The US will lose WW3

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KomradeX: Oct 29, 2011

A B-52 named Functioning Society

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:42

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# ? May 25, 2024 19:57

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

Screaming down on PLA tanks in my trusty A10 warthog public transit "take this you educated bastards" I growl as I ripple fire the rocket pods alongside my wingman doing the same in potable water

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:54

The Oldest Man: Jul 28, 2003

Mister Bates posted:

tag yourself I'm the one Ryan Firebee target drone

I'm all the AV-88s that regressed primitive humans will use in one thousand years to defeat John Travolta

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:57

Lostconfused: Oct 1, 2008

https://globalnews.ca/news/9881278/canadas-military-housing-benefit/

quote:

It was estimated the change would make around 28,000 people eligible for the new allowance, or roughly 6,300 more than the previous program covered.

But the military also estimated around 7,700 members would become ineligible and thousands of others would see their monthly payments reduced. Officials said that would result in a net savings of $30 million a year, bringing the program back within its budget at around $150 million.

in some cases base commanders have allowed people to keep living in training quarters for months because they’re struggling to find other accommodations.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 00:48

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

I'm going to sell off all the old barracks to make luxury private condos for a developer to flip. Don't worry men we'll give you a housing allowance of $3.50 a week towards rent.

Also the base you're posted to is in a large city so enjoy competitive rental markets.

I don't understand why recruiting and retention are so low.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 00:55

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Lostconfused posted:

https://globalnews.ca/news/9881278/canadas-military-housing-benefit/

It honestly makes me sick to my stomach. The loving government is in the pocket of the developers and sold countless acres of bases in these same cities to them, where the on-base housing was promptly demolished.

DancingShade posted:

I'm going to sell off all the old barracks to make luxury private condos for a developer to flip. Don't worry men we'll give you a housing allowance of $3.50 a week towards rent.

Also the base you're posted to is in a large city so enjoy competitive rental markets.

I don't understand why recruiting and retention are so low.

If you're a Corporal and get posted to Downsview (Toronto), just get out.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 00:56

MassTran: Feb 27, 2015

Sabotaging my own military to appease the market

# ? Aug 9, 2023 00:57

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
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Lostconfused posted:

https://globalnews.ca/news/9881278/canadas-military-housing-benefit/

someone should sell this fantastic idea to the US military

# ? Aug 9, 2023 00:59

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

MassTran posted:

Sabotaging my own military to appease the market

You know what else we don't need? Clean & dry vehicle bays for our reserve fleet. Let's just park everything from jeeps to soft cover trucks on a dirt carpark under some trees. I'm sure they'll be fine for the next several years until needed.

That's more real estate freed up for redevelopment by the private sector.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 01:49

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
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DancingShade posted:

You know what else we don't need? Clean & dry vehicle bays for our reserve fleet. Let's just park everything from jeeps to soft cover trucks on a dirt carpark under some trees. I'm sure they'll be fine for the next several years until needed.

That's more real estate freed up for redevelopment by the private sector.

Artillery-as-a-Service (AaaS), just-in-timed

# ? Aug 9, 2023 01:50

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Here's your rifle for today's shoot, lovingly maintained by our civilian contractors managing the armory. Oh your trigger mechanism failed catastrophically mid shoot on two rifles on a row? Huh. You know we're getting that sort of thing a lot these days.

Anyway we're out of spare rifles now so just watch everyone else for the rest of the day and refresh your skills by osmosis.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:04

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

One man gets the rifle, the other gets the subscription based app

When the first man dies, the second scans the QR code

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:18

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

DancingShade posted:

You know what else we don't need? Clean & dry vehicle bays for our reserve fleet. Let's just park everything from jeeps to soft cover trucks on a dirt carpark under some trees. I'm sure they'll be fine for the next several years until needed.

That's more real estate freed up for redevelopment by the private sector.

lol yep. Combined with not buying snow tires for the blue fleet and MILCOTs.

I'm amazed we have any runners at all. If you drive around Kingston or Pet it can be hard to tell what's scrap or mothballed or what's supposed to be battle ready lol.

DancingShade posted:

Here's your rifle for today's shoot, lovingly maintained by our civilian contractors managing the armory. Oh your trigger mechanism failed catastrophically mid shoot on two rifles on a row? Huh. You know we're getting that sort of thing a lot these days.

Anyway we're out of spare rifles now so just watch everyone else for the rest of the day and refresh your skills by osmosis.

Realizing I could just sign out a rubber rifle for exercises was the smartest thing I ever did lol.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:38

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Lostconfused posted:

in some cases base commanders have allowed people to keep living in training quarters for months because they�re struggling to find other accommodations.

