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I hear you but still...Where was the DO? Perhaps another needless soapbox rant but honestly I have thought about this incident 100 times over the past few days and how many different people failed this young man. Yes we can blame the institution...the writing has been on the wall for some time and others have alluded to it in this thread but in a haste to plug the holes in the damn the system made a conscious decision to push as many people as possible through the system. At a very senior level he was failed when the decision was made to start pushing basic skills training from the RTU to the ops unit. When I read the Viper bros were pushing defensive BFM to the unit I thought it was a joke...how can this be? As much as people celebrated Fingers (I did not for personal reasons), he let it happen. He and Mobile bought that risk and risk is never pushed right at a 1:1 ratio, it has a modifier when it comes to basic skills. Should he have been able to land at night without incident...of course but I think everyone who has read the report and knows his flying history can feel the weight of crap that was on his shoulders that night. Senior USAF leadership failed this kid in an epic fashion. The problem is systemic...and the disconnect at senior levels is STAGGERING from my point of view. Probably reason #69 why I didn't make GO but I remember being in the room when a training and conversion plan was being briefed to the MAJCOM commander. The A3 and A1 folks were tag-teaming a brief on how they were going to convert AC-130W and AC-130U crew members into the AC-130J. The training folks were doing their best and their plan had every AC-130 pilot in the command by name and how they would flow through the system....come off the battlefield and start conversion training, PCS to new base, then immediately deploy in new airplane. I knew it was a house of cards and I couldn't hold my tongue, I blurted out "what retention rate did you use in your plan." Well sir we used the historic rate of 64%. "What was the Gunship retention rate last year?" (I already knew the answer) Well uh sirrrr....it was 34%...but we have mitigation strategies form the USAF that we think will help retention. I looked directly at the A1 and asked him if he knew about the 14 gunship pilots who were up for the bonus this year and what had just happened? He just stared at me...so I turned to the MAJCOM Commander and said sir there are currently 14 AC-130U pilots up for the bonus, only one has taken it. The MAJCOM commander was very celebrated in our community, honestly until his reply I worshiped the guy and would have done anything for him...that all ended when he opened his mouth and said in front of everyone....and I quote "They will stay because they are patriots, and if they don't I WILL JUST MAKE MORE." I knew at that moment...every bullshit comment he made about people and families was a lie...and that was it, his mitigation strategy was to let decades of combat experience just walk out there door and he would fix it by making more. I didn't even invite this dude to my retirement. I can point fingers at all the senior folks but for me I want to know...where the fuck was the DO. He/She was supposed to be the last line of common sense in the storm. I had a lot of interesting jobs in my career and made it to a fairly senior level as a Wing/CC down range in combat. Of all those jobs the toughest far and away was being a DO. Yes commanders work hard to take care of people but DOs are supposed to protect people and the mission. As a DO in the WIC it was a struggle...you think going through WIC is hard...trying being an IP there for 6 years. Sprinting a marathon becomes the norm. In fact, as a DO and CC I would remind each new graduate that they had to regulate expectations when they got back to the unit...as much as they wanted to change the world they would have to do so with some finesse or risk alienating the rank and file. You would think being a DO of a WIC squadron would be easy....all graduates, all top tier, all type A...but that presented a different problem in that they would run until they fell over dead. In order to protect them I often had to make tough calls to protect them from the system and from themselves. I didn't always get it right, but damn I tried. I remember one hellish period when we were flying multiple stages of the syllabus do to support asset availability. We typically ran a CAS phase then an Interdiction phase but for two weeks we were running both phases simultaneously. As most know WIC debreifs are purposely painful and on Thursday of the second week it was 0330 and we were doing data collect on the 6th sortie in 10 days. My ADO was leading the sortie and he said "Ok, we will see the WUGs back at 0700 for the formal brief." I looked around the room and all I saw was serious fatigue in both the WUGs but more importantly my instructors. I jumped up and said STOP! "WUGs and Instructors come back at noon for the formal debrief, everyone GO HOME." The ADO was pissed and he followed me back to my office...we had a very heated conversation in my office and he certainly spoke his mind as I always encouraged them to do. I listened then said, "messaged received, go home, I will see you at noon." For two weeks most of the WUGs had been grabbing a few hours of sleep in the squadron, not wanting to waste the time it took to drive home and then back in the morning. That week I noticed about half of my instructors had done the same thing and I knew I had to step in and protect them...from themselves. I might not have been the best DO but that is how I saw my job...PROTECT my people while accomplishing the mission. Where was his DO and how in the world the DO let this kid step that night is beyond me...simply beyond me.

