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!RemindMe in four years...we will look back on 2020 corona virus as the most disastrous government intervention in the history of American public health. total disaster and fear based response amazed how easily americans can be lied to, deceived, freedoms taken away, businesses shut, schools closed, travel stopped...all in the name of "keeping them safe"...and most americans WILLINGLY are giving up their freedoms in the name of "safety" really is incredible. fear is a hell of a weapon.

My civics lessons are a bit old, but what would a federal-level politician do when his state has a problem with power generation? In what universe does this fall to a Senator to deal with? If you have irrational expectations, you will get irrational politicians. If you value gestures over practicality, you will get politicians who specialize in the former and fail in the latter. Our representatives represent us, often quite a bit more accurately than we'd like to admit.

Just an fyi to hopefully help speed things along, you're recruiter is most certainly able to send up your package to NGB to get OTS dates, without your FC1 being done or approved. You'll have to send the FC1 up after its approved, but if they say they need the FC1 to get your officer selection package up and approved, that's not true. Trust me.

Hiring pipeline making me crazy lol cheers

'They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'

I’ve got both rounds of the Pfizer shot. No major side effects, except for this strange lingering craving for brains...

Congrats on the CSO slot. That's some varsity-level ineptitude on the part of your leadership.

megabits are rarely used to indicate storage size, and that would also be a tiny PDF file if it was only 8 megabits. I know it's important to look out for this stuff and be professional, but come on guys...

One important fact is that the police officer in this case, was in fact indicted, and sat before 12 citizens who judged him in a trial. 12 people who were vetted by both the prosecution and defense for the ability to be objective, saw ALL the evidence in the case, and heard both stories. Then, all 12 unanimously decided this officer was not guilty based on EVERYTHING we knew about the event, and acquitted him. That's a pretty big deal in my opinion.

Yep. It's misdirected fire. Invalid at pickle. And this is coming from someone who thinks Ted Cruz is basically a schmuck.

Laughs in last decade and a half of flying circles in the sky, aging out our Strikes/Vipers/Bones/Hogs... just in case we need to sling an $50k bomb at a dude carrying an RPG.

Mostly false parallels here. It is absolutely wrong that he's being criticized. He is a federal official that has *nothing* to do with the power crisis in Texas, and other than getting an emergency declared, which he did, he's useless. When exactly would you like our politicians to spend time with their families? When they're needed most, or when they are not? Ted Cruz is not the leader of Texas. If Abbott had run away to Mexico we'd have a very different conversation. Dodging a deployment? That's your parallel? Do better. No one had to be there in Ted's absence, hell the reduced power usage from his family leaving marginally *helps* the crisis. Generals telling people to quit? What on Earth does that have to do with anything? Acting like "giving the appearance of working" is somehow a virtue is *exactly* the problem I'm identifying. If you want a military analogy that actually applies, how about the generals that expect their staff to stay at the office till 8pm even when they could get some of that work done at home, with their families? How do we feel about that? Saying that "symbolism matters" implies that *all* symbolism matters. It does not. A graduation ceremony recognizes a particular accomplishment of individuals to the people who care. If I forced you to go to my cousin's graduation, would the symbolism matter to you then? We can and should expect our leaders to be where they are needed, when they are needed. We should stop pretending like our government officials are supposed to be superhuman public servants. For the people, *by* the people. Regular citizens engaging in the practice of self governance. We need to stop holding them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to. This is just a case of people not liking the person first, and finding reasons second. It was nonsense when conservatives did it to Obama for golfing, it's nonsense now.

Like I said, if we value symbolic gestures, we get symbolic leadership. If we value leaders who chose symbolic acts over their families, what hope do we have of getting politicians who place value on the American family? You don't have to give weight to a bad argument just because the opposition is making it. He does not "deserve" irrational criticism. If the only problem with what Ted did is optics, then there's no problem at all.

Sure, he's trying to be a good dad, I'll give you that. He's getting his family out of a bad situation. That's generally reasonable. I know in power outages I've gone through, I've found a hotel with power so my wife could be comfortable (and to power a medical device). But I recognize that being able to do that is a luxury, and one I couldn't always afford. Same with being able to fly your family out of country to somewhere comfortable/vacation when a significant natural disaster hits. It's a luxury many of his constituents can't afford, so it becomes bad optics for an elected leader. It fosters a perceived divide between the common person and an elected leader. Would've been better to just send his family off without going with them. No one would really bat an eye at anyone who wasn't an elected official getting out of the cold and going on vacation; there's no social contract that says that's not unacceptable behavior for them. So I won't say Cruz was wrong for doing what he did. But that's not to say that the spears from the media are unfair, or that he may have a minor PR crisis to deal with. Probably won't matter though in the long run. Even if Republican voters didn't like it, what are they going to do, vote for a Democrat next election? On your third point, that's the price of being a leader (especially an elected leader), and not just in politics. Plus, he volunteered for that job...And that means taking the bad with the good.