The shacks at the cadet training camp in Ottawa were condemned and had black mold but they had people in them for years because there is literally no barracks there, almost all of the housing from the two former major bases has been bulldozed or turned into luxury condos, and the government won't deal with the problem.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:42

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

Frosted Flake posted:

The shacks at the cadet training camp in Ottawa were condemned and had black mold but they had people in them for years because there is literally no barracks there, almost all of the housing from the two former major bases has been bulldozed or turned into luxury condos, and the government won't deal with the problem.

wow. sounds like you�d have to be a total idiot to sign up for the canadan military

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:44

skooma512: Feb 8, 2012; You couldn't grok my race car, but you dug the roadside blur.

Are the Colonels diverting maintenance funds to their dachas?

# ? Aug 9, 2023 02:58

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
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innovative feudal armies but without the lord's material obligations to the underlings

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:00

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

fart simpson posted:

wow. sounds like you�d have to be a total idiot to sign up for the canadan military

owned

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:05

Complications: Jun 19, 2014

Palladium posted:

innovative feudal armies but without the lord's material obligations to the underlings

obligations? to other people? that's communism!

we here in the free market west know that the only obligations that exist in democracies are to take all you can and give nothing back

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:07

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

The next step after this is mercenary armies holding governments ransom right?

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:24

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Palladium posted:

innovative feudal armies but without the lord's material obligations to the underlings

Slavvy posted:

The next step after this is mercenary armies holding governments ransom right?

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:32

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
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its so loving surreal to me

here in singapore we can somehow afford to send entire reservist battalions overseas for live-fire exercises, paying the men their normal daily civvie wage while they are at it which by itself not a small sum at all

i guess good things are possible when the government controls all of their MIC?

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:44

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Basically in 1995 the developers went to the Canadian Federal Government and said that by providing housing to soldiers they were taking money they were entitled to out of their pocket, and by the way who gives more to your reelection campaign?

That's the official reason - it was unfair to the free market for the government to provide housing to soldiers. Rather than being subsidized, the cost of military accommodations is artificially inflated to match market rates, so that - all else being equal - there would be no reason to choose to live on base, rather than giving your money to landlords or (God forbid) buying a house at your posting.

There's some fuckery on that part too because buying and selling a house every three or four years in this country should get your institutionalized.

Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 03:52 on Aug 9, 2023

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:50

Danann: Aug 4, 2013

Frosted Flake posted:

The shacks at the cadet training camp in Ottawa were condemned and had black mold but they had people in them for years because there is literally no barracks there, almost all of the housing from the two former major bases has been bulldozed or turned into luxury condos, and the government won't deal with the problem.

Don't worry, black mold is also a problem in your southern neighbor.

quote:

military.com
Mold Issues, Poor Housing Conditions for Troops Are Rampant. What Can Congress Do?
Steve Beynon,Rebecca Kheel
9�11 minutes

A soldier at Fort Carson, Colorado, was excited to arrive at his new duty station last year with his family. But the soldier soon knew something was wrong.

"Right away, my wife and both my kids started getting just constantly sick," the noncommissioned officer told Military.com on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to talk to the press. "My wife is pregnant, and she was sick for about a month and a half straight."

He smelled something rotten and moldy in the house, and found the crawl space flooded with standing water that appeared to have been there a long time. His wife was eventually rushed to the emergency room after running a high fever and having difficulty breathing.

"The baby was our biggest concern," he said. "We shouldn't be subjected to the grueling environment we have to go through [in the Army] and then come to a mold-infested home."

His wife recovered after they moved to temporary housing, and the baby appears to be healthy. But most of their furniture and other belongings are laced with a moldy smell and will likely need to be replaced, potentially costing the family thousands of dollars.

Mold in military housing isn't new, having haunted bases for decades. Despite repeated vows from military officials and privatized housing contractors to make sure troops don't have to endure health hazards in their homes, unsafe conditions persist.

Congress is poised to try several approaches to fix the issue through the annual defense policy bill, but it's unclear whether those changes will bring about solutions or become just another note in the ongoing crisis.

That the issues remain isn't a surprise to lawmakers, after an April Senate investigation found that one of the biggest companies running military housing, Balfour Beatty Communities, continued to ignore residents' concerns about hazardous living conditions even after pleading guilty last year to defrauding the Army, Air Force and Navy by manipulating maintenance records to obtain performance bonuses.

The Fort Carson soldier's home is managed by Balfour Beatty, which runs more than 43,000 military homes and has been at the center of an ongoing scandal of poorly kept and sometimes dangerous housing for troops and their families.

Balfour Beatty did not immediately respond to a request to comment about the soldier's accusations.

"We're not perfect. We've never testified that we are a perfect organization," Richard Taylor, the Dallas-based company's president of facility operation, told lawmakers at a hearing on the housing conditions in April.

