wolfriverjoe

Seen on FB: So you want to discriminate against gays because that's 'what your religion says'? Great. My religion says that the rich should give all their money to the poor How about that?

Yup. Whelan's family has praised Biden for his efforts. And I came across something else while searching. Back in April, Biden arranged the release of a Marine veteran who had been arrested for public intoxication, facing a 9 year sentence. He was swapped for a Russian pilot who had been convicted of drug trafficking. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/27/trevor-reed-texas-russia-prison-swap/ He was arrested in the summer of 2019. Apparently Trump didn't give a shit about him either.

You know that your hero, Trump, had plenty of opportunity to attempt to free Paul Whelan, right? John Bolton has said that Trump decided just to ignore the whole thing. Biden is and has been negotiating for his release.

#1 - Putin can say anything he likes. Doesn't make it true. I was under the impression that the US had a "no first use" policy for WMD. I could certainly be wrong on that, but that was what I always thought. Of course, all the Putin sympathizers on here will jump on it, claiming that Putin would 'just be defending himself' if he was foolish enough to use nukes. The way the 'Ukraine is building a dirty bomb and is going to use it on their own territory' bullshit went away after Putin was told how big of a mistake that would be leads me to no worry a whole lot about it Not zero, but not a whole lot. #2 - That sort of 'doctrine/policy' isn't something that changes a lot. Russia has had a LOT of sources in the US government over the years. If this is the policy (and that's a pretty big 'if'), then Russia may well have known it for years. Decades even. Not that Trump wouldn't have told Putin anything and everything he wanted to know, but I don't think Putin would have needed that info from him.

While I don't agree with your proposal, I have to agree that it's been an interesting discussion. In part because, on this internet forum, there's been a Regional Director and the President of the BOD participating. Not sure what other sport/activity would see that happen. Oops. Should have been 'how many would NOT have met the qualifications. Too late to edit the post.

Well, to be fair, the Rs have stated repeatedly that their main agenda is thwarting the Ds. They've flat out said they would rather see the country worse off than see the Ds get a victory.

The turbine engine in the Abrams tank is 'multi-fuel'. It will run on anything that burns.

In Russia, sure. But Putin has his supporters everywhere. Even on here, where certain people are pretending Putin didn't sabotage the pipeline. Or maybe 'just asking questions'. You know, the old "I don't actually support Putin, but I'm going to ask anyone who says something mean about him for 'evidence'. 'Cuz I don't believe he did ANY of that."

And his supporters (the fools and idiots) are backing him up.

You say 'moving to the US'. Are you planning a permanent (or long term) move? That would be different than a short term stay (vacation). As a visitor, you can use your home country's license, and get a temporary USPA membership. As noted above, it's primarily so you have insurance for any damage you may do (3rd party liability). You can jump your own rig, provided it follows the rules of your home country (equipment certification and inspection/repack). If you plan on being a US resident, it changes some. Your rig needs to have a US FAA TSO certification, and needs an I&R by a FAA rigger in the past 180 days. You'll need a USPA membership and license. Converting the license is usually a paperwork thing. You sit down with an instructor and go over your log book. If you can show you meet the requirements and pass the written, you can apply for the license. Somehow not too surprisingly, I found the info about the licenses at... USPA. https://uspa.org/Discover/News/foreign-or-military-license-and-rating-conversions

Most of the major players are big donators to BOTH sides. While the money buys a certain amount of influence, what it mostly buys is access.

I've been following this discussion since the beginning. I don't agree with the idea of requiring qualifications to jump a wingloading and have said so. But I had a thought yesterday: How much difference would it make? That is, how many people who are getting hurt or killed would have met the qualifications and been 'legal' to jump the w/l they were? From what I've seen & read, the answer would be 'not many'. Most of the people I know who got hurt were fairly well qualified. They had the experience, the jumps and the skills to do what they were doing. They just screwed up. Some had the jumps and the advanced licenses, but didn't have the skills. Some of the 'new jumpers' who got hurt were under reasonably conservative canopies. They just thought they could do what the 'cool kids' were doing and flew themselves into the ground. This applies both to what I've personally experienced and what I've read on here. The one big exception to it was Sangi. And he had everyone on here telling him he was going to hurt himself for a fairly long time before he proved them right. The actual number of people who were on a canopy beyond their skill level when they got hurt is pretty small, as far as I can tell. Again, this is just my 'gut feeling', and doesn't really have any facts or statistics to back it up. I welcome correction from anyone who has better info.

If you are jumping once a month, don't worry about it. kleggo's advice is solid, but is more of a 'long term' storage process. I take winters off these days (too old to jump in the cold) so my rig usually sits from maybe late October/early November until April or May. The only thing I really do is pull the pilot chute out of the BOC pouch to keep the spandex 'relaxed'. Rig sits in the gear bag, in the spare bedroom (kept at normal house temps). Standard I&R & repack the main in spring.

Denial is even harder to fix. Getting cult members 'deprogrammed' is the hardest of all.

While it's a remote possibility Putin could defeat Ukraine, it's not likely. Where would he get a million men to draft? He got about 300k, but most that could left the country. Many that were drafted came from the remote Russian east. Many are ethnic Asians. Very few had much training. Many surrendered as soon as they could. Or ran the other way. That 'million men' would simply be cannon fodder in the face of any reasonably modern army. Putin is quickly running out of just about everything. They may well have lost HALF of their main battle tanks. https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-russia-probably-lost-half-main-battle-tanks-ukraine-pentagon-2022-11 They're now using cruise missiles intended for nuclear attack as decoy drones. There's lots of other stuff that they have used, had destroyed or had captured that simply can't be replaced quickly. Building a new tank is not a trivial, cheap or fast thing to have happen. While I have no doubts that Putin planned on going after other 'former Soviet states' (Georgia was probably at or near the top of the list), the reality is that Russia won't be able to attack or invade anyone for quite a while.