Because there’s nothing a federal politician can do for his electorate? You start battling for disaster relief bills to help pick your constituents back up. You figure out why the help didn’t arrive quicker or more effectively. You think of how you can help through economic relief. You at least try to be smart enough to not be a giant hypocrite at doing what you spent a lot of time calling out other politicians for doing. Yeah, maybe it’s symbolic, but it’s a douchebag move for a political voted to represent the people and be their leader to bounce the hell out or not follow the same rules they espouse. Same goes for Austin Mayors, California Governors, Texas Senators, any elected official on any shade of the political spectrum. You’re a leader; lead or at least act like you GAF when the people who asked you to lead need help.

Update on the ol' timeline for guard fighter squadron: Hired: AUG 2020 MEPS: FEB 2020 ENLISTMENT: ? FC1: ? OTS: ? UPT: ? Hope I'm not in an old folks home by the time I get to UPT. Hurry up and wait I guess.

“Greener Cement....” See the funny part here is Cement/concrete production is one of the most intensive single carbon related issues on our impact on the eco system so really it has almost no way to go but up. While this is better than “just bury the damn things” between all its other issues I would hardly call this the single fix to make wind power THE way forward some think it is. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What surprises me is that I have confirmed with my wing exec that there were 45 Pilot slots and so far I believe we have only seen one. Maybe they said 4 to 5 🤫 😆

How many hours of training are you willing to fund as a taxpayer? What qualitative impact in fatalities do we need to see to call it a good ROI? These are the two immediate questions that come to mind with people screaming we have to do something about the “epidemic of improper police violence” as som have called it. You know what would actually translate better than most to immediately alleviating fear and stressors going into an encounter which will likely result to an officer employing greater force to include deadly force? Mandatory 2 officer patrol units, and more hours spent doing hand to hand combative/retention/ground drills. Both those are dead concepts the second you suggest them because while they do have an impact, they cost way more than anybody is willing to pay for a solution. Again, this is stuff that requires more and wider funding/Manning to achieve actual downstream results (more arrests/less fatal encounters), but that’s not what the mob is shouting for now is it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This seems like a pretty unfair, broad stroke of police. I don't believe most police are racist (or assholes) But there are ways that police forces can better train their officers to prevent unnecessary death. Saying that de-escalation training is pointless is like telling aircrew that CRM training is worthless.

Colombian AC-47 is a Basler conversion with pretty interesting capes. Tough ol' Spooky Gooney bird. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39236/theres-one-place-in-the-world-where-ac-47-spooky-gunships-still-fly

Do you think there is currently an epidemic or Racist extremism or to borrow from 10 years ago predatory sexual conduct that is a systemic part of the military? Do you think they are either consciously or subconsciously baked into our population. Now of course both those ideas are pretty absurd (and currently being peddled to the mob), but those of us that have experience in the military know better. What we see is a narrative on those topics created through cherry picking of details and a steady diet of shock and outrage media pumped into a society full of echo chamber social media circles. Similarly the idea that police face no action for misconduct and that police unions are somehow more powerful than city legislatures and mayors is being peddled. Sorry dude, I watched cops get fired for misconduct. I know guys who never made it past the state certificate from the academy because no department would hire them (one in particular was the son of a Lt in that department). Is there room for improvement? Sure as with any field where the median salary is in the sub 50k range, same as it is for teachers or nurses or any other field. But anybody who has spent a week in the military should know damn well empty promises to study the problem and “mandatory training” will lead to nothing but hours expended on PowerPoint briefings so leadership can tell it’s constituency “we did something.” Unless you and a whole lot of others are prepared for a full reinvestment of serious capital and time vetting, equipping, and training a Law Enforcement enterprise demands for change are nothing more than shouting to feel better about a tree in a forest of greater societal issues. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not a GO I don’t know any just our Wing/CC which is an O-6. And yeah I don’t want to sound salty but I def feel like I got shafted. Alas there is nothing I can do and it is what it is. I’ll apply again for a third time next year and start looking into ANG/AFR. Honestly pretty salty about the whole deal and want to give AD the big ‘ol middle finger. I’ve been in 13 years total with my E time and I’d just like them to throw me a bone.

