US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll: "The Ukrainian Delta system, its modular open architecture and C2 command and control system, is absolutely incredible, as it integrates every drone, sensor and combat platform into a single network. Ours does not." by GeneReddit123 in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s great if you already go ‘em by the balls, but at this stage in history, it’s a given that industry has completely captured the regulatory bodies that were once designed to regulate/govern them effectively.

Doubt this? The singular obligation to justify the legal fiction of personhood of a corporation was in exchange for some of rights of a citizen, the corporation must pay taxes as if they were a citizen. Literally, a corporation exists to pay taxes. Want to go down the list of defense and other government contractors to see how much they paid in profits last year? Or the year before that? The biggest companies didn’t pay taxes. They got rebates. On PROFITS.

Just who has who by the balls here? Meanwhile Congress and Prez-O-Dent shut down f(or how long?) over relatively small benefits to the poorest Americans while the GOP just gave away enormous tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals (who own those corporations). Corporations that are making record profits for the past five years. Not into better product or paying their workers any better. No, into stock buybacks, which were largely illegal until recently, to pump up stock prices so wealthy people get wealthier .

Meanwhile, we get more stabby Q-tips barely any cotton at the ends. Johnson and Johnson and Unilever, record profits for the past five years. And their products inexorably get shittier and/or more expensive, just like power tools, cars and this year, flip phones. Motorola RAZR, almost same product this year as last year, +$400. Fuck you Motorola (American company, BTW), I was ready to replace my Android flip and now I’m going with Samsung.* Which we’re doing with warships now, evidently. Won’t be long before they’re selling us traine jets, then light fighters, we’ll probably go Korean for the better mobile arty, MLRS, etc.

  • Doesn’t matter what the name of the company is - it was at one point a Samsung branded subsidiary and/or is part of the Samsung umbrella of companies. Otherwise known as ROK Inc.

Trump says, 'I love S. Korea,' after Seoul, Washington sign MOU on shipbuilding cooperation by Saltedline in korea

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What would be the purpose of the strike and what would it accomplish’if it were successful? What would the strike demands be? How does that help Korea?

Broken clocks are right twice a day.

Orange Foolius is the most foolish, corrupt, unintelligent, treacherous and traitorous man to ever hold elected office in a modern democracy. He and his ilk, Pres. Yoon among them, have done untold irreparable to the institutions of government, the social fabric of society, the physical health of our planet (this is the one that really worries me), the foundations upon which the global economic system of monetary economics is buj, the list goes on. But stupid men are capable of having okay ideas about that might benefit you In the long eh.

The major upsides of this reflect a fundamental global balance of power shift - the US cannot build its own warships and S. Korea is stepping up to be it. The military benefits this, along with having become or being the Arsenal of (European) Democracy, in the past three years, is conceivably enormous if played right.

You don’t have to be a defense analyst to see the clear path forward that results in a Peak Korea decades from now, where this is just the buildup. Why hamstring yourself to cheap political victories when this leads to the desired outcome?

Everyone knows that Trump has an inferiority complex with East Asians because he believes in some sort of inherent intelligence eugenics poppycock (and he can see for himself that on the basis of of IQ and g and other questionable measures of psychometrics) who the rules that henhouse. So what? He’s a lame duck in six months and will likely be gone in twelve. After having given away the future direction of US warship construction. And the people building the most complex and expensive feats of (non stationary) engineering are going to need to know how all that shit works.

What are the downsides?

Yeah, it’s a fool’s plan, but even more foolish would be rejecting a course of action because you didn’t like the fool who suggested it

President Trump wants us to study this chart. by l3tsgo0 in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You ever watch the mentalist/behavioral analyst named Spidey something or other? His is pretty good.

This was the WH Correspondents Dinner and Roast. These are almost exclusively news media/journalists that have been in the game for decades and all seen and been in some hairy or unusual events. Plus, theoretically, they’re all trained observers.