Nothing. They should be investigated. That's a long ways away from refusing to concede in the face of a multi-state loss and no actual evidence of any fraud, while continuously eroding faith in the democratic process. Let's not forget that Hillary lost Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by less than a point. Obama was welcoming Trump into the white house by this point in 2016. History will not be kind to Mr. Trump's actions between November 3rd and January.

I think you can replace “true independents” with “80% of the country” and still be accurate. The last several elections have been 10% hardcore base on either side and everyone in the middle doing their best to pick the lesser of two evils while wondering why there are so many lunatics on the fringes. Guarantee there are tens of millions of voters who are not pumped about the candidate they voted for, but see them as a better option than the other guy for varying reasons.

500 affidavits alleging 11,000 incidents. Very little information on what these “incidents” entailed. One person is claiming that 60% of a batch of ballots had the same signature on them. OK. Did this person produce any proof? Photographs maybe? If so, why haven’t we seen them? If not, what qualifications did this individual have? Are they an expert in handwriting? What makes them qualified to judge that the signatures were, in fact, identical? Was this person even a poll worker? What was their physical position that allowed them to observe these ballots? The Trump campaign producing little more than hearsay. It’s going to take more than that to convince a judge. Is anyone surprised that 500 people have come forward with fraud claims? Frankly, I’m surprised there aren’t more at this point. Might many of these people be biased? Again, the onus is on the Trump campaign to PROOVE these bold allegations. Five hundred people saying they saw something fishy doesn’t constitute proof. Even if all of their allegations turn out to be true and credible (doubtful), do the votes that are then thrown out tip the scale in Trumps favor? Remember, we’re not just talking one state like 2000. This will have to be the case in several states. If anyone thinks Trump has a fighting chance in this thing, I’ve got a very nice ocean front igloo to sell you in Maui. It’s time to stop the charade. People like Graham, Cruz, and Pompeo who are enabling this circus are only doing further damage to their already shaky legacies.

No disagreement. I'm personally skeptical that the military vote will add much to either candidate, I suspect it's pretty even, or at least within 10% on either side. The numbers you're talking about are pretty sizable leads, in the grand scheme. And in multiple states. It's not a handful of ballots in a few precincts like in 2000. Yes for sure investigate problems. But shotgunning blind lawsuits without any basis (then admitting in court there is no real basis) is a very different thing than investigating discrepancies. You and I may be adult enough to know that this is just a preamble to Trump being able to claim he never really lost, once he's out of office. A lot of the population doesn't understand his bluster and will continue to propagate mistrust about the electoral process for many years. Win or lose, his actions today are a stain on our democracy.

And one more point... the video I’m referencing (the previously linked MIT professor’s analysis of Michigan election tampering) should be a concern to all citizens. Regardless of which side you support. We expect fair elections as part of our democratic process and it is apparently not happening. That is a major concern beyond the outcome of this election Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

ADMIN NOTE: Too late, you now require approval before any of your posts will show. Don't bother messaging me about it, you were very close to being banned; so even if you don't agree with it, I am doing you a favor. I did you a second favor by deleting several of your recent offending posts. Anyone else?