Exposure to moldy environments can cause numerous health issues ranging from a stuffy nose, wheezing and itchiness to fever and difficulty breathing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those with underlying respiratory issues or who are immune compromised are susceptible to fungal infections and other severe reactions.

There are also preliminary studies from the CDC suggesting that mold exposure can cause memory loss and lethargy, but more research is needed. Young children's exposure to mold could lead to asthma development.

But it isn't just military housing. Barracks, which typically house unmarried junior enlisted, have also been plagued with unsanitary conditions for years. Soldiers are often tasked to maintain the barracks themselves, including dealing with mold despite having no formal training, those interviewed told Military.com.

The 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division, at Fort Stewart, Georgia, has barracks two soldiers described as unlivable, with dirty floors and sinks and what appears to be mold on the ceilings and vents, based on videos and photos reviewed by Military.com.

" feel the Army is putting soldiers effectively in conditions that would be unacceptable in any other environment," one soldier stationed at Fort Stewart told Military.com, on the condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson for Fort Stewart did not respond ahead of publication to a request for comment about whether the installation is planning any major renovations or cleaning efforts.

Mold and other poor housing conditions are one of the largest concerns across the force and a leading cause for veterans and their families to recommend against joining the military, according to results of a survey of military families released last week.

Those findings come amid a major recruiting crisis faced by most of the services due to a confluence of issues such as greater scrutiny of a potential recruit's medical background and outdated marketing tactics. In a memo Wednesday, top Army leaders painted a grim picture of the difficulty in filling the ranks with little optimism for near-term fixes, saying the force's overall size will decrease by about 14,000 by the end of next year.

The Army in recent years have begun renovating many of its Cold War-era barracks and outright building new ones such as new facilities at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and Fort Bliss, Texas.

But those efforts go only so far, and some lawmakers are looking toward better oversight over barracks and family housing.

Both the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill have multiple provisions aimed at improving living conditions, addressing health concerns and cracking down on negligent landlords.

After a series of 2018 Reuters articles exposed systemic issues with privatized military housing such as mold, rodent infestations and shoddy repairs, Congress tried to tackle the issue in 2019 by requiring the Pentagon to issue an 18-point tenant bill of rights aimed at providing families with more negotiating power with the private companies. But lawmakers continue to be frustrated at the lack of progress in fixing housing.

Among the proposals being pushed this year, the version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed last week by the House would create a registry of troops and their family members who have health issues caused by unsafe housing conditions. As part of creating the registry, the Pentagon would also have to give health screenings to troops and families who lived in unsafe housing.

The idea for a registry comes after the Defense Department inspector general in April finished an audit of medical conditions of residents in privatized military housing. The audit has not been publicly released because it contains "controlled unclassified information," a designation critics say is often abused to conceal embarrassing information.

The version of the NDAA passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in June, the full text of which was released this week, would require the Pentagon to enact the recommendations in the inspector general's audit by March 2023. According to a report accompanying the Senate NDAA, those recommendations included ensuring the Army and Air Force fully list their inventories of privatized housing units in the military's housing management system, implement a tool to track health and safety hazards in that system, and upload current and former resident information.

Both the Senate and House versions of the NDAA would also require landlords to disclose the presence of mold in a housing unit before a lease is signed.

[i]The House bill would also create a "Military Housing Feedback Tool" for service members and their spouses to rate and compare areas such as safety, the timeliness of maintenance services and the responsiveness of management.

Meanwhile, the Senate bill would designate the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment as the "Chief Housing Officer," as well as create a "Military Housing Readiness Council" to monitor compliance with laws such as the tenant bill of rights and recommend other policies to improve living conditions.

The full Senate must still pass its bill, and then the House and Senate have to reconcile the two bills before anything becomes law.

"It just feels like a slap in the face," the Fort Stewart soldier told Military.com on the condition of anonymity. "We outspend every other country on the military. Where is all the money going?"

Related: 'I Don't Think I Could Do 20 Years of This': Military Families Still Struggling with Mold at Privatized Housing

It's impacting recruitment and soldiers' families but by god does it make that number go up. :capitalism:

# ? Aug 9, 2023 03:58

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

The best funded military on the planet.

We need to convince LockMart they can get rich building barracks.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 04:00

Palladium: May 8, 2012; Very Good
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Frosted Flake posted:

The best funded military on the planet.

