“We’ve got 10s if not 100s of millions of pissed off Americans but no true leadership and plenty of infighting - it feels like we’re just an angry mob at this point. We need someone to harness and channel this anger and energy. Anyone have Obama’s contact info?”

“170db airhorns”

“What sort of voice does a lowly enlistee have in the military system, exactly?”

Absolutely not easier. No dept or agency is under a closer regulatory eye than the DoD. The Defense Supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulations is bigger then all others combined (for good reason). None of this is to say that there isn’t tons of waste, but the bureaucracy within the DoD is astronomical.

“Yeah, I guess, except that those “people” will likely be acting outside the law themselves”

Not really. You’re forgetting that declaration of war cannot come from POTUS.

“please do tell on the good they do because recent history has just shown them accumulating dead bodies at a rapid clip”

“has a social structure in which someone’s only choice is to become a professional soldier?”

“She was from the South, she knew exactly that her action could get that black child killed. It’s not like Emmett Till was the first recorded lynching.”

“Firsts of all sports metaphors are dumb they assume people know what sport you’re talking about and I don’t so you sound like you’re talking jibberish.”

“they never find any wrongdoing in what they do.”

“the idea of an entity investigating itself is asinine and laughable.”

“If a citizen was falsely arrested and tried and then attempted to sue the prosecutors and the police; the judge would have tossed the case with nary a thought.”

“In what context is it ever fucking okay to lie and get someone killed?”

Some certainly do sure, but I think many also just live in constant shame (whether publicly acknowledged or not). I would imagine that many Nazis went through similar paths of attempting to cope. Some openly repented, others hid their pasts in shame, some as you stated convinced themselves that they were also victims.

While I fully understand your desire for nuke breakers, it doesn’t fit the US needs. Our claim in the Arctic is minimal to say the least, and it’s shared with Russia. That’s why we’re only committing to 2+ heavy breakers. Comparing Russia’s Arctic capabilities to the US, is apples to oranges. A more apt comparison to…

This was based on an Arctic conference I attended a few months ago where the admiral that’s in charge of making the final recommendation to the Commandant, basically said he doesn’t see how it’s feasible economically.

Very true. The reality is they have completely different missions. But I think the next-gen heavy breakers the USCG builds will take a lot of design cues from the Healy. They can’t speak its praises enough.

I was at an arctic conference not too long ago that included all the leadership involved with the new breakers, the coasties currently operating the existing ones, and a bunch of foreign operators. It was interesting to see everyone’s point of view, but the consensus was that the money would be better spent on…

Congratulations.