I’m genuinely curious as to what you thought would improve under Trump as well. I think the president really does a lot less than people give credit, but I still voted opposite you. Since you said you’re genuinely curious, here’s a few points: 1) I believe a lot more of America’s influence in the world comes from soft power than people realize. How the world perceives our president is important, and worldwide public perception of the status of America is at an all time low, in part due to rough rhetoric. I think this could improve. 2) I believe basic, preventative healthcare should be a fundamental right for the working class. This has a higher likelihood of happening now. Will be good for my children. 3) I don’t believe in social conservatism even slightly. Protect the rights to abortion/birth control/gay rights. Keep religion separate. 4) One of the biggest ones is probably income inequality. Trickle down economics does not work. I don’t care how many times you’ve been spoon fed that line. Productivity over the last 50 years has gone up - wages have stayed the same (inflation). The system is rigged against America’s youth whether you look at college that costs 70k a year (look up the costs), a dwindling job market (it’s been like this pre-Covid) that was propped up by min wage gig economy jobs, or the disastrous housing crisis. I’m glad I’m in the military, as it solved a lot of these problems, but is the American dream still alive as much as everyone says it is? Policies to increase min wage, provide healthcare, reduce student loans, support unions/workers rights - these will benefit the whole of America. It’s hard to vote for a “billionaire” who literally paid less than I did in tax for multiple years. And before you say he was just playing by the rules, if he cared about the system, he would make a concerted effort to fix the glitches. 5) Responses to pandemics or emergencies will actually have compassion or an iota of human decency. Handling of things like Puerto Rico or COVID have been terribly politicized and divisive for the nation when they shouldn’t have been. 6) The federal reserve has been used for quantitative easing in a dangerous precedent to prop up the stock market. The US government basically propped up $3T of stocks THIS YEAR and then the president took credit for the economy. The economy is a sham and the fed balance sheet should stop being manipulated. We’re using the coffers of our children for republican talking points. 7) Politics is nastier now than I’ve seen it. The media has been demonized, unless it rhymed with “Rox,” and I’ve never seen more conspiracy theories in people I know. I’d like someone that would like to improve America for all, not just red/blue voters. Also, I’d like the president to stop calling me a “hater and a loser”. You’re the leader of the free world, so act like it. Issues: 1) NATO and the EU have never pulled their weight, and we are probably going back to the one sided relationship that we all hate. 2) If Military acquisitions are cut anymore, maybe we’ll be fighting China’s 6th gen fighter with mech scanned vipers here in a decade. Although, to be fair, the Trump policies didn’t exactly FIX the acquisition problems that the military have had the last 20 years. 3) Racism is real, I believe. But the Democrats solution to be hypersensitive crybabys and cancel people is stupid. I agree with the recent push to limit diversity training, and I fear there are gonna be some STUPID policies. Did you see that survivor is gonna be 50% POC??? So dumb. 4) Biden is old and Kamala Harris is not someone I respect or like. This is the biggest drawback for me. I honestly am not worried about job security. I’m in defense, as I assume you are, and there are boundless opportunities for military officers in and out of the military. My wealth will continue to increase in the stock market just as much as it would have. I can still purchase property, but I am definitely not going to be part of the owner class (and none of you will be either). Bottom line, I want someone with a bit more moral compass and maybe slightly more progressive views. So that’s how I voted this election.

You guys are really going hard in the paint about Biden’s cognitive abilities, 25th Amendment, etc. This must be 2020 Parler version of Hillary’s emails. How many voting lawsuits has Trump’s legal team been successful with? How many have been dismissed?

If anyone looks at the situation from a purely objective standpoint, then they will come to the conclusion that something weird happened. You can put me in the category who voted the way I did only because I wanted to stop what I see as harmful policies from the other side - but I am no huge Trump fan and I think his never ending merry go round in DOD with regards to leadership and policy hasn't been the most stabilizing force for my life or my mission. But as we reflect on Veteran's Day today, what does it mean to serve this nation? We all swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign, and domestic. The two sides here probably have different views of who that domestic enemy might be, some believe Trump himself is a domestic threat. Others may think a huge conspiracy that seems to have undermined his presidency from the beginning is the domestic threat (Comey, Brenan, etc.). I stayed up until 3 am on election night because I was adjusting my sleep schedule for work. Nobody can deny that something completely unprecedented happened. I was switching between all different news channels: CNN, FOX, FOX Business, and even Newsmax. It was quite strange that early projections all favored Biden while the same people refused to call states for Trump in which he clearly had a large lead. We were conditioned in the weeks prior to the election that mail in votes would sway results as time went on. Then the unprecedented thing occurred - counting in many battleground states ceased unexplainably somewhere around 1 AM EST (best I can recall). These are the key states to victory by either side, why on earth would the election officials decide to throw in the towel for the night and stop counting ballots? I've heard one counting location told the Republicans they stopped counting at 10:30 pm, only to continue counting without oversight until 1 am. Now we have affidavits from people who participated in the process that oversight wasn't permitted to view what was actually going on. Imagine if the roles were reversed and Republicans controlled county commissioner positions and vote counting in these major urban counties. If the Republicans refused Democrat oversight of the counting process, we would be hearing that on the media 24/7 non-stop. There is data that suggests large dumps of mail in ballots were counted late at night that heavily favored Biden - this illustrates that they were not actually sent through the mail but were delivered to counting locations by other means. If they had been mailed, then they would have been more randomized and they tend to favor Republican candidates as time goes on since rural areas take longer for ballots to be shipped and processed. https://twitter.com/aphilosophae/status/1325592112428163072?s=10 Now you have Biden standing out there in front of a sign that reads "Office of the President-Elect" (which doesn't exist) giving speeches about how he is already engaging in talks with foreign leaders. This is the same activity that the Trump administration was targeted for during the transition process last time. Biden doesn't answer any reporter's questions, and then is escorted off the stage, shuffling like an elderly dementia patient. I've had 3 grandparents die suffering from dementia and other diseases similar to Alzheimer's, the guy is not well. If the election is certified with Biden as the winner, I fear for his future and what turmoil may come down the road. Remember he stated during the first debate that he would not claim victory until the election was independently certified. I'm not sure he remembers saying that. I have no idea what will happen, I am just a dumb military pilot that has sacrificed a lot for this country. It pains me on Veteran's Day to see our Constitution being trampled throughout our country. From new draconian coronavirus lockdowns that obviously haven't worked, additional mandates to only breathe air filtered by a mask (which also hasn't worked the past 6 months), now our election system is being brought into question either by people hell bent on taking down Trump or his craziness in refusing to accept the results. It's a sad time for our country.