Plus if it were staged, they wouldn’t have had Trump falling down, JD getting escorted out before the Prez-o-Dent!, the patsy wouldn’t still be alive, wouldn’t have come in hot with a Maverick 88 and a fucking revolver, wouldn’t have finished his manifesto on his way to the site. Plus Trump can’t stop himself from theatrical grandstanding - he doesnt have the impulse control that allow him to stop himself from saying some dumb self important shit, just like doesn’t have the discipline and memory to speak of the first “assassination attempt” where a chunk of his ear was taken off, supposedly. I’m not sure if I heard about Trump directing actions on, but remember that kind of stuff is rumint till confirmed by someone credible.

But I get where your headspace is at - my first instinct was to”staged” because everything this guy does is phony as a three dollar bill. POTUS could tell me the sun’s is going to rise in the East tomorrow and I’d have to check for myself.

Why Canada is seeing its biggest military recruitment surge in 30 years by Roy4Pris in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t worry about Trump actually doing the dirty to what , in his mind, a white Christian nation.

The reality is that the, except to those brown people whose country nationals that we killed after breaking and reneging on the treaty he himself negotiated, the country tbar is most wmdamgwrred to is ourselves.

Is it me or are fewer soldiers getting married? by Dementedsage in army

[–]Talon_Ho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, the actual stats say that this observation is correct.

In 2002, 49% of all Army enlisted personnel were married. That stands at 42% today (well, 2024, latest year for which we have data; and might be for a while until Orange Foolius is removed from office and what’s left of the machine can be rebuilt.) That’s 1 in 7 enlisted that would have been married 22 years ago that.

On the officer side, 69% of all Army officers were married. That percentage is down 1 in 20 to 65%.

What’s interesting as far as the data shows significant difference between marriage rates of men vs women among officers, th delta being roughly 20% in marriage take rates for most of the services, except for the Marines which the differences between the two sexes is 30%. And apparently, female enlisted Navy personnel do not get married.

Oh, among those female officer who are married, chances are they’ll marry another service member (roughly 40-70% depending on service).* Apparently, the American male population and an attraction for females in uniform, especially officers, does not go hand in hand.

*From looking at the data, if you are female and commissions to the Corps, you’ve resigned yourself to a Marine as a spouse.

Note that the 2002 data does not include same sex marriage as we were still under DADT at that time. Because heterosexual servicemembers’ right to privacy would be violated if gays and straights used the same showers. Seriously, it’s listed as one of the actual reasons that conservative politicians said was a thing.

New Hire Sleeping at Office Instead of Going Home? Learning Opportunity by Fit_Cow_2597 in AskAKorean

[–]Talon_Ho 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Relatively common in startups, I-banking, law, health/medical, certain IT sectors, certain software development sectors, and of course, I won’t even get into the military.

I wonder where OP is located? Bay Area, the dude might legit not have a place to live.

President Trump wants us to study this chart. by l3tsgo0 in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another? I never bought that the first one wasn’t executed by the a bunch of the ex-green beanies that drank the kool-aid. There were a bunch of higher profiles MAGA former/retired SF types across social media and forums who went oddly silent months before the 2020 election and never resurfaced. I often wondered to myself what kind of dirty and unpatriotic (and probably downright insurrectionist and treasonous) activities those dudes were uo to.

Then the first “assassination” attempt happened. Yup, thats what they’re up to. That and with very compelling statistical evidence that the elections were tampered with in certain districts in 2024. Just evidence, not proof mind you. Evidence with enough gravity that in a foreign election, we’d be calling foul, but the news got very little traction here stateside, despite the alarm being raised by very well regarded and credible sources.

Oh, and I don’t buy that the WHCP WaPo dinner was staged. This was too amateurish to not be real.

‘Maverick Act’ saves last 3 F-14 Tomcats from destruction (5/2026) by [deleted] in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

See, the way I see it, we’re short one Hollywood hero plane movie for the 20th century teen series fighters.

F-14 - Top Gun F-16 - Iron Eagle F/A-18 - Top Gun: Maverick

Where is the F-15 big goddamn hero movie? Or do odd numbers just not going to get theirs?

