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Funny how fauci ignores other statistics and refuses any sound risk management decisions such as eating in a fucking restaurant AFTER fully vaccinated. CDC/fauci have zero credibility

i think cops need to stop trying to use small infractions as excuses to escalate. doesn't seem to be worth it for obvious strategic purposes. if the guy has a warrant out fine, go get him, but all these ticky tack stops seem to escalate into something major. and if he gets in the car and drives off fine...let him...you know where he lives why not pick a better moment to grab him? shooting him "accidentally" is just not acceptable (obviously), and i think the charge was appropriate for the officer. new era of policing is here and it seems that departments are slow to recognize this fundamental shift. gotta pick your bat......fuck.... but for real they need to start looking at the strategic consequences of these stops and might want to start de-escalating some of them more often.

Agreed. Which leaves only two possibilities: either Fauci/CDC are absurdly risk adverse (further casting doubt on their judgement) or they are not letting us see the real numbers (demonstrating themselves untrustworthy). There’s no good outcome for the “experts” here. I am curious if the same standard applied to C19 deaths is being applied to C19 adverse vaccine reactions. ETA: speaking of statistically insignificant numbers driving illogical policy changes... the drive against “assault weapons” is mathematically analogous.

A better system is to approximate years of life saved. The average age of people dieing from COVID is only a year and a half less than the average life expectancy in the US. Hence you can estimate 10 COVID deaths cost about 15 years of life/productivity in society. If a vaccine causes a 30 year old to develop blood clots and die, that cost just over 45 years of life and useful contributions that person would have made to society. 3X more than the ten COVID deaths. Hence, bar napkin math'ing here, the vaccine needs to be at least 30X safer than the disease. That's the utilitarian moral argument. There are others as well: for example, many would say because older people have already made a great contribution to society, we owe it to them to make sacrifices and protect them. The nuanced question here is who's life has more value?

The focus on road trips and long range completely misses the huge advantage of convenience and fuel cost that a Tesla has over ICE. Electricity is significantly cheaper than gas and you leave home each morning with a full charge. The inconvenience of stopping at a gas station every week or so is gone from everyday life. I have to charge for 40 minutes to do an 8 hour drive. Superchargers typically have decent food nearby so one is a lunch stop amd the other is a piss break. Fuel cost to drive 500 miles: $14. If you don’t have a place to charge at home, then an EV probably isn’t for you yet.

I've taken part in use of force scenario training a few times, and each time I had my eyes opened a little wider to what law enforcement deals with. If your local department ever offers it, please take up the chance. In the first scenarios I ran, the Taser was strategically placed to be different than the firearm (chest mount). I saw people choose the wrong use of force that day, (wanted to shoot someone that could have been tased) but never saw someone mix the weapons up. However, I guess all departments don't run things that way, and its possible to have a setup where one could mix up the two, despite their training. The video pretty clearly shows it's a fuckup, and whatever training/awareness failed. Two things are true here. - His resisting arrest put himself (and others around him) in greater danger, and contributed to the circumstances that led to his death. - The cop clearly pulled out the wrong weapon and as such, killed the individual. She made the trigger pull, she killed him. She's directly responsible for his death, and should be fired/face legal penalties. However, let's not remove his culpability here. I wish all cops were quick thinking 160+ IQ individuals who get it right 100% of the time, but they aren't. They're average people with (in my opinion) average training. The closer you place them to a life-death split decision, the more that lack of training is going to become a problem. Bottom line, don't fight the cops. Don't stress them out any more than necessary. Film/record them if necessary, and fight the legal battles later.

Well put, though I would add that the police need to do the same and not come across as threatening. The challenge is that both sides (police and public) to some extent are afraid of the other. Fear can make you do stupid things, and can put you in fight or flight. Individuals may have bad experiences with police and do things to protect themselves, such as stopping in well lit public areas when pulled over, or recording the interaction. Both are reasonably reactions if you're wary of the police (or criminals impersonating the police), and shouldn't be seen as escalating actions (well, maybe not sticking a cell phone in the cop's face). Or they are just plain afraid of the police, whether it's for a good or bad reason. On the other side, police do have be prepared to deal with potentially violent and armed criminals, and will do things to control the situation and protect themselves. Unfortunately, sometimes those self protective actions are perceived as aggressive and escalate the situation when it's not needed, and make what should've been an simple interaction into something much worse. And most people in general don't like being filmed doing their job by people looking for mistakes that can have career impacts or cause embarrassment. This problem gets worse when different cultures collide, and normal mannerisms for one group are misinterpreted as threatening or aggressive by the other. (And yes, this is more than just race, look at the differences between west coast and east coast mannerisms, or how the military talks, etc) There's not going to be an easy fix, since it requires trust to be rebuilt, both by the police and by the public/their community. That takes time, and generally is a local issue. And since the police are in that position of authority, I believe they are the ones that have to make the first steps in repairing the relationship with their communities and the public at large. Then there's the question of if you have to comply with a police officer's demands. There are many situations where you don't have to comply with their demands, and have no legal reason to be compelled to. For example, a cop asking to search your vehicle during a routine traffic stop. It's your legal right to decline unless they get a warrant, but they can make your life very difficult if you decline and they don't want to drop the issue for whatever reason. Another example is the police asking to see your phone, or come into your house to ask questions.