One of the frustrating things is that you are immediately labeled a liberal, which is now somehow an insult/cussword in this incredibly divided environment (started with Obama, or you could go all the way back to Gingrich). You're not just of a different political camp anymore, you're somehow the enemy if you don't give Trump your unwavering support. That may be slightly hyperbolic, but the point is fairly strong. What is also hyperbolic are the charges (made by some of the very people on this forum) of the immediate destruction of the US and its identity if a Democrat is sitting in the WH.

Exactly, and that's the part that bothers me the most about this whole thing. Ever since the OG/MX split, friction with MX has become SOP, and it's completely out of hand. The antagonism and adversarial relationships on a day to day TOP3-MOC interactions are beyond the pale. So are these deferral and tail-shuffling games. I don't know the dynamic on the Viper side, but my experience has been similar in all 3 duty stations I've been involved in. Yeah yeah, we're all innocent in Shawshank. Spare me. 3x deferring the control module for a hot seat is so unconscionable it's criminal in my moral code, in light of a fatality. Unreal. I don't even know why I go through the kabuki of reading the forms these days, everything is TCTO deferred. It's f*ckin- meaningless at this point.

YOU just called him a kid. I don't see him calling you names. YOU made it personal. YOU'RE a hypocrite.

The analysis of the publicly available data was conducted by a data researcher, who wishes to remain anonymous, who submitted it first to the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times. seems legit 😏

Are you talking about 2020, or 2016? I can't keep up with the constantly shifting liberal narrative...

Also...it turns out campaigning across the US telling your followers mail in ballots are a fraud and to not use them...results in fewer mail in ballots for your side. Imagine that! The impeachment was really just getting all the Republicans on record to defend all Trump's actions. It will be politically useful in the upcoming years when all of them claim to have been against him despite carrying his water for 4 years. Republicans eat their own, and it's only a matter of time before Trump is on the plate. Just look at McCain, Romney, Bush Jr to some extent, and pretty much any office holder that isn't gushingly supportive of Trump. My bet is in 10-15 years you won't be able to find anyone who admits to voting for Trump.

A couple things: Everyone knew this election would be different due to the pandemic. The “blue shift” was predicted long before the election by anyone who cared to ponder the fact that the president’s supporters were likely to vote at the polls, while Biden supporters were far more likely to vote by mail. Pennsylvania law (passed by Republicans) meant that mail in votes there could not even be processed until Tuesday (other states have laws that allowed processing much earlier-hence Florida’s relatively early result). This process was further hampered by the Trump administration’s own hamstringing of the USPS prior to the election. If Trump wants to whine about the process, he has himself at least partially to blame. Regarding the impeachment: This was in no way an attempt to overturn the 2016 election. Let me repeat that. The impeachment was not an attempt to OVERTURN the 2016 election. If Trump had been removed from office, you would’ve ended up with Pence, not Hillary, in the Oval Office. Think about that for a minute. If the Dems had succeeded, you would’ve had an extremely conservative guy who is capable of acting like an adult human being, who doesn’t tweet a shitstorm every morning, who wouldn’t fire a cabinet member every other day, who is not a pathological liar, and is far less polarizing than the Donald as the POTUS. Do you think Pence might’ve done a better job at unifying the country over the COVID crisis? I do. I’ll say it one more time. Impeachment was not an attempt to overturn an election and removing Trump from office would’ve been a GIFT to Republicans.