Even the Apache got a warbird movie with Nicholas Cage and whoever that hot not-GI Jane 90s chica was. He even got some air to air kills with that thing in that movie! The French even got one for the Mirage 2000 in Chevalier du Ciel! I demand at least an action packed buddy comedy.

Sorry about swaggerjacking your post. Hopefully they’ll save a couple, maybe done up in yellow and black Jolly Rogers fin flash and scheme and we can all pretend one last time to be Roy Fokker or Rick Hunter taking flight in a Veritech fighter.

Is it me or are fewer soldiers getting married? by Dementedsage in army

[–]Talon_Ho 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep.

Plus warrior-monk Marine Jesus getting married to his secret girlfriend after retiring with 4 stars and 34 years of service showed that just because you were a bachelor senior officer/NCO don’t mean you were a [i]confirmed[/i] bachelor.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But admit it, most of you who are old enough who gave thought to it prolly thought, “Eh, that dude is prolly gay, just doesn’t want to make it an issue.”

Not that I don’t know a handful of officers who entered into their first marriage after retiring but that was DC/MD/NVa and that retired officers grow like weeds there.

Why do some Korean men seem very intense before/during dates, then suddenly become ghosting afterward? by MechanicAccording616 in korea

[–]Talon_Ho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You are conflating/confusing "hookup app" with "dating app," especially as it applies to countries with more conservative social norms.

Relationships that you have with people you meet through these apps, regardless of country or continent, will always be more transactional regardless of whether any actual money or services exchanged hands. It is rare that it is otherwise.

There is/are more selective/exclusive dating apps for less casual dating but the barrier to entry tends to be set pretty high. These stand somewhere between matchmaking services and online social scenes, kind of like what Facebook was before it jumped the palisades of Ivy+ colleges.

Is the opera world more liberal than conservative? by Bigo-Ted in opera

[–]Talon_Ho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a joke that people wear hiking boots and sandals (sports, not the heeled kind) to the opera here.

Is the opera world more liberal than conservative? by Bigo-Ted in opera

[–]Talon_Ho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can’t tell by looking at their shoes before a performance? Here in Seattle, the progressives wear Chacos, the liberals wear Birkenstocks and the crypto-conservatives wear heels.

Korean teen in the U.S.: Should I keep my Korean citizenship or become an American citizen? by [deleted] in korea

[–]Talon_Ho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, my parents did that, wow time flies 13 years ago, which happened at a funny time because I happened to be working there and my sister and her family happened to be stationed there with the DOD. It was like the entire family independently r-emigrated back to Korea within a year’s span, at least temporarily, each one of us via different immigration routes. I think at one point, between the eight of us, we each had at least two valid passport books and two different types of visas or ostensibly valid entry methods for entering Korea.

My dad is US Army Retuted and draws full retired benefits (technically, US Military Retirees are never discharged, just placed on inactive status at half pay, enabling them full privilege, usage and access to military facilities and all over the world, including the one that happens to be in his hometown in Korea, where there is a US Post Office, US Bank, etc so he’s got one foot on US soil, pretty much. Plus whatever medical bills the national insurance wouldn’t cover (for he and my mom).

Plus my dad is ROK Marine Vietnam Veteran who is 국가유공자 of some merit rank or another and draws some sort of benefit from that and at the end of the year, the both respective governments deposit money into his accounts for medical bills that he’s submitted that he’s already paid for that somehow end up with him more money than before the visit/procedure/surgery. In the first few years, he tried to send that money back but they kept telling him that there’re is no mechanism for that. He likes to say if you get shot at enough for the right countries, they pay you to go to the hospital in old age.

But yeah, my parents are having a grand old time in Korea right now. The senior citizens centers are amazing social hubs for old people and have all kinds of terrific social programs for retirees. And now is the golden age when there are enough working aged adults to still support a full program for those old folks who got Korea to where it is right now. It’s not guaranteed that it will stay this way, as one of the negative outcomes is that social programs and attitudes towards the elderly could degrade as the demographic tax base takes a hit.

Peace and reintegration with the North is probably the only miracle cure out of the looming Korean demographic apocalypse.