Unfortunately the common denominator here is the brutal truth that both civilian cops and SF troops average to slightly below average people with average to slightly below average training. This is not to take away from their selflessness and dedication but let's be honest here and acknowledge this isn't the cream of the crop we're dealing with. If you have the aptitude to be a surgeon or a pilot or a navy seal you probably aren't going to be a cop. These people are not smooth operators who make perfect split second decisions in times of stress. This is why you should do everything in your power to never give the cops a reason to interact with you and ruin your day.. or much worse. I set my cruise control on base to 1mph below the speed limit and stop for excessively long a stop signs precisely for this reason. Do not give these jabronis a reason to enter your life. If you do get stopped, then you have to mind your p's and q's even more to keep the situation on the rails. This understanding seems to be lost lately as everyone would rather start flipping out and filming with their phone instead of staying calm. This fuels bad reactions on the part of the police, which then fuels a media narrative, when then fuels more bad behavior by suspects who are convinced they're going to be summarily shot for no reason. This self licking ice cream cone is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

I can agree with that. Which is why I believe it makes a damn good substitute for the time being, and even still a replacement for some people. It just depends on your location, and driving situation. Certainly not a replacement by any means quite yet.

1-2 per a million is a small enough sample size to be statistically insignificant. Given the sample sizes for the testing it is unlikely they would have caught it even if it wasn't EUA.

Damn Jazz, you did better than I would have. I'd have called the OG/CC or WG/CC on their personal cell phone and had the SrA explain his fuckup to them. I wouldn't have wanted an apology from him, as after that phone call it would have been a one way conversation about knowing your job before acting like and idiot (in the face of your partner giving you the correct info). If I had missed my sortie, I'd have walked over to the SFS/CC and had a chat as well. To the topic of the recent shooting, sure she fucked up, but dude would be alive if he hadn't resisted. Let's see, warrant for attempted robbery and carrying a weapon without a permit. Pulled over then begins a struggle with the cops for no apparent reason. She may very well have saved another life had he gotten away and led them on a high speed chase, which it appears he'd have done...ya, not feeling bad for him.

Having had first hand experience in acquisitions, our process is truly a joke. The hilarious thing is that a commercial off the shelf upgrade to something like a Garmin GPS 175 (not to mention an even more featured GTN 650) would be super inexpensive in relative terms, and in the T-6 specifically, you could place it in the same space the old GPS sat and it would probably even be plug and play with the already existing avionics. And even if not, you could replace the ADI and HSI with a dual Garmin G5 set up and be done with it. But bring that solution forward in our acquisition process and we’ll tell you a thousand different reasons it could be a problem, spend a ton of money and years investigating, and either end up at the originally suggested solution having spent way more time and money than needed; or even more likely, spend the same amount of time and money and still end up at an ineffectual solution.

To be fair, the oil industry in this country was (and still is) helped by big subsidies and favorable government policies. It’s the reason public transportation in this country is garbage. I like my ICE vehicles. I just did a road trip with the family that would’ve been difficult or impossible in an electric vehicle. I believe there will continue to be a market for internal combustion for a long time to come. However, I’m not necessarily against leveling the playing field. Perhaps the better way is to remove infrastructure and other subsidies from both types. I think that’s unlikely to happen though. Too many lobbyists and too much money already circulating in government. Next best option is to subsidize and support electric infrastructure & bring it up to the level of gasoline. What I do not support are sweeping decrees like California stating it will ban all new ICE vehicle sales at some arbitrary date. Like I said, I think there are viable and reasonable ICE applications for a LONG time to come.

Unfortunately this smells like lacking training combined with a stressful environment, with likely an increased perception of threat to herself or others (whether accurate or not). She fucked up and her resignation (firing if she hadn’t) followed by likely at least civil suit is understandable. But that said, no I’m not going to demonize her as a person because 1. I wasn’t there and don’t know the situation first hand 2. I can’t count how many times highly trained individuals in the military employed the wrong weapon, employed on the wrong target, got confused where the bad guys and the friendlies were, etc. Shit happens in chaotic, stressful situations...training and reps is key to minimize risk of fuck ups. My perception is police at large do not get the amount of reps they should have given the situations they are likely to find themselves in. 3. Huge CF on the victim’s part. He’s not the RC, but he’d also be alive right now had he not done some things that I hope all of us would have been smart enough to avoid.