Don't worry, the GOs believe AI, 5G, Cloud, IoT, UPT Next, optionally-manned and other buzzwords will enhance warfighters lethality and efficiency, while allowing the DoD to right size manning structure and reduce financial obligations. I wouldn't be surprised if A1 is searching on the shared drive for the 2014 Force Shaping AFSC/YG matrix spreadsheet as we speak... /s

Happy Veterans Day to everyone! Vets serving Vets is the best combo out there. You guys/girls are the best borrowers we get and are the reason our investors give us such great pricing on VA loans. Pretty much still 2.25% no points and no lender fees on all streamline VA refis 250-510K with even a lender credit in many cases. Above 510K it's 2.25-2.375% on streamlines refi's with not discount points or lender fees. All assuming primary residences, and credit scores above 720. Below 250K it's usually 2.375% but can go higher the lower the loan amount goes down. Purchase rates are still super low as well. Expecting the 510K limit to go up again on 1 Jan which means more VA entitlement if you already have a VA loan outstanding to use on a second VA. Also means you might be able to refinance out of a jumbo VA into a conforming VA at a lower rate. The new limit will probably be released by the government at the end of this month. I'll post it once I see it Overall money is super cheap to borrower right now. Give us a call, text, or e-mail if you want to chat through a scenario. Thank you for your service! Jon 850-377-1114 jk@mythl.com Application link

First, that seat should have worked. The fact that it didn't while it was an "in" envelope ejection is the primary reason this young man lost his life. Second, everything everyone else says about the leadership failing this poor kid from AETC (or above) all the way down through the SOF is correct. We do have major, latent problems on the grill that need immediate intervention. Third, we all need to be able to put a shitty part of a mission behind us and be able to move forward and complete a basic flying task with an otherwise good airplane. If anyone else thinks you're flying a perfect airplane that will work 100% (even a brand new 0.0 hour one), you're high. Step one is to control what is in your power which means #1 maintain aircraft control. Sometimes this means shaking off a up (even one that is not your fault) and focusing on the task at hand and saving your feelings for the debrief. Landing at night is a basic flying task and check rides have meaning. I should be able to clear off a student and trust they can aviate, navigate, and communicate. Some major screw ups all around on this one - which is not confidence-building for our Air Force.

Confirmed based on my observation: 69%+ of leftists who were miserable before the election are still miserable after, filling social media with profanity filled rants about their daily woes. Self-Victimization is a tough habit to break. And Hillary’s still not president. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

As a military member Trump had a positive effect on my life I don’t know if you will find to many business owners that don’t think Trump had a positive impact on their businesses. Trump had a positive effect on minorities and the jobless with his business friendly push for the government.

To be clear, you're saying if the lawsuits are dismissed for lack of standing, cause, non-procedural issues, etc., then it's still a legitimate election for Biden? I would suggest that some people on this board, and a ton in my FB feed, who wear that label disagree with that assessment. Where is your line for the judiciaries hand in deciding the election, especially since the Courts have been very reluctant so far to get very involved? Fantastic read, thanks for sharing. I also happened to come across this, about some GI's taking extreme voter corruption head on. Book just came out about it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_(1946) It's been made apparent that my time on here isn't as appreciated by my family as it is by me. Additionally, my daughter was directly exposed to COVID..so I'm going to hunker down, lurk, and take care of what's important. Thank you all for the conversation and different opinions.

I like your skills with conflict. Call names and downvote. Effective.

According to polling data, a majority of democrats thought the 2016 election was fraudulent while a majority of republicans thought it was fair. Now a majority of republicans think the 2020 election was fraudulent and democrats think it was fair. So you tell me what's more likely: Option A: Widespread fraud exists and did a perfect 180 pivot in 4 years. Option B: people tend to bitch, moan, and complain when they lose.