Some people DGAF about 0-60 or 1/4 mile. A Tesla on anything other than the drag strip is boring. No rumble. No shifting. Nothing...it’s a really fast vibrator with tires. It doesn’t excel in the corners either. I would rather buy two C8’s than a single Tesla. One for the track and one as a DD. But thank God this is America and you can spend your money on whatever you want...even if it is the wrong way. 🍺

Yeah, it's interesting. I guess Texas had something similar happen back in 2011, and appears to have done nothing to improve in a decade. It's all just risk management. Texas choose to be deregulated for their power, and it's paying the price for it now (instead of an upfront monetary investment to avoid these situations). This might be a once in lifetime event, but that doesn't mean it's unprecedented. Same with areas with earthquakes and strict building codes, or areas with volcanic activity having evacuation plans. Prior planning prevents piss poor performance... And you're right, there really isn't a business case for extreme events. Even if there's a fine or penalty. Unless you start throwing business leaders in jail for failing to protect the public in their public infrastructure monopoly, we have to rely on the business to "do the right thing" for the public.

Another great lament by VDH: America Descending into Collective Madness | National Review From the article: The common denominator with all these absurdities? An ungracious and neurotic elite whose judgment is bankrupt and whose privilege is paid for by those who don’t have it.

Your definition of accountability seems to be punishing people even when the use of force is justified and they're cleared of wrongdoing. Tamir Rice was a horrible situation. Someone called 911 reporting a person with a gun waving it around in the park. They did say it's "probably fake" but it would be unreasonable for law enforcement to assume that (and if it's probably fake, why call 911?). The officers made some serious tactical errors in their approach (pulling up right in front with no cover at all). When Rice reached into his waistband to pull out the gun, they shot him. How were they supposed to know it was a toy? The city of Cleveland settled a $6M lawsuit and the officer was fired. A grand jury declined to indict them. What else do you want? Take the emotion out of it. Do you want them to go to jail "just because"? The Kelly Thomas case went to trial and they were found not guilty. Not by a "thin blue line" but a jury of their peers. Take that up with the courts. Finally, Freddie Gray. He was arrested after fleeing on foot in an area of known criminal activity for a switchblade knife that was illegal in Baltimore. While in custody, he broke his neck in the van and hit his head. Six officers were suspended. All were acquitted or charges dropped. The Obama DOJ (under Lynch) investigated and eventually declined to pursue it. Again, what would you like? Execute them in the streets to assuage your FEELINGS? No one is saying these deaths were justified or right, but to say there was no accountability is wrong. Each example you cited involved criminal charges and trials for the officers.

We're in one of the top districts in CO. PPL are willing to be stupid house poor to send their kids here. More and more parents are doing home school near us. The virtual learning is a joke and the kids are getting fat. If I were a well respected teacher I would highly consider quitting and getting paid cash to teach a small "POD". But I've met teachers here and the few Ive met thought I was the devil for working in Oil and Gas. One just started bitching at me at a block party how I was killing the earth. She drove her Honda there BTW. But these are the people teaching our kids. They're also the first to duck and cover from COVID and let the kids suffer. If I get the green light to work more remote were out of this state.

In the words of comedian Steve Hoffstetter - 'I’ve never flown a helicopter. But if I saw one in a tree, I could still be like, ‘Dude fucked up. It’s not supposed to be up there. That’s pilot error.'

Depending on what data you look at, as an American you are between 8 and 50+ times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist. We spend trillions of $ on defense which is obviously needed but perhaps we should focus a bit more on the internal. I am in no way saying all the blame lays with police officers (my brother is a cop), but maybe we can help the entire system with a bit more understanding and new approaches. As a small segway, the following is a list of other things that are more likely to kill you than a terrorist: Brain-Eating Parasites, Texting While Driving, Accident caused by a Toddler, Lightning, A Deer, Falling Out of Bed, Food Poisoning, Choking On Food, Bathtub Accident, Financial Crash, Being crushed to death, Medical Errors and my personal favorite...Autoerotic Asphyxiation.

