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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/14/2022 in all areas

  1. 3 points
    Oh yes, I know all that. Having been in that position for roughly 32 years (my military career), my problems are that 1) no one called him out for it (so I needed to do so), and 2) this nonsense still happens to educated, powerful women in this country (I'm sure it also happens in many of the other countries whose citizens participate on this forum, but as so-called world leadership goes, some of us still don't live that example). It's disgusting and I refuse to let it slide.
  2. 3 points
    Easy solution to that problem. The "ignore" list is accessed from the top right of the screen..
  3. 2 points
    I heard a fascinating interview (I think it was on Sway) with a (formerly) Russian journalist who had just spent a week in Russia before returning to the US. He talked about the state of broadcast journalism in Russia. Some of the things he mentioned: The Ukrainians are being portrayed as "Nazis" and the invasion deemed only a "special military action." Journalists who report it as an invasion or a war are made to disappear. He didn't imply that they were killed - but they are taken off the air and often arrested. One Russian outlet reported that the special military action was going well, and that the pictures of people injured and killed on TV were "crisis actors" who were paid to act injured. (Does that ring any bells?) News reports often do not lead with the invasion. Instead they lead with the "economic war" that the West is waging on Russia in a bid to take over Russia, then they spend no more than five minutes on the successful special military operation against the Nazis in their brother state of Ukraine. He noted that the tone of the news hasn't changed at all. Whereas on FOX and CNN and the like the news of the war is being reported in large type and with constant coverage, the Russian media is doing its best to make it seem like nothing is going on (other than the West's economic attacks on Russia, that is.) He noticed two sorts of people there. People who watched Russian media and were going on about their business normally. Other people who had access to outside media (via the internet and apps that haven't been cut off yet) are preparing for the worst and often leaving. He told stories of people he would visit on Tuesday and hear about their concerns on the invasion, and notice suitcases and passports out. By Thursday they were gone. This reminded me of another Russian journalist I read about - Peter Pomerantsev. He worked in Russian television production, both entertainment and news, and regularly attended the news meetings where government officials told them what they could report on, and how it should be presented. He now lives in the US and teaches political science at the Agora Institute, part of Johns-Hopkins. He talks about watching FOX News, OAN and Newsmax and realizing how similar they were to Russian TV propaganda: “It’s the same game. It’s the same rhetorical tactics, the same intellectual tactics, the same psychological tactics. There’s this kind of pop-postmodernism, where Sean Hannity will say things like objectivity doesn’t exist, everybody’s biased. That’s exactly the same argument the Russians make." He mentions a quote from Dmitry Kiselev, a news anchor and propaganda expert for Putin: "Objectivity is a myth that is proposed and imposed on us.” Hannity's version of this was “I don’t pretend that I’m fair and balanced and objective,” He also talks about how both Russia and right wing media present opinions from both sides to appear to be fair and balanced. To not undermine their mission, they choose buffoonish carciactures of their opposition by using their resources to search out, elicit and even sometimes invent vapid opposing viewpoints. "They turn everything into a Jerry Springer show. ... Essentially, Tucker Carlson has ‘idiot liberals’ on.” The primary difference is that Russia maintains buffoons who espouse the opposition's position to have on interviews; the right wing in the US mainly finds, edits and alters media clips of their enemies saying things they can spin as foolish. It's interesting to watch the propaganda war unfold as quickly as the ground invasion did.
  4. 2 points
    I'll admit that I find using a single front riser to collapse my canopy in higher winds to be the most effective. It just dies right down. Maybe the USPA should, instead, consult with the PD canopy team, or a group like that, to have them formally study which is the fastest under the largest number of conditions (gusty, obstacles, varying strength and arm length, etc), and then have instructors evaluate based on that ranking, which is the easiest to teach students to be able to consistently execute. Wendy P.
  5. 2 points
    Upper wind limits should be based upon the concept of "when student canopies start landing backwards" ... instead of the current jumble of numbers. It is also dumb for experienced jumpers to be under canopy when winds are strong enough to back them up when faced into the wind. Take this logic from a grumpy old TI who has suffered plenty of bruises, but no fractures during landings. Also consider the concept of when turbulence collapses canopies - at low altitudes - wiser jumpers stay on the ground.
  6. 2 points
    I'm thinking that we may be approaching the time to position some serious ground forces and air capability in Germany and Poland. Maybe now would also be a good time for our NATO allies to start loading armor on trains. No ultimatums.
  7. 2 points
    I don’t think the Russians really ‘hire’ the Wagner group. It’s more like a pretend PMC which is actually an extension of Russian special forces which they can use when they really want some deniability.
  8. 1 point
    There were some claims but not confirmed. The FBI uses the phrase "not identical" many times which means what,, "maybe" or "not 100% sure". In 1976 the FBI effectively said the witnesses were unreliable and only Cooper's cooperation would solve the case. McCoy.. all three stews "not identical" after viewing photograph.
  9. 1 point
    We will do nothing so long as so many of our countrymen and women consider whining about the price of gas to be the most important action they can take.
  10. 1 point
    She was asked to explain it simply then was mocked for explaining it simply. You seriously think there weren’t plenty of people listening who have no idea where Ukraine is? You can’t blame Harris for the fact that so many of your countrymen need global geography explained to them as if the were school kids. She’s not the only one to be speaking in those terms. Peace and security is a step to far, but ultimately this is the first time that an overt war of aggression and conquest by one recognised sovereign nation against another has been waged in Europe since WW2. There is a distinction.
  11. 1 point
    I wanted to look at it, but they're hard to come by around here, and I wasn't willing to buy one without driving it. And, frankly, after doing without a car for the last 5 months, I just wanted one. What can I say... And I enjoyed driving the Kia, it just felt right. If a little gutless. Wendy P.
  12. 1 point
    Canada (as one example) had 1.1 million people, more than 10% of its total population, serve in the military during the war. At the start of the war the total military was less than 50,000. During the course of the war Canada built and deployed the 4th largest air force and the 5th largest navy in the world. Just how quickly do you think it would take to accomplish that? Are you saying if troops aren't in theater within 24 hours they don't count? If your position is that those countries that declared war (years before the US was dragged kicking and screaming into the conflict) were "meaningless", then I would say that the 1.1 million Canadians who served, the 55,000 who were wounded, and the 42,000 who were killed would collectively say fuck you!
  13. 1 point
    It sure would be nice to have a center-left and a center-right party, which could exclude the nut-jobs who seem to dominate these days.
  14. 1 point
    It's not like he banned K-Y Jelly, Mr.concerned about Biden's behind. Reaching around to a more topical area of concern did you notice, in your excitement, how masterfully Biden played Putin in the lead up to the Russian invasion? Instead of constantly thinking that guys nuts you might have noticed that when everyone else was buying Putins legerdemain Biden consistently stated that the Russians were in fact going to attack. By doing so he denied Putin his own Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz pretense and coalesced international opinion against Putin at the get go. So, in that sense he most definitely took Putin from behind.
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