But, but but...it’s so much easier and more fun to make a grand conspiracy claim than to admit things are rarely as simple as they appear on the surface (or on Sean Hannity’s show).

Maybe. I feel the same about the conduct of the media and the left over the last 4 years.

That's DR. Shiva to you, inventor of email, grifter in chief, polymath genius with 800 on his SAT math who thinks vitamins will improve your immune defense against COVID contrary to double blind placebo studies. All jokes aside, I'll address his main argument. This does not "clearly" show anything and shows a poor demonstration of basic statistical understanding. The first point I'll make is that you cannot show two linear correlations on one chart comparing data in different portions of the same dataset. Either they thought the concept of a nonlinear correlation was too advanced for the general public, or they thought the general public was too stupid to realize this basic fact. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's the former and move on to the broader argument. I did not independentally verify the data they were using, since they did not publish it, but for the sake of the argument I will assume it is real. Quite hypocritical for him to bash on the government not releasing data to the public and not do so himself, but that's beside the main point here. The fact was that there were more Republican votes via straight ticket ballots than trump votes at an increasing rate the more republican the precinct got. That's undisputed if the data was correct. The error lies in his assumption that this implies a "weighted voter algorithm" of some sort. One possible explanation is that since the sample size of candidate choice ballots is correlated with republican precincts (which correlate to smaller the more republican it gets), more error is introduced to the difference between straight voting and choice ballots at an increasing rate. In other words, more republican precincts are smaller, which means an even smaller portions of ballots are not straight ticket ballots, which means the very few independent choice ballots that are counted have a much bigger swing on this effect. If he plotted precinct size vs republican share of votes you would get the same correlation, but he does not show otherwise or give access to the data to prove this. This is just one of several possible explanations, and without addressing them his conclusion would get rejected immediately by any statistician. TLDR: It's a classic case of isolating dependent variables to find a correlation that fits your narrative.

And why such the rush? Electoral college doesn’t meet for another month. And we elect presidents for 4 years.

I've pointed out Benford's law, which is a tool to begin detecting fraud or irregularities in data. Was called a conspiracy theorist and told to stfu and accept the election results. If they can't grasp the simple concept of Benford's law then they will scream at you and call you a holocaust denier if you present something more complex such as that video. "But we follow the science".

https://m.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-100000-ballots-with-implausible-return-dates_3572942.html Here’s some widespread voter fraud. If the states can figure it out it goes to the house. One vote per state. There is a slim chance that Trump can still win.

Truth. Were there actual red flags then to investigate? Or did multiple states show Her leading by huge margins for a long time only to be erased by suspicious circumstances? That’s the difference. And didn’t just this last spring we wrap up the Russia investigation and second unsuccessful attempt at impeaching him to remove him from office? One could argue that they investigated it for 3 years and actually fabricated evidence to pin on trump that didn’t stick. So I don’t think that is a strong argument. If the courts play out, I doubt you will have many republicans for the next four years calling Biden an illegitimate president

Weed...5 years ago, I would have been 100% in agreement with you. But over the last 5-6 years, there has been a conspicuous decline in skills of the studs we get back from the B-Course. Not just one or two, but across the board. I'm don't mean tactics, I'm talking basic admin/airmanship type-shit that they should have learned in UPT/B-Course. Frankly, unless something drastic changes soon, I expect to see more of this stuff. I might have been a bit too general in my comments. No doubt, there is blame with local leadership and I'm not completely absolving them of any responsibility. But IMHO, you're grounding the older brother for his sibling being a hoodlum, when the parents never taught either of them how to act. Local leadership is plugging the dam with every stick of gum they can find. They're now running out of fingers and toes to plug the remaining holes...and another hole has just sprung. You're going to fire the guys for not being good enough at plugging the holes, while the engineer who designed the shitty ass dam walks away unscathed. If you're not retired, go check out the FCIF that came out after this accident. If you're out, then have one of your bros relay it to you. When we read it, we didn't know whether to laugh, cry or break a chair against the wall...maybe all 3 was the right answer.

Here's another rhetorical question in regards to the fraud. Why didn't dems take the senate? The ballots are the same piece of paper. Those votes are probably bad too?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/postal-worker-fabricated-ballot-pennsylvania/2020/11/10/99269a7c-2364-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html That kinda hurts the message.

