Chromdome35

adopt my general view of life...."If that is the worst thing that happens to me today...it's a pretty good day"

LOL, spot on

Why?

I find both of these songs to be spirit-lifting. The vibe of both songs just makes me smile.

Anyone else like them?

Yes, Tableau & Power BI; however, due to licensing costs, they don't allow citizen development, so I can't build the dashboard I need via those toolsets. I have to wait to get cycles from the data guys.

I did get them to create a dataset I can pull via Tableau as .cvs files. I bring those into MS Access, run a bunch of SQL queries I wrote to prep the data, then bring it into Excel via an Access connector. Once in Excel, I have been doing the various analyses (pivots). It's not a massive dataset, only 400K rows across two tables (40K & 360K) that have a 1-to-many relationship. It's functional, and I can make solid decks from it, but it lacks that ease of access a more formal dashboard offers.

So I dropped the data into Claude, gave it one of my PowerPoint decks to pattern off of, and used Sonnet 4.6 Extended Thinking. Told it to use the data files to recreate the January PPT deck, but updated for February. I had to spend some time explaining the data and how it should be interpreted, but when it was understood, it cranked that deck out in minutes, and it looked great.

I then told it to generate an HTML dashboard based on a PPT, and I added a few more tabs for it to create. What it generated was unbelievable. I would love to share it here so you could see, but I like my job.

Your original statement was that they were discontinuing the overseas training program because of soldier's not returning to Ukraine, which is false.

I don't know how old you are, but I wonder how you've gotten however far you have in life with such limited cognitive skills.

But keep moving those goal posts, you are good at it.

It is easily the best AI model available right now. The stuff it can do in a professional work environment is freaking awesome. I dropped 400K rows of data into last week and built a dashboard in one day that I've been waiting on IT to give me for 3 months now.

quote:

---

Actually it’s because they’re not returning to Ukraine.

---

All hat no cattle, wrong again....

From Claude

Q: Is there a problem with Ukrainian troops being sent overseas for training but not returning home?

The non-return problem is real, but smaller than you might think. There was always a percentage of troops who didn't return from overseas training — but according to Ukrainian veteran Yevhen Dykyi, the actual number was "truly very small." The New Voice of Ukraine. A separate report from late 2024 put a specific figure of 46 soldiers who didn't return from authorized leave abroad between 2022 - 2024. So it's a real leak, not a flood. The bigger problems were actually different.

Training mismatch. NATO training methods often fail to align with the realities of modern warfare in Ukraine. Ironically, Ukrainian soldiers — mechanics, tankers, artillerymen — were often teaching NATO instructors how to operate the very equipment being provided.

The Logistics waste. Sending entire brigades abroad — like the Anne of Kyiv Brigade to France — proved to be a luxury that didn't justify itself.

The fix: Ukraine's General Staff announced it will abandon sending troops abroad for training, moving all basic military training inside the country. The preference now is to invite Western specialists to Ukrainian training grounds rather than transport whole units overseas.

The broader desertion problem is far more serious. As of January 2026, Ukraine's Defense Minister estimated 200,000 soldiers AWOL and 2 million men avoiding draft notices altogether.

The overseas no-show issue is a rounding error by comparison.

Bottom line: the overseas training program was more inefficient than it was leaky. The desertion/draft evasion crisis is the real manpower story.

JB is peaking out from under the covers again...

Iran isn't testing shite, and any system they had under development is now under many metric tons of dirt.

Typical propaganda piece like all the other ones you post.

Kentucky called timeout before the shot

quote:

---

What, you mean besides the fall of the Soviet Union? Besides getting an enormous amount of help after 9/11? Or the fact that there is a war going on right now that is openly against a 'unipolar world,' i.e. one built by the Americans and directly benefiting us? One that directly benefits us, and a stable of friends, or at least reliable work companions that are inclined to follow us and not China, Russia, or any other penny-ante dictator?

---

But those are things we benefited from yesterday. I'm glad they happened and agree they would not have happened if NATO didn't exist. However, In the time after those things happened, Europe has made a conscious choice to not invest into their militaries to the point where they barely have militaries.

With any war, there is nothing to say we wouldn't help them and they wouldn't help us, it would be situational.

quote:

---

he answer is to amend it, and get our allies to hold their own weight.

---

And how long does the American taxpayer have to wait for this to happen?

Yes those allies were there for us in 2001, but they couldn't be there today which strikes at the heart of my question.

In 2001 when the UK helped, it had:
Main Battle Tanks: 850. Today it has 213, a 75% decline
IFV's: 760. Today 430 a 43% decline
Combat Aircraft: 380, Today 173 a 55% decline
Surface Combatants: 35, today 13 a 63% decline
Submarines: 16, today 10 a 33% decline.

A year ago, MoD declared to a House of Commons Defense Committee that only 157 tanks were combat ready or nearly so.
Today, Britian can only field one Aircraft carrier without a full complement of planes and 1 (ONE) destroyer. It's carrier can't set sail without needing other nations to help protect it.
France sent their carrier to the Med, even with that carrier they had to have other countries help provide escorts.
I don't think most people realize how far the Europeans (Poland is the exception) have allowed their militaries to atrophy. That won't be fixed overnight. And because of that, the US taxpayer is going to have to continue to subsidize Europe's defense until it can get its act together (it may not ever get its act together)

So again I ask, what does NATO give us today?