (hopefully with a little less corruption) would be good too, I suppose. They are both a main actor and a pawn, at the same time, it seems. Ukraine isn't a particularly vital US partner, but stopping Russia from "flipping the table" of European security is rather important to the US, since that group has a huge chunk of the global economy, influence, and US allies.

Corruption is a major problem in Ukraine. Check. Some people may be pressured to keep aid flowing in order to keep some Ukrainians quiet about certain American financial/political issues. Check At the end of the day, Ukraine is still fighting against an unjustified invasion by one of our "competitors," and stopping that sort of thing is in our interests and the interests of basic justice.

Sometimes I don't like how things are going...but an analysis of alternatives doesn't offer a ton of better options. Keep working to keep your neighborhood (literally and figuratively) in good shape and encourage others to do the same. Edit: when asking for faith in the military, it's a really broad question. Do I think we can destroy any enemy nation? Yup! Do I think the DoD always makes the best decisions and takes care of people?...not as much.

The above! More personal--save and invest. Make sure you get TSP matching (max it if you can), and have an IRA. Every time your pay increases, auto-invest half that raise. You'll never feel the difference and it adds up over time. Also, have a non-retirement account for first-home down payment, etc.

TSP (to get matching at a minimum, max out if able), plus Roth IRA. Make sure to log in and select the funds desired (it used to default to the gov bonds fund). Neat strategy someone passed to me was to throw in half of any pay raise. That way take-home increases with pay raises, but so do the investments. In today's scale, that's an "extra" $1k+/mo by the time they get to O-4--and it will never seem like a sacrifice.

We cant just point the finger at civilian leaders. The DoD writ large has a "can-do" response to basically anything. We need to stop that. The military hammer can't fix every problem...but we need to be clear on that. How many times did we "turn the corner" in Afghanistan? How many times did we send over-optimistic reports from people who should have known better to people who should have known better?

So, do you think Russia thought NATO was going to invade, if they didn't defeat all the (Jewish-led) "Nazis" in Ukraine with their own swastika-tatooed hired guns?

It is a grind. There are fewer additional duties, but plenty of gradebooks to write, or review prior to the student's 88/89, or a sim to run because the civilian sim IP isn't qual'd to teach some sims, or getting a "good deal" XC where you can sit a day in some random city so you aren't "forced" to take a comp day (because who wouldn't want to double turn student sorties for 11 of 12 days?). Then, get told you aren't producing enough and also need to take more time for "resiliency" (which is mandatory, but also will likely be scheduled over). Is it the worst thing in the world? Of course not. Is it way more pain than it should be? I'm going to go with yes.

I think most of the US folks trying to get Afghans out are trying to get particular families out. Some of the escapees are cowards. Others realized their sacrifice wouldn't turn the tide and called it quits. There's also a big gray area in there.

There is a critical mass to such things. When you are one of the only dudes willing to fight and all your "leadership" flees and most of your logistical support disappears, you face a losing battle. Is it worth it to "die like a man" and get your family killed for a government that just fled the country or flipped sides? Should the Afghans, writ large, have fought? Yeah. If they had enough mass to have a reasonable chance, I'd take a harder line with you. Should a few individuals die on the hill to show support for people who don't care? That's less clear cut.

Curious what was the 11H rotary-wing rate?

Probably...but I've also seen JA argue cases where their own sequence of events didn't make sense. I also kind of doubt all JAs think about how SCOTUS would review each and every case.

I only had one college course on the law, but do seem to remember that all legal orders need to have a valid military purpose. A gag order relating to X, Y, and Z topics under review/investigation would make sense. A TOTAL gag order would have some pretty serious 1st Amendment issues. It is entirely possible that both the LtCol and his command are making poor (and possibly illegal) decisions.

Ordering someone to cease all social media and group communication sounds exceedingly broad and potentially illegal. I don't think you can order someone not to post college football scores on Facebook from their home.

..and AGAIN, allegedly he said he would do something if something else happened. He said this to a party we are NOT currently at war with. Is it bad (if true)? Yes. Does the (alleged) statement meet the legal definition of treason? No, on multiple levels.

This is a terrible strawman. No, we don't allow presidents to just decide to commit mass murder. There is a "road to war" that involves many outside sources. The mass murder without any reasonable cause is the war crime, not the particular weapon here.

It's an interesting one. On the one hand the Chief Executive is the sole legal release authority for nuclear weapons. On the other hand, anyone following an order to randomly nuke a country would almost certainly be committing a war crime, and thus have a duty to disobey.

Saying you are going to do something treasonous if something else happens is not the same as commiting treason. Slow your roll there.

Can you afford a major market drop? Don't sucker yourself into a bad situation. If you can take the hit, it's probably a more acceptable risk. Is this a normally increasing market, or is this rise an abnormality in a usually stable market?

Sure..."for that"... Context clues say that Gates didn't like the way AF leadership was trying to prep for high-end fights at the expense of another couple dozen Pred CAPs over Iraq.

The administration has already admitted that their policy is designed to punish those who have not received the vaccine. It's one of the better reasons all the forthcoming lawsuits may actually succeed (also, some ADA provisions).

Sorry to hear that, but good on you for not going 100% into despair mode. Success at UPT should probably be factored in graduation numbers meeting goals and producing acceptably skilled new pilots. The AF is fairly good at tracking the first metric, but the second is much more questionably measured I know I took the full syllabus plus a few rides, back when it was like 90hrs in T-6s. New iterations don't give students that much time to figure it out. Is that necessarily bad? Not if you can meet production and quality goals... although I question the quality side. We are either cutting the slower learners or graduating pilots with lesser knowledge/skills, imo.

Yeah, I am looking for whole house versions, not just a room.

Any tips for family/pet friendly PIT pads?