As a military member Trump has caused me to greatly doubt the ability of the CinC to lead the nation in a time of crisis. That has been an overall negative effect on my life. My wife is a small business owner: no effect one way or another....local politics and issues have much more impact than who is in the WH. I suspect that you won't find many minorities and/or jobless who are proud to have DJT in the WH. A question I've posed in this forum before and gotten little response from DJT devotees: Would you want him as your Wg/CC or Sq/CC? I recognize that a political leader is a different beast than a military leader, but I simply can't wrap my mind around how someone would follow what DJT is putting out there.

Pretty much nothing will change for my day to day life under Biden. I don't believe that any president has much of an impact on anyone's daily life at a policy level. But I won't have to do daily mental gymnastics to justify the stream of consciousness Twitter rantings of an egotistical asshat so there's that.

Yes. That’s the point. Republicans and democrats alike will accept the results of this election if Biden legitimately wins. But there are red flags and a lot of them to be investigated. I don’t care who you are left or right. Part of the greatness of our country is the election system. And if it’s fake or corrupt then that needs to be fixed. Regardless of who wins. That’s a republican view Democrat is dispute for 4 years if we lose call the other side treasonous racists that need tracked if they win.

Best meme of the past week...

No, my mother shredded it. Some people still have morals...

For me at an immediate level, absolutely immeasurably yes on the first two. I'm an ATC, federal employee. Being reclassified as a political appointee and having my due process rights waived was not something I was happy about, because I'm not an appointee, and that was just within the last couple weeks. Let's also not forget the two and a half months I went without a paycheck, over the holidays no less, for absolutely nothing. It's not the first shutdown I've been through, it certainly won't be the last (guessing we have one coming in a month or so), but it was the longest and the most obscene. And the anti-labor executive orders...don't think I even need to explain those, how detrimental they'd be. I'm very active in our union, it's the proper avenue for us to improve and address the workplace. I think we have a good mix where it's optional to be in the union in the first place, you only pay dues if you're in, and we can't strike so the legally-mandated communication is different. I could go on if needed but I think I made my point. Also I was very concerned for the future of my profession, our wage, and my leave time...lots of talk of big changes for those in a second term. And our labor contract expires two years into it. For the satisfaction of identity as an American...well, I'd like to be able to travel the world again, and it's somewhat abhorrent that we still can't go to Canada or any of Europe because of the President's erratic-at-best, or even lack of plan for COVID. Our response and stats do all the talking here. You can say what you want on political leanings or leverage, but the fact that we're shut out from our longest-standing, closest allies should alarm you. And sadly I trust the career politician to create a functional, cohesive government/cabinet more than the current clown show that only favors loyalty, like it's the fucking Mob or something.

My father got a vote-by-mail letter in Florida. Problem is, he passed away over 14 years ago... Don't tell me there's nothing wrong with the system!

Awesome post. I'm not sensitive to the covid issues, because diseases happen and how we should respond is not at all consensus. Hell, I know *far* more young people who care than the old people who are actually at risk. Done care, some don't, and both sides are completely right in thinking the way they do. Which means there shouldn't be a national policy. Disagree with soft power. It's not a coincidence the strongest country has the most influence. Look how much influence China is gaining as their "hard power" increases. Agree with health care, but disagree that it will end there. Checkups and treatment for broken bones? Free. Birth control and IUDs, free. Under the age of 20? Free. But if you're 36 and get leukemia or you're 85 and your kidneys are failing, you better have insurance or you die. That's the gamble. The primary discriminator for if the government provides the coverage should be price and predictability. On social issues I'm 50/50. I don't agree with religious based edicts. However the "old knowledge" didn't come from God, it came from thousands of years of observation and adaptation resulting in the most successful societies. We have to understand why a social norm works before we tinker with it. The sexual revolution comes to mind. Income inequality is a pointless measure. But you're spot on with conflating the stock market and the economy. Because the boomers have their retirements in the stock market and real estate, that's exactly what the government has artificially inflated. And it's crushing entire generations. The boomers will go down as the most devastating generation in history. Some random caller on a podcast I heard (Femsplainers) nailed it on nasty politics. There are only two parties. If there's only two groups that are opposed to each other, there's no limit to how nasty the situation gets. He used his competition in business as an example. When there were just two of them, it was fierce and awful. Once there were a dozen competitors, it mellowed out. We might be programmed to recognize when there is an isolated threat and destroy it, who knows. But if we can't get some more diversity in the political arena, the nastiness will probably not abate.