We live in a “very good” school system, ranked highly nationally. My kids are now in a private school, initially because of the remote bullshit (by the way, 5 days in person Preschool through 8th, since Aug...one case). Now we’ve seen the other side, and compared to same age kids of friends who are still in the “real good” public schools, the difference is startling. My kids are immensely ahead of their public school peers; the curriculum and expectations makes the public school a total joke. And this is comparing against a “really good, nationally ranked” public school system...we won’t go back. I cannot imagine how shitty the public system is outside of the “highly ranked” areas. Pay attention to what your kids are/are not learning, I was fat dumb and happy until the remote catalyst, now I shudder to think about the shit education they would have received had I kept not really paying attention/seen the other side. Significant reform is needed in the public school system.

People laugh but I would love to see a split ticket as the third party in the next POTUS election. Tulsi (D) with Crenshaw (R) or Haley (R) for example. Completely bi-partisan and able to pull the more independent and centrist votes away from the two major parties.

Point 1: The only way it would be relevant is if his intoxication level directly impacted his ability to comprehend what the officer was telling him. Which is possible, but as yet not what I'm seeing here or elsewhere. Otherwise, it's a non-sequitur. Point 2/3: The threat to officers is something like 150-200ish killed in the line of duty a year, right? So in the millions of officer interactions that happen in this country.....just like the threat of civilians getting killed by errant cops, the various sides of this argument overstate the severity of what is going on. I agree the media malfeasance is gross. That said, the overall crime rate has gone down a lot in the past couple decades, but the number of civilian deaths from officer involved altercations has not matched the decline. So something is out of whack. I'm not saying they're running around maliciously murdering people. The entire framing of the discussion (cops vs criminals, "sacrifice safety in the name of propping up criminals" or "I don't care if it's an 11 year old, I'm going home tonight!" ) guarantees problems. I don't think completely eliminating qualified immunity is a good idea. However departments get away with terrible policy and practices, reference the SWAT raid that fucked up an infant when an officer lobbed a flash bang (which landed in the crib) instead of rolling it along the floor. Officer acquitted. Maybe that officer should have been acquitted if he was following his training. But that technique is negligent, and that isn't news to people who actually know what they're doing. I do appreciate that policing in the country has come a long way since the days of the stake out squad. That doesn't mean there isn't room to improve. And yes, I do expect police officers to assume risk on behalf of the civilians they are sworn to serve.

URT Select! 41 PCSM with zero hours 88 pilot AFOQT

I wonder what the Vegas Over/Under is how many days Biden lasts as President. NO WAY Biden makes the full four years with Kamala waiting in the wings to invoke the 25th? Dude is a mess. Biden Falsely Claims: ‘We Didn’t Have’ A Vaccine ‘When We Came Into Office’

Here is a spot where our opinions diverge. There are several reasons why I think schools should be priority one when it comes to “reopening” the country: 1. Our kids are suffering. I can tell you first hand that the level of education being provided by online learning is nowhere near what kids are getting in school. Older/more mature kids might be doing a bit better, but my 10 year old was getting almost nothing from zoom school. It’s nearly impossible for a teacher to vie for a child’s attention through a computer screen. Aside from the academic deficit, kids are mission out on all of the social and interpersonal development that is arguably even more important than the academic part of school. All of this has taken a terrible toll on kids, as evidenced in the worst possible outcome: a huge increase in suicides. 2. Our society is dependent on the school day. The “one parent doesn’t work and plays homemaker” model is no longer the norm. A majority of families either have both parents working, or are single parent households. Don’t want to get into a morality argument. That’s just the way it is. Most parents depend on school for a majority of the year to make this work. Online school and limited in person school time places a tremendous logistical strain on families trying to make ends meet. In many families, both parents work out of necessity and things are tight. Now they are in the position where they have to either pay for child care that they can’t afford or may not even be available due to demand, leave young children at home unsupervised, or have one parent quit their job and risk not making rent/bills. Sorry, but the economy will not fully reopen until schools do. 3. The vast majority of studies indicate schools can reopen safely with relatively simple mitigation measures in place. We don’t need to wait for all teachers to be vaccinated (although that option is rapidly becoming available to them). We don’t need to rip out and replace the HVAC systems in every school. We simply need to make sure the kids are masked (hand them out at the entrance if they show up without one), and put a little extra space between them (I understand this particular requirement will be difficult in many districts). Bringing kids back into classrooms will never be perfectly safe and I understand teachers’ concerns. However, many of us have been going into work on a daily basis in industries arguably less critical than primary education. We have all been dealing with less than perfect safety measures. If the guy in the Amazon warehouse making sure people get their sex toys on time is considered critical, surely are teachers are too. It’s time for them to get back to work so the American economy can make its comeback and so our kids don’t fall even further behind.