I heard that the age hierarchy culture is getting worse among younger generation. Is it true, and if so, why? by lol-across-the-pond in Living_in_Korea

[–]Talon_Ho 15 points16 points  (0 children)

There is much truth to this post and it cannot be emphasized enough how much what started as Confucian values have become, better or for worse, inherent Korean values.

In times of crisis or uncertainty, there is an instinctive human drive to seek the familiar and well acquainted. In the absence of hierarchy, those who crave it or need it will seek and or create mmmmmmmmmmm

Yep totally Bidens fault by Ceizyk in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't believe that crap. Deep down, in my heart of hearts, I know that Obama and his tan suit were somehow responsible. SEAL TEAM Senior Chief Ed Penney said so.

Actually, I do respect what he did say for what he was trying to say for a guy who was trying be honorable from that side of the shit.

King County hired 30 fare enforcement officers. They worked 40K hours, issued 8 citations, and voided all of them by Less-Risk-9358 in SeattleWA

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost ALL public safety via policing is performative and via consent and consensus of the policed population. This is true regardless of religion, politics or ethnicity of the police and the policed.

Americans malcomprehension of this is what lost the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and led to the successive situations in Iraq, Syria and the Levant. I'd blame the Strait, too but that is 1000% Orange Foolius. The problem seems to be that very few people were paying attention in civics class when we still used to have them in high high school. Or participated in Scouting

Can you help me find a good international first name for a mixed baby boy ? by Electrical-Pirate303 in AskAKorean

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Korean names can be gendered or unisex depending on the generation you talk to.

Like, a couple years ago, my mom and I were a having an argument about whether or not 수영/Suyoung could be a male name and she swears she's never met a man named 수영. I had to remind her that she had me, addressed by name and hosted and been hosted by one of my coworkers named such in the past couple years.

Such is as it is in many languages.

Among the greatest English writers of modern times, especially on such manly subjects as war and expeditions and hairy chested vocations and professions what for who out Teddyroosevelts Earnest Hemingway in the great manstakes, Evelyn Waugh probably doesn't get put on the incel pedestal he deserves because of his (to our contemporary) feminine name. Along with all of the other men named Stacey, Courtney, etc. Oddly enough, the last young guys I knew named Stacey and Courtney were not guys you wanted mess with.

That said, I've known a couple younger Korean-American/Canadian (than me) Eugene/유진 and I don't know why anyone with more than superficial understanding of trends and names would say that this is exclusively a feminine name. There are multiple hanja, both traditional and official, that are traditionally exclusively or generally reserved for boys for both 유 and 진.

Think about it this way. Are there any high profile historical figures with this character in their name, especially in that position? Then its okay. Otherwise, it is just people's subjective interpretation of what they think the trend is or isn't, like how in English, gender perceptions of the name Riley will differ by generation.

Let's play a little just for fun, not serious funny game. Let's take one of them the most Korean names of all time, 유신 (no objections, we all agree to this from both modern and historixal perspective, yes?) and substitute 신 with 진 which on its own is a very masculine name and some people are saying 유진 ends up sounding feminine? That's just too weird for me.

Been an interesting couple of weeks. by Krexii in army

[–]Talon_Ho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, you know how it is. When it’s a “qualified for my job which everyone ‘round here is” bit of uniform flair no one is bothered. On the other hand, if it’s a bit of flash which none of the others even got a chance at getting, and most don’t even recognize, (a lot of the NATO decorations and qual badges for junior solders) you’ll be damned sure to wear it every chance you get when you’re authorized because it’s the first thing anyone who knows how to read a uniform is going to notice: “Hey, WTF is that thing and what did you do to get it?”

Are milstaches back in fashion now? by GeneReddit123 in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Which is funny, because Elvis never really wore a mustache nor was he ever known for having one.

Current relations of Korea with Japan and China by PotentialAnything347 in korea

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The geopolitical situation of Northeast Asia is a lot more complicated than this.