We need to convince LockMart they can get rich building barracks.

im not one bit surprised if they just asked Marriott etc to build and run a 5-star in camp and still end up being cheaper than whatever harebrained MIC grift they are in

# ? Aug 9, 2023 04:15

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

There is that NATO ski resort in Germany the Americans built for the top brass.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 04:27

Lostconfused: Oct 1, 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1-bE3WVi0&t=1773s

# ? Aug 9, 2023 05:57

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

fart simpson posted:

wow. sounds like you�d have to be a total idiot to sign up for the canadan military

Most militaries actually. However it's a job with room & board (in theory, less so now) and can be handy for getting one's life in order, escaping a bad situation or more ideally as a stepping stone to leverage in a future career.

These days practically all the benefits are gone and you're truly desperate if signing a dotted line.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 07:18

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Palladium posted:

its so loving surreal to me

here in singapore we can somehow afford to send entire reservist battalions overseas for live-fire exercises, paying the men their normal daily civvie wage while they are at it which by itself not a small sum at all

i guess good things are possible when the government controls all of their MIC?

Think of everyone in the western MIC at all levels as being the most sleazy used car salesman with oily hair that you ever saw, who only exists to rip everyone else off as much as possible for personal profit. At all levels. Everything is grift. Everything is waste. You can't imagine how much. Nothing too big or too petty.

Really it's a miracle things have coasted by on inertia this long.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 07:24

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

It's that sweet sweet end of history grift

# ? Aug 9, 2023 07:52

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Slavvy posted:

It's that sweet sweet end of history grift

There is no fixing anything just planning by the individual as to where they may potentially land.

It's all good. It's only one particular history and civilisation / empire. Plenty before, plenty after.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 07:55

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-fdEAm2VE

# ? Aug 9, 2023 11:38

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Frosted Flake posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-fdEAm2VE

Great song. I can only offer this lesser offering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrZcyQNGros

If I was less ambivalent I'd link this instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGDhzVi1bqU

DancingShade has issued a correction as of 12:44 on Aug 9, 2023

# ? Aug 9, 2023 12:42

Cerebral Bore: Apr 21, 2010; Fun Shoe

i'm getting the feeling that if a western army ever got into a real conventional war it'd turn out that some enterprising huckster had bought the licensing rights to the one very specific type of tent that they're allowed to use and decided that they'll make more money by holding that hostage than actually selling the drat things

of course out wise political leaders would hold a press conference where they tell us that there was nothing to be done in very solemn tones while the soldiers are freezing to death in the gobi desert or some other similar locale

# ? Aug 9, 2023 13:07

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Cerebral Bore posted:

i'm getting the feeling that if a western army ever got into a real conventional war it'd turn out that some enterprising huckster had bought the licensing rights to the one very specific type of tent that they're allowed to use and decided that they'll make more money by holding that hostage than actually selling the drat things

of course out wise political leaders would hold a press conference where they tell us that there was nothing to be done in very solemn tones while the soldiers are freezing to death in the gobi desert or some other similar locale

Soldiers who didn't want to freeze to death would turn to the private market for a solution and bring their own tents, then fill out the appropriate tax return claim in the following financial year for reimbursement. Any soldier who froze to death on deployment in their issued sleeping bag made of recycled coke bottles and newspaper clippings only has themselves to blame.

Next of kin insurance claim: DENIED. (red stamp)

# ? Aug 9, 2023 13:10

Frosted Flake: Sep 13, 2011; Semper Shitpost Ubique

Cerebral Bore posted:

i'm getting the feeling that if a western army ever got into a real conventional war it'd turn out that some enterprising huckster had bought the licensing rights to the one very specific type of tent that they're allowed to use

Someone did

# ? Aug 9, 2023 13:20

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Have you ever been part of say, 200 people, sharing the one toilet block only someone skimped on the civilian contractor doing the cleaning so they only come by once a week?

That's quite the experience.

Have you ever signed out magazines from an armory only to find the last lot didn't bother to clean them and they're now rusted solid?

That's a hearty laugh.

There is no conventional warfare against a peer opponent the modern "team our guys" military could win. At best MAD.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 13:28

Lostconfused: Oct 1, 2008

This is why everyone keeps telling you that you need to warm up before doing any straneous exercise.

Hell Iraq was 20 years ago.

I'd bet that the army probably would make a bigger mess of it now.

Need to have a nice warmup sesh knocking over some minor statelet before getting in the ring with the big boys.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 14:34

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# ? May 25, 2024 19:57

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Lostconfused posted:

This is why everyone keeps telling you that you need to warm up before doing any straneous exercise.

Hell Iraq was 20 years ago.

I'd bet that the army probably would make a bigger mess of it now.

Need to have a nice warmup sesh knocking over some minor statelet before getting in the ring with the big boys.

Well, they already hosed up pushing over Syria before doing this. Learned nothing.

Torn national gastrocnemius incoming.

# ? Aug 9, 2023 14:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > The US will lose WW3

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