Not related to the tax discussion, but my wife also distrust the long term financial future (I do all of our long term investing). she wants me to pull it all out and buy airplanes and property...her words. So tempting - I hate being a responsible adult.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/marxist-blm-leader-buys-1-4-million-home-in-ritzy-la-enclave/ Follow the money. Every time.

Nope, not at all. It’s a regressive tax on poor folks that’ll push more poverty because they’re paying higher taxes (similar to VAT) on necessities to them. I’m actually more of a fan of the tax rate schedule under Eisenhower when we invested heavily in infrastructure/science/space exploration/defense/etc. over the continued hopes of trickle-down. But, I’m a dirty lefty that thinks corporations and ultra wealthy can afford to pay more in taxes/have their tax loopholes closed/bring their stashed cash back to the US. I think they’ll survive.

1st Pfizer shot down. Arm is a little sore, no other effects. Dreaming that Bill Gates is the president is totally normal, right?

Far from a “follow the left, the world is all rainbows & unicorns”. To add some stance on some hot topics: I had zero ethical problems with building a border wall, just doubt it will work (they’ll just cut holes in it or tunnel under it). I don’t think anybody has the right to restrict a law abiding citizen from owning an AR-15. Tragic mass shooting deaths, are currently insignificant compared to the number of people getting taken out by drugs, alcohol, car accidents/texting & suicide. Are we gunna ban cellphones too? Yet it’s all CNN wants to talk about. And FOX news, with its “windmills kill birds, green energy is bad lets burn coal until we’re back in the stone ages”…please, GTFO of here. Whether its Fox or CNN I can smell horse sh*t 3 miles out. I am interested in understanding the divide more than anything else, especially on a forum where at least everybody is genuinely concerned about the country’s future. Does the disagreement really come down to just deciding between…do you take someone who is morally deficient but going to do good things policy wise (at least in w.e your respective opinion is) vs. someone who is a good dude at heart but may stumble policy wise? My logic: there is the system and there are policies the system makes. The policies change with the current political tide and can be undone just as easily as they can be done, depending on what the people want. But damage to the system itself is not easily undone. And as history shows, people who enjoy power…they usually want to grab more and more of it. Putin seems to be in love with it, as does Kim Jong-un. I don’t see Americans running to live in either of those places. Disregarding any policy, IMO when you objectively look at Trump…he exhibits the same attributes as somebody who would be at risk for abusing power. The glitz, the glamour, the ego, the compensating personality & bully persona. Hypothetically, you could have a King/dictator who is great at making policy. But as history shows, long term….rarely do those situations end well for the people in those places. If Trump isn’t that guy…he did a hell of a job making it look like he might be. Rile up the working class who are scraping by on groceries from Walmart while you gallivant around in a gold plated 757 = does not compute. So I stand to reason that Trump lost the election for himself. He either chose not to be professional, genuine, & presentable, or he is actually a D-bag and a threat to the system. And judging by how he reacted to his loss, it’s the latter. While any good competitor would be disappointed at a loss, successful & confident people don’t let losses slow them down in life and start whining. Those disappointed at his loss, should blame Trump himself for giving the election to a pretty weak democratic candidate (Biden, whose cheese may be sliding off his cracker). I for one think we should just starting throwing darts at a board of random people who graduate from idk the military academies, med schools,engineering schools or something, somewhere where people have proven they are intelligent, committed to helping others and are problem solvers. “Hey Tommy, real sorry man. The dart hit your name on the board. dean wants you in his office, your president for the next 4 years. Pack your shit”. “Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it”-Plato

Look, Biden certainly isn’t perfect. Far from it. There are any number of Democrats I would’ve rather seen run against Trump. But the “Biden’s character is just as bad/worse than Trumps” argument blows my mind. So he’s a career politician. So was Lincoln. So was Jefferson. So was Reagan. So what? It’s easy to hate politics as usual. It’s messy and inefficient. It’s also largely worked out for us for ~240 years. I’m inclined to go with the establishment option vs the “burn it all down” one. Burn it down usually sounds good until you follow through with it and only after the fact realize you are left with nothing but ashes.

Joe represented a return to a pre-Trump world. Politically moderate and not addicting to twitter bombs. What people didn't foresee, including myself, is that Joe would become *more* rather than less progressive after the primary. Usually it's the other way around. Personally, I believe that's due to a combination of two things: heavily relying on ex-Obama staffers, and his own cognitive decline reducing his ability to steer the agenda.