"Yeah, but he had to fit his ego in as well, so there's that..."

Maybe ya boi would reload sizes?

Ya Boi would be like a super studly medium...

"Unless it was former CIA chief GHW Bush, what do you think happened? This is Common Knowledge 101, not a fever dream."

Bruh, got it. He put on the space suit, did the hours of training, and then flew to Tehran in the SAR-17.

Surely the SR-71 wasn't that different than the jet he had flown in the Navy.

How many hours do you have in a military aircraft? I'm at 2023 hours.

Wanna talk shop?

#44

I think it's a project.

I think Cutiepie is a project as well.

Or experiment. Both are similar in nature.

"You're the only guy in the Army who had mess duty on first day of boot camp and rolled out of the rack by a DI, instead of a drill Sergeant."

Maybe things were different once upon a time, but officers have never had mess duty. Even officer candidates. He also once referred to himself as a "grunt." No officer would ever disrespect true grunts like that.

#4

C0RI0LANUS is not a real person. Or at least not a real person from the US. The dictation is all wrong, and there is no officer in the world who would have written "Lieutenant Colonel" as Lieutenant-Colonel. That's not a thing. I've suspected this for a while, but for me, this confirmed it.

I think C0RI0LANUS is some sort of a project. Or maybe a real person who suffers from some sort of cognitive disability. But the strangeness is just too strange. All politics aside.

"Reagan made a deal with the Ayatollah, behind Carter's back, to not release the hostages."

It was Reagan?

I thought it was GHWB that sat in the back seat of an SR-71 to fly into Tehran and negotiate with the revolutionaries.

My daughter is an intern at Stars and Stripes here in Germany. She has done well, and the leadership wants to offer her a job.

As part of the application process, she had to explain how she would glorify the Trump administration's contribution to the military. She asked me what she should say, and I didn't have a clue. And that was before Iran.

If Trump thinks that he can influence the perspectives of service members though propaganda, I think he is wrong. They aren't stupid.

"I'm still convinced that IF civil strife happens, it's got a 98% chance of being started by MAGA because either a. they get violently angry when things get so bad they snap out of it and lash out or b. they're so beholden to Trump they react violently when everyone else finally stops humoring them or treats them with the scorn they deserve as things fall apart."

It'll be option B.

Like Sitz said, it's a cult. It's love. Trump already injured the US population (including Trump supporters) in ways no president ever has.

They're battered spouses who can't imagine life without the one they love. I don't know of any other way to characterize it.

"It's a cult."

Yeah, I just wonder how far off we are from when that cult starts doing things like suicide bombings. Within ISIS, it was a prestigious thing to die for the Caliphate. As the world (including the US) turns more against Trump, what lengths are his acolytes willing to go to win his favor?

"I will say that I was horrified when we were hosting international students and a teenager from the Netherlands who'd just exited tenth grade said the State had determined she'd be a good aesthetician and no way would they be paying for any advanced education."

You can still pay to go to college. It's just the state isn't going to pay for it.

I actually like that. I would love to see a system where qualified students in the US had access to scholarships in fields that were low density/high demand. Those who wanted to get a degree in something where there wasn't high demand could, but they would have to make a business case on how they plan to repay their loans.

"The only people acting as if their preferred but obviously false narrative is reality are MAGA morons like you, s*&^heap."

81% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Trump. I need someone to explain to me how that is possible. I could understand the logic of supporting any Republican over any Democrat. It's stupid, but it will always be a thing. I just can't see how anyone with even the most basic level of common sense could ever view Trump as even remotely competent. Is it that they like the drama? The theatrics of the Trump presidency?

impulsive "leadership"

That's an oxymoron if ever there was.

"The miscalculation that this administration made was thinking right after the first invasion that the people of Iran would rise up and take over. It will happen but obviously will take longer than expected."

The first invasion?

I didn't realize there had been an invasion. Other than a handful of JSOC guys rescuing a WSO that got shot down.

What invasion are you talking about?

"imo, 4th grade is too early."

Not really. Kids going the vocational route finish school at age 15. Training in the trades seems to be a lot more comprehensive in Germany than in the US.

"What it seems to me they have a problem with is selecting students at a young age and putting them on a "skilled trades track". The selection criteria being based on... probably their income level and race? (though no one would admit to it, it would just "happen to turn out that way" based on their completely unbiased Trump administration approved criteria), because it doesn't seem to me like judging their future academic capabilities at that point would be all that reliable."

Once again, this is the way it is done in Germany. And it's not done based on race and income level. It's based on academic performance. And even those who aren't tracked to go to university in grade 4 are still eligible to attend college if they perform well enough, but Germany pays for student's tuition, so it makes no sense to try and prepare all students for college, when the majority don't need it.

It's called being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. Or Euros, in this case.

This happens in Germany. Elementary school-aged kids are screened in 4th grade for what careers they are most likely to succeed in.

"You're in Germany, no?"

Yeah. I live in Kaiserslautern.

#88

Do Prague.

There is a saying, that all the capitals want to be Paris. Paris wants to be Prague. Prague is one of the few places I don't get bored with.

Bastogne would be an easy day trip. If you've ever watched the Series Band of Brothers, you can still see the foxholes that Easy Company dug in the Bois Jaques. It's pretty cool.

I guess we're kinda neighbors now.

"You joined a volunteer army. You don't get any credit from me for drawing that paycheck and doing your job."

Me? Yes.

Adrian was a civilian. He attended some sort of civilian SOF training course at Ft. Benning. Then he went back to the Balkans to kill commies.

#75

Tell me about the problems in the other capitalist countries. Like Norway. Or Finland.

"Or maybe you mean tax cuts for the rich, which added about ten trillion dollars to the debt, since 2001."

And the lack of taxes on the non-rich?

How much has that cost the country?

Have I been living in Europe too long???

"They will have to cut programs and raise taxes just to keep the country from defaulting. Ensuring they all get voted out next election."

In order to save SS, taxes would need to be increased by 2.14%. Is that too much?

Can you imagine what an 18% VAT would provide in terms of tax revenue?

#5

Beat me to it...

Debt won't go away until USans become willing to pay taxes. Until then, the US is basically living on an equity loan.