my question is when are all you fear based thinkers going to come out of your shell? what's your end game? zero covid? cases per day? etc etc at some point life goes on and a lot of rational people have been moving on now for months

That's like saying "otherwise legally driving" when your BAC is above the limit. It is a very important point. Castille's actions led to his own death. Had he been carrying legally, not endangering his child, and complied with officer instructions, he would be alive today. I can show you hundreds of examples of officers in this situation who hesitated and wound up dead or bleeding on the side of the road. Officer safety is a big deal. They have a right to go home after the end of the shift, and asking cops to sacrifice safety in the name of propping up criminals is ludicrous. There are millions of police interactions that happen daily that you never hear about because they are uneventful and usually positive. The 0.01% make the news (in the most slanted way possible for ratings and a narrative that NEVER gets corrected when the facts come out) and you want to make it even more dangerous for law enforcement as a result (i.e. - removing qualified immunity, which is idiotic). It's the same flawed logic as the "bAn AsSaULT rIfLeS" crowd after a psychopath shoots up a school with a handgun.

He was not legally armed. It is illegal to carry a firearm while under influence of drugs. Castile said he had a weapon and then reached for it despite being told not to.

He wouldn't have died had he not been struggling. He was complaining about not being able to breathe WELL before Chauvin was kneeling on the back of his neck (not his windpipe). Chauvin was also acting IAW department policy. The length of time could point to excessive force, but Floyd died because of Floyd's poor life choices. I don't think cops are perfect. I think you're caught up in the emotion and slurping the bullshit that the media is feeding you.

Dear god, that is the ACTUAL TITLE of the freaking article from National Review...not my commentary.

He was kneeling on the side of his neck not the windpipe, so half of a carotid choke. I would guess the other side artery was likely restricted to some degree, but not fully since he knelt there for a long fucking time before he became unresponsive. Watch the Tony Timpa video. Died the same way, no knee on neck. The knee is a red herring, the confounding factors (for both cases, in my estimation) is a prone restraint and drug related physiology. So not being able to breath is true, but it had nothing to do with the knee. Qualified immunity is a problem. I'm not convinced just erasing it is a good idea, but it's something to look at that could allow better accountability of department policy within the current system. Having higher standards for police officers in general is warranted. With that comes a need for more money not less however. More training time requires more officers on the pay-role to cover the additional requirement. Want higher caliber people? Be prepared to pay them more. Etc. etc.

Chauvin didn’t kill Floyd. A lethal dose of Fentanyl, Meth, alcohol, and pre-existing issues from COVID did. Good lord, dude. You just slurp up all the hysterical false narratives, don’t you?

Yup. I watched the video. Maybe you should too. He was armed, told the officer he was armed, and the officer told him not to reach for it. He did it anyway. He was high and not comprehending instructions. Whether he was reaching for his ID or the weapon is obviously up for debate. You’re right, being high is not a capital offense. But it is DUI, child endangerment and illegally carrying a weapon. Like I said, join your local reserve division. Get the actual training. Find out for yourself instead of throwing rocks from the cheap seats. Here’s the actual dashcam. As usual, your narrative is incorrect:

Exactly, haven’t met a single cop or heard a single cop (on podcasts, etc.) blindly defend Floyd, for example. They’ve all cringed at what happened. The point of my sarcastic post was to highlight how stupid it is to paint entire communities, organizations, etc. with a broad brush. Terms like “systemic” are wildly overreaching and only contribute to extremely misleading “10% true” narratives. This isn’t roll call, it’s real life...wildly embellished bullshit has no place here, yet that’s what the media, govt, and the masses love.

They’re changing the logo and leaving the actual offensive part: it’s imitation “maple syrup”

Somebody does, otherwise they’d leave it alone.

Swell. You're actually making my point. As pilots (maybe you're a fucking nav, in which case, disregard. No one cares about your opinion anyway), we know not to speculate on mishaps until the facts come out and an SIB has time to do an investigation. That helicopter crash may not have been pilot error, but the media will still run with their first speculative headlines and "perception becomes reality" despite the facts. You can do better than quoting comedians to try to prove your point.

Assuming he's white, he likely won't. In every one of these cases de-escalation techniques might have prevented the need for force altogether, which I think we all agree is the desired goal.