YGBSM. Years of TCTO delays and lack of parts for an egress system? Producing a F-16 B-course graduate who has NEVER seen a tanker? How in the actual fuck does this happen? Those are huge failures on an almost systemic scale. But, I'll focus most of my wrath on the bro-level. What kind of decision process in the mind of a squadron IP makes it even a reasonable plan to take an MQT student to his first AAR event EVER, at night in a single seat fighter while piling on a never before seen mission event as well? Oh, and add in the fact that he hadn't flown in more than 5 days and had only recently returned to regular flying in the last month. We're talking basic common sense here. Do we really need USAF directives (that were ignored!!!) that specifically prohibit attempting new events in MQT at night without a demo pro in the day first to figure out this is a really, really bad plan? Do we really need an RM worksheet (that wasn't calculated properly anyway) to figure out this is a really, really bad plan? Then there's the SOF. Another bro-level failure. We're rolling the dice and just guessing now on a situation that's not addressed in the checklist? The MP actually caught this and tried to get guidance on the fact that the checklist didn't completely address the situation and had steps he couldn't accomplish. No Conference Hotel? WTF? It's truly incredible how badly the supposedly experienced leadership involved in this fighter squadron completely failed this pilot. What an absolute clown show!

Site your source you dumb motherfucker.

He fucking lost guys. Get over it. Your tin foil hat schtick is embarrassing and, frankly, worrisome in that you guys probably hold security clearances. The GOP held the Senate. President Trump outperformed himself with virtually all minority groups compared to 2016. The Democrats lost a dozen House seats when they were supposed to gain a dozen. The squad scared off a lot of independents. From a strictly partisan point of view there is much to be satisfied with if you are a Republican. But the President got his ass handed to him by a larger margin than he won 4 years ago. The networks called it, as they do every year, when the states report a sufficient number of ballots. IT IS OVER. This would be a great time for the POTUS to show some grace, class, humility, integrity, and leadership. While we are waiting for that, here is a textbook example:

This is exactly the kind of "system failure" that the SIB and AIB were designed to identify. Will the AF wake up and take responsibility for its own leadership and decisionmaking failures that set this poor kid up for failure and, ultimately, his death?

The question really comes down to what is national security? It’s less and less an ability to act, and more an ability to have influence and deter. I agree we have to pick our influence and we’re spread out too thin. If I was king for a day I would slash the vast majority (talking 70%+) of operational funding for CENTCOM/EUCOM and tell them to figure it out. COCOMs are a DISASTER, where they request the world every time and have literally no incentive to be efficient with their resources. Instead, MAJCOMs are supposed to “push back,” which basically never happens in a meaningful way. This leads to Russia getting almost the same foreign policy effects as us by flying 2 flankers twice a day around in circles with a couple of S-400s on the ground. In comparison, we’ll fly 20-30 airplanes at a time 24/7 in those theaters. Now that’s a waste of money and time. We need to focus on credible deterrence, so take the vast majority of that money and funnel it into acquisitions - which needs to be unified at the SECDEF level so we aren’t all simultaneously working on the same thing. Improve our networks, cyber, space, and weapons for common integration. The rest of the repatriated money can go to training. I hate to say it, but we probably also need drones that can do the low end A-A mission so that we don’t have F-22s and F-35s bleeding money and longevity by intercepting airliners over Baghdad during 8 hour missions. The MQ-9 can basically already do 90% what the F-15E/F-16 would be tasked for in these theaters. Same thing goes for all the ground troops we have deployed to the theater over the last few years. Its almost a pointless expense when it comes to national influence. Downsize the army/marine AD side significantly, bring them into the reserves, save money with a loss of combat power - but it’s combat power that we likely won’t need in the extreme short term, so hopefully the gamble will work out. Tough decisions. But we have to stop wasting our time in theaters that net us nothing other than debt. Focus back up on credible deterrence and technology or else we are doomed to lose the long game to China.

I was a Marine maintainer, and I will have you know, that we also have adjustable wrenches and a flat head screwdriver (but only a big one). The selection of hammers was pretty incredible though.