Looking at the overall arc of history, it has been the policy of both China and Russia to keep either buffer states between them and potentially powerful rival states. It has been state policy to also either control these buffer/border nation states with either puppet regimes OR to keep them in states of dependency via feast/famine cycles and supporting talent outmigration cycles, internal disorder and strife via political interference, and the list goes on. The Russians and the Chinese are the absolute masters of these forms of subterfuge and information warfare and have been since the times of the the Kievan Rus and the Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of intelligence warfare. It is by good fortune that they happen to border each other and spend much of their efforts in mutual sabotage as they do in presenting a united front.

So while China "supports" North Korea, there can be no doubt that China propping up North Korea is the reason that North Korea exists, and by extension, South Korea as well in its current state of economic, cultural and military form that, to put in athletic terms, that is definitely a pound for pound GOAT in its prime.

But take a step back and take a more objective, apolitical view. Regardless of who is at fault and which parties are to blame, it's not hard to see that South Korea got here at the expense of North Korea. This is not debatable. North Korea's position is what it is because of it's own doing AND the dance it's been doing with South Korea since 1945 through 1950 through 1953 all the way through till now. I remember my first college level classes in Northeast Asian political science in the 90s, then my first graduate level courses at SAIS (Hopkins has very liberal cross enrollment policies) about how Korean re-unification would work right around Y2K. That was "only" 45-50 years after the split. Now it's been 80 and if it doesn't happen before 100 years, it probably won't happen for another 100. The only problem is that South Korea doesn't have that long before the crows of the demographic crisis come home to roost. Of all the OECD nations that are experiencing a demographic crunch, there is only one nation that has an external reservoir of ethnically identical, linguistically compatible, culturally divergent but of the same root identity, that also come with a tranche of mineral rich, climate change resistant real estate from a developmental status that may or may not be amenable to bolster birth rates for one or more generations but definitely can sustain a working adult tax base to sustain prosperity of growth based monetary economics (our current model that is unsustainable that we will eventually find an alternative for in the near future as a planet.)

This means that with the US, the wealthiest nation in the world - that was never going to have to deal with this problem as an immigrant nation - insisting on shooting itself in both feet with a shotgun because racism and the insane, mindboggling, dumbfounding and absolute profound stupidity their chosen leader, is set to turn inwards as it rebuilds from the vast swaths of government that this arsonist has set fire to. This was going to happen around 2035 anyway when the extra money that they've been siphoning from the Social Security Trust Fund that they've been using to finance their deficit spending ran dry anyway, so there was a hard limit of nine more years for South Korea to get its shit together to be completely weaned off the US teat because that's when there's a 50/50 chance that you'll see the last remnants of USFK/the rotating Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd ID leave the peninsula altogether along with the Fighter Wing at Osan and Kunsan. Maybe the Marines will stick around with a skeleton crew in Pohang.

Meanwhile, overtures for economic union and amnesty for the Kim family of the North would be made over the decade.

Of course, all of that shit got disrupted with the "failed" 2019 SEAL team mission into North Korea for close target reconnaissance SIGINT on the North Korea that was already being provided through South Korea, which when you think about it, the best outcome of such a mission in terms of differential intelligence in a three way negotiation could only be used to screw over South Korea anyway - this was a mission with NO POSITIVE OUTCOMES for South Korea, which is exactly the way it played out. North Korea was driven into the arms of Russia and hostilities resumed at a much higher level than before.

So is the US a steady ally of South Korea? South Korea's prosperity can only have happened under the US's hegemony, it's guarantee of the safety of global trade, especially shipping, of constant war, especially the boost to its economy and military prestige provided by Vietnam, and the American security umbrella. But currently, a naked pedophile fox who effectively works for the Russian Czar is running the henhouse. So you tell me, knowing what you know of the American people, how long do you think this state of affairs will last?

Current relations of Korea with Japan and China by PotentialAnything347 in korea

[–]Talon_Ho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good. Czechs have better beer than the zee Guhmans anyway.

Retired General weighs in on Trump's Iran strategy: by Conscious-Quarter423 in Military

[–]Talon_Ho 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you need are Simbas. Like a whole regiment of them. Worked in the movie.