Hi Jerry, It would be the 'final irony', but it won't happen. #1 - I can't see the R party allowing her to get the nomination. She didn't follow the 'party line' when Trump was in power. #2 - The 'Trumpettes' still have a LOT of influence. Especially in the primaries, where many 'middle of the road' voters don't bother to participate and ALL the wingnuts & weirdos do.

Phil1111 beat me to it. But a bunch of stuff that's actually important, popular among the 'average' people and not aimed at the rich and powerful. In fact, most of it was opposed by the Rs. One of the 'more fun' facts was that the 'Inflation Reduction Act' included things that would help control prescription drug prices. Of course, EVERY SINGLE Republican voted against it. Right. And what did Trump fix? What did he accomplish? Other than huge tax cuts for the rich, not much. And those tax cuts increased both the budget deficit and the national debt by a fairly large amount. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/25/three-years-later-evaluating-laws-trump-said-hed-pass-his-first-days/

There was a Drag Queen show scheduled in Southern Pines North Carolina. Of course, the idiotic religious nuts protested it, calling it 'immoral'. One (or more) of them may have taken it a step further. Local law enforcement hasn't officially declared a motive or identified any suspects. They are referring any questions about terrorism to the federal investigators, who are on the scene and investigating it. They shot up a couple of substations. Damage was extensive, they need to replace some components (guessing transformers), which aren't readily available. So 40,000 people (FORTY THOUSAND) people are without power. This includes hospitals (running on generators), traffic lights (injury accidents) and various other things. Temps are forecast to go below freezing at night, so lots of people are going to be pretty cold. And the Drag Show? It went on as scheduled. The performers had the crowd to light up the stage with their phones. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article269579392.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/us/power-outage-moore-county-investigation-monday/index.html

Are you aware of how much he's accomplished in the last 2 years? That's what Gingrich is talking about.

Fun fact - No Republicans have condemned Trump for this. Apparently they understand that his statements have no basis in reality, and don't seem to care that Trump basically lives in a 'fantasy world'. Story:https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/3761264-house-republican-wont-denounce-trump-over-call-to-terminate-constitutions-election-rules/ EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM swore an oath to 'protect, defend and uphold the Constitution', yet they are silent in the face of this attack on it. Hell, even Trump swore that same oath. I know he's not in office, but that doesn't change the fact that he took the oath. I know quite a few veterans who took that oath, and even though they are no longer serving, don't feel that they have ever renounced that oath (Marines are the most emphatic about this).

Well, in true "Trump fashion", Walker is no longer talking to any media that isn't inside the Right Wing Echo Chamber. He appeared on Fox, with Lindsey Graham as his 'chaperone', which has become typical. Article:https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/nearing-election-day-herschel-walker-seems-scared-reporters-rcna59810?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR1NPpt77_QNgxKj3CSGHYtb34G2v6Ey_ucB7f8q0rIRgHRYcA6hMrYxUlY

Yeah, but if you don't pay your electric bills, the power gets shut off and the submarine reactors nearly have a meltdown (this really happened back in the 90s) Nothing like nearly having a catastrophic nuclear accident to show the world how powerful the Russian Navy is. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/09/22/Close-call-on-Russian-nuclear-subs/5380811742400/

To a large degree, yes. Putin's had Lukashenko in his pocket for a while. The article (which is really an opinion piece) seems to indicate that Lukashenko is realizing how bad of an idea being tied to Putin is. Presuming Makei was murdered (a pretty solid assumption), it could be a message to Lubashenko. It could be removing someone who was potentially creating an end to the war that Putin wouldn't like. Or a combination of both, along with other factors. The article also pretty clearly points out why Slim is totally wrong about a 'negotiated peace'. Anything even remotely fair to the Ukrainians would be suicide for Putin. Either political or actual. The Belarussians don't like the idea of throwing their troops and equipment into the meat grinder that is Ukraine. But refusing Putin isn't super healthy either. It's going to get interesting. I wonder how many more will have to die. Both cannon fodder on the ground, and the 'elites' in their 'safe' homes. Before someone realizes that Putin has to go. And which route will Putin go? "Napoleonic" (exile to some backwater island)? Or in the footsteps of Mussolini (hanging from a balcony somewhere)?

I see a huge difference between wingloading and deployment altitudes. Skills and experience don't make 2000 ft at terminal velocity any different. As Chuck made clear, differences in equipment and standard protocols have made 'humming it down to the basement' far less common than it used to be. And far less safe. I know a couple people that had 2-outs from low pulls resulting in inadvertent AAD fires. One ended up in a main/reserve entanglement that spun down to the ground. Everyone (including the jumper himself) thought it was going to end in a death, but there was enough fabric out and the ground was soft enough that he ended up only breaking a thumb. OTOH, wingloading is a very subjective choice. Skills and experience have everything to do with it being a reasonable choice, or a really stupid idea. While the license level is a good baseline, it may or may not have a lot of validity. And it's something that would require a fair amount of attention from the DZ, DZO & S&TA. I know there are a lot of DZs that have and enforce canopy size vs experience rules, but I'm good with that being a "DZO decision".

Being stupid should have consequences. Allowing a huge amount of stupid people to take control of the party should have consequences. This is fucking hilarious.