phade

I’m pretty sure all nuclear power tridents are on alert 24/7, it’s part of the deterrent capabilities of the weapon itself. So to put them on alert is a memo from the Department of Redundancy Department.

I always question the oil independence part with Trump. I voted for him so take that for context, but I think people mix oil independence and producing more oil than we consume. It’s not the same thing when you account for where that oil is consumed. We imported oil and exported oil at high percentages in that span. We didn’t use 100% US oil and export surplus. I don’t want to derail the convo but oil independence means we don’t rely on other countries in my book, and we did during that time. Pretty sure a lot of us consumed oil from Canada, Russia, etc during that time.

Haven’t checked in, in a few days. So, we still trying to argue against the premise Ukraine is doing better than expected? Or we still stuck on trying to argue internal US politics? I’m genuinely curious how Putin would respond if there was a united “coalition” decision to enact a no-fly zone.

The double side of self-preservation; the dark side if you will. But the world really did just watch a sovereign nation be fully invaded with no real premise for said action. One that has been sovereign for 30 years and gave up nuclear weapons in exchange for a promise unfulfilled. If you listen closely, you can hear centrifuges firing up in every country that has them. It remains the only true deterrent in today's age. Doesn't matter if you have good healthcare or human rights violations - if you can split an atom and deliver a payload, you are in a more secure position in the world. This event just proves that and encourages that.

The oil and NG issue I think is the one area where the west could have done better. Environmental reasons aside, in situations like this, we should have been prepared to stop buying oil and NG from Russia and we really haven't. We arguably could have started unleashing increased access to both commodities in November/December and been very prepared to replace the supply chain to Europe, without trigger offsetting responses from the other producing countries that might have perceived it as a negative. Russia has a GDP the size of Texas and it's heavily driven by those two commodities. That is a 20/20 hindsight assessment that really should be discussed. My guess is that the US would have had to time the handle being pulled just right because of the lack of storage infrastructure, but dang, even if it were off a bit, I still can't see not doing it.

Ghost of Kyiv - might be the first Ace in the 21st century. Don't think it is confirmed yet but wow, if that is true, that is a singular feat not seen in a long time. I don't think we have any Aces still flying do we?

Also, Putin wears Sitka gear when doing outdoors stuff.

It's an interesting series of events. NATO just kicked into high gear calling in their Response Force for the first time, ever. Russia will be Russia I think is what we've learned. Unrelated, one of my managers that I hired into my group, was an intelligence academy graduate and worked in logistics for special forces - he was active situation lead for incoming material from the OBL raid where he was killed. We learn and know some of the weirdest stuff as a country - OBL was a DIEHARD South Park fan. His room was filled with taped recordings of nearly every episode. Films of him watching it in his bedroom were found where he was belly laughing at episodes. Who would have thought that?

Yeah, and their flag is still flying. They're doing better than expected. They didn't just roll over and take it dry. Let's remember they are not the one causing this. It is a force acting upon them. Right is right in any language.

Nobody expects Ukraine to win. Also, nobody expected Ukraine to still be fighting back on day 2 against the world's second largest military. They're doing better than expected. What is so hard to understand?

Article 5 is the indispensable component of NATO. America bears the brunt of alot of cost due to the positional power, but that article is the tie that binds. Alliances began both world wars - and every has learned the risk of breaking that line in the sand now. The UN Security Council has its hands tied because Russia is one of the five veto powers. The only corresponding act is for the UN to go to the GA and basically do an "override" action called Uniting for Peace. It hasn't been used in nearly 25 years and much longer before that for use of military response. Unlikely to happen.

Nearly every external military assessment has been that Ukraine has outpunted their coverage so far. Nobody expects Ukraine to win, but the deterrence is that Russia over-estimated their ease of progress. So much so that Russia has now offered to meet in Minsk with the Ukrainian leadership before encircling Kyiv - Russia could easily overrun as they have only placed into force a small percentage of soliders from the 150K. The problem is, Ukraine shoots back, when they expected none, and it's giving Russia pause against original plans. Why? Because Russia wanted to demonstrate precision warfare - similar to what US can do. They haven't been able to demonstrate it due to resistance and because, well, they can't. Sending in more troops means brute force and less precision with high risk of human atrocities and higher cost to Russia on various fronts. So far, Russia has demonstrated weakness in logistics, strategy, and capabilities. It's all on display and if anything, the NATO powers are learning from it. Obviously Russia is a force with nuclear capabilities, but its conventional means are comparatively weak. All it has is a hammer - trains and truckload of soldiers that just won't stop being delivered. That has been their entire history of capabilities - humans, and more of them, after the ones in front get terminated or suffer casualties. They (Ukraine) have done much better than expected in this event.

The overwhelming majority of people understand the sadness that is war and the fragility of life. But, you must admit, despite all of the lack of preparation and organization, Ukraine is doing better than expected in resisting. Russia under-estimated their resolve, amongst all else, and as an American, I can appreciate the Ukrainian grit. See the conversation between the Russian warship and the island defended by 13 Ukrainian soldiers? In the face of absolute destruction, their response was simple, yet epic. You can't teach that - it's engrained in a culture.

Mailed the keys to the bank; strategic default and bank agreed not to come after me after a ton of back and forth that took a year to arrange. Bought a second house before all of it and paid a year on both before I began the process. Best overall decision ever. Consulted with attorneys and accountants and it was consistently the advice to do. House has proceeded to flood, as has the neighbor. Each house has already turned once to new owners resultingly. Same issues. Cause is that the area is on rockbed but drainage from ag fields about 1/2 to 1 mile away were tiled and pointed our direction. Hard to prove in court, but it timed exactly right. Was in the house four years with no water, and then went five years with 8 floods of 4 feet or more of water inside lower split level. Washing machine bounced against ceiling. Perhaps in the house that keeps giving - the house was on 2 acres single lot. Some idiot made a mistake when it titled afterwards and 0.9 acres were re-titled to new homebuyer and 1.1 acres were left to me, which included the home's back yard, septic leech field and the shed, and playground area. So right now, I'm paying $3-400 of taxes on it. Working to try to get it into new owner's hands - I own the darn lot outright by someone's pure stupidity. And it's been many years since we moved.

I will forever have PTSD from flooding. With safety in consideration, I'd rather my place burn to the ground than have a flooding issue that can't be fixed. Been there done that, give me the match please. Pretty bad when the FD says they'll look the other way.

utah i thier technogy challange In all sincerity, your point would be better received if you used technology like spell check or took your arse to a classroom.

There are alot of optics companies out there now. I have one Leupold, owned two. I know people LOVE them, but short of edge clarity, I can't say they stand out. Definitely feel like you get more with other brands now. At the end of the day it is a good scope brand. Vortex doesn't seem to be the Vortex of old. I haven't been super impressed with them the past 3-4 years. I've sold off all of my Vortex save for a Crossfire II that is on a Scout single shot. Athlon, Maven, Sig Sauer, Tract, Riton, and the list goes on. Lots of new players there. Plus others like Burris and Vanguard that are IMO under-acknowledged. Burris and Vanguard own all or most of their factories, too, which is somewhat rare in the non-legacy companies.

I stopped mining hoping for a payday and sell shovels and jeans instead. More work for sure, but it is fun work and people enjoy it. Topped last year by 20-ish%. Saw some people win a Weatherby, Howa, Traditions, Savage, Remington, Tikka, and stuff like Spartan, Riton, Browning, Sig Sauer, etc. One guy downstate won the Howa and the Weatherby since he had the halftime and final blocks. Good day for that guy.

Cell cameras help alot, but having a good owner is key. Our owner is willing to engage LE and also speak direct with neighbors on trespassing issues. Giving up on a lease is hard to do for some people, but I've had a few one year and done, and two year and done leases over the years. Can't say I regret giving any of them up; it's part of the process.

Not by any stretch. Sometimes life happens - people can't get time off to hunt, lost a job, aged out of hunting, etc. Sometimes it is not good, but that is why you do due diligence to reduce the chance. Look at owner behavior (like this one posting this ad), ask about neighbors, trespassing, etc. Owners may not think something is relevant (not knowing a hunter POV) and so you need to ask specifics. The guy who hunts that one corner opening day actually ends up being the guy who hunts the entire place when the hunters are not there, or that one spot is the prime funnel or pinch for that parcel rendering everywhere else less effective. Neighbor rides horses once in a blue moon means getting daily pics of them on cam. That sort of clarity is really needed. I am leery of leasing from people who do hunt - there would need to be a good detail and insight behind why they are not choosing to hunt that ground. I've only ever had one good lease from someone who hunts and that is because the guy owns a large number of parcels and is an older "recreational" regular season hunter who likes to go elsewhere to another of his parcels and hunts the same spots over and over (does quite well mind you, too, lol). But in large, hunters will give up a spot if it's not their best or good spots. Due diligence is needed here big time.

Alot of times you don't really know until you get a season under your belt there. Due diligence helps but it's not foolproof. No different than buying a property or home or whatever.

Like anything else, leasing is kissing frogs to find the princess.

Hotel costs can add up no doubt but you could also buy a camper, or other options that don't just get this to you for a week, and an unexclusive week at that. But for me, that just screams no. Above all else, look at the rules and info, and pay less attention to what the rules are actually about and more to the narrative of the rules this person put out. This owner would NOT be good to work with. Micro-manager to the Nth degree. My experience has taught me when they put out this type of detail and requests, and rules, it's usually not a good situation to involve in. The owner to my Ohio lease called me yesterday - for no reason. Just to say hi and see how my hunting partner was doing with his pneumonia that he had, and to shoot the crap. He's going to call me as soon as they get bare ground so we can shoot down and look for sheds. The owner who posted the above - he'll be calling to complain about a micro-management issue.

I have several leases and arrangements in and out of state. Wouldn't touch that scenario with a 10 ft pole.

Bro scores 6s on and off the field! Social media comments are vicious.