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Put your name on everything is great until you have a vindictive narcissist commander ruining lives and careers.

Exquisite logic. Unfortunately it's because that approach doesn't have the unstated, but desired, effect of stigmatizing the unvaccinated.

As a counter to the Simone Biles quitting discussion, I propose this thread where we can celebrate triumphs free of any political side discussions. Just watched swimmers Caleb Dressel and Bobby Finke absolutely kill it in the 50 free and 1500 free respectively. What a couple of absolute champions! Finke came back from third place to absolutely dominate the last 50 meters of the 1500 which is a truly grueling event. ‘Murcia! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

I followed all of it and actually communicated with the guy several times. I think it’s an interesting commentary on social media and modern times. Where is the line of GOAD and all that? Who knows. I also think people that think the AF is overreacting to dudes tagging individuals by name and not offering anything constructive but making very personal and derisive statements towards said individuals need to take a step back. Communicating directly and publicly to a GO from an anonymous meme page and repeatedly saying “fuck you” and other things is going to produce a result. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but you can’t act surprised. I’m biased against anonymous social media shit talking so this is just me. It just feeds into the mob mentality and jades the force for no reason. Hell, every one of those anonymous climate surveys I’ve done for a squadron I’ll put my name in the comments if I actually make a comment. I hate that anonymous shit and pussies that don’t speak up when asked unless it’s anonymous. Commanders aren’t psychics and most of them want to do a good job. If you don’t give them feedback when they ask, how do you expect them to fix things? And saying “this is stupid fuck you” isn’t feedback.

If the US commits full military power we have much better odds than 50/50 largely due to a competent partner and superb maritime terrain. If we half ass it with this limited war, train/advise/equip only bullshit, you are probably right. I also think we would get relatively strong support from other Pacific partners who would use a victory to cement favorable surrender conditions to their own disputes with China.

The Qatar and Italian high jumper go height for height the entire competition and both end up tied. Instead of electing for a jump off to determine the winner they agree to share the gold. Hands down one of the best Olympic moments of all time and what this is all about. The video their reactions is a must watch. https://youtu.be/GjSCT97GSsA Top High Jumpers decide to SHARE Gold in instant-classic final | Tokyo Olympics | NBC Sports

One would think but history has examples where trading partners eschew their economic relations to try to change the geo-political landscape to their advantage, ref the trading relations of pre-WW1 Europe https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/chimera-economic-interdependence Beating them to the punch is becoming more and more likely to me the best COA to avoid a shooting war with at best a 50/50 chance we prevent the conquest of Taiwan. I would lean extremely hard on others to participate also, UK-Aussies-SK-Indians-Germans-French-etc... but if necessary we go it alone There is risk, it won't be cheap and convincing the American public will take time but you stand up to Biff or you do his homework forever.

FWIW, MSNBC (especially it’s editorial/entertainment content) is about as credible as FOX News. Which is to say, mostly full of shit meant to keep people outraged and tuning in. Neither extreme should be painted as “credible” or even remotely serious.

The AF has been in deep shit for a while. They just had a COVID induced loss of sensory information and haven’t been able to smell it for the last year and a half.

Should be a great time. The people at Oshkosh generally aren't the woke, virtual signaling part of the American public. Looking forward to getting back after being gone for a few years.

The Olympics are on?

Credit to Jacob Remmel Photography

After lap one in Hungary: Me in my best James May voice: “BOTTAS!!!!!!! You TWIT!!!”

While I agree with your main premise, that overwhelmingly the public is not nearly as insane as the political class (including all those who are professionally involved with the political world: media, analysts, govt, etc), the topic of CRT has shown that a dedicated minority (in this case, the Marxist-ish takeover of American Universities) can have an outsized effect. What is unclear is the long term efficacy of minority/intellectual movements. CRT is hitting a brick wall now that they attempted to spread in the realm of normal people, i.e. public K-12 school. But that won't necessary result in the removal of CRT garbage from the universities or corporate America. Conservatives are waking up to the notion that you can't just focus on elections and the supreme court. Steering the culture matters too. The current progressive movement is so overtly racist that it's hard to imagine long term success, but even the remote possibility is terrifying to anyone who focuses more on second and third order effects. I don't want my kids growing up in a more-racist world than I did. I've been saying that white supremacy would make a return since Obama's second term. There was a point somewhere during his presidency where the narrative on racism shifted from "I have a dream" to identity politics, specifically the notion that race was a central component of one's being, and should be celebrated rather than minimized. But only if you're brown. It was only a matter of time before a bunch of ignorant white people took that message literally and started celebrating their own skin color. That's why I fear a movement that thrives on MSNBC. Because isolated though it may be, the most powerful man on the planet parrots the talking points in nearly every speech, so it's not that niche.

Same with shooting. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

US Swimming is having a helluva Olympics.

I'm triggered by our societal reaction to her act, as embodied by the liberal media, not the act in and of itself. As others have made clear, it's her body, her choice. No one should ever be forced to participate in something they feel is against their best interest. That said, the media is using the story as a mechanism to continue to centralize topics they want to talk about, in a light they wish to cast them. For instance, MSNBC's Nicole Wallace called out "doughy, white, right-leaning, losers" in order to talk about how "f'd up" our country is. That's the story's actual utility for the media, and is the actual reason it's being talked about. That's what I'm frustrated by. It's being abused to continue harping on the race trope. Sadly, the host in the clip below is unironically racist herself. It would be funny if it were satire; unfortunately, she's being completely serious. See for yourself how a racist statement it just tossed out by someone who is taken as credible. Imagine, if you will, had the statement been along the lines of "malnourished, Chinese, bat-eating, weasels." Would anyone tolerate that for a second had it been an utterance by Trump? Should it be tolerated as 'ok' by one of our major (so-called) serious media outlets?

Biden gets handed note, " Mr President, you have something on your chin." Biden wipes it off, looks at it, eats it. https://nypost.com/2021/07/30/joe-biden-gets-aides-note-sir-there-is-something-on-your-chin/ Totally a Hunter Biden move. I guess we see where he gets it from...

Folks, United Airlines had a newhire pilot class start Indoc on Tuesday (27 July). Pilots in that class (and some in other recent classes) were just awarded B777 in the vacancy bid that closed yesterday. That’s pretty decent proof that a) it should be a good time to get to the airlines, and b) the AF is potentially in deep doodoo…

Pilots May Hold Key to Mobilizing Against Military COVID Vaccine Mandate https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pilots-key-mobilizing-against-military-covid-vaccine-mandate/

I'm just a pilot like most of the people here commenting. We all deal with risk mitigation every day, as well as policies and rules that are smart and those that are dumb and those that are political. It's nothing new. I am not a doctor but know enough about math to be statistically literate. I do like Nassim Talebs ideas on risk mitigation. Specifically "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." The vaccine might be almost 100% safe. It might have major long term side effects. There is no long term data on mRNA vaccines. There will be in the future because so many people are being vaccinated right now. A huge sampling pool will lead to some very accurate future analysis. I just have no interest in being part of that pool. As a relatively young healthy dude who has probably already had COVID I can see no real upside to getting a vaccine and a lot of downsides. The way I see it, it's little different than investing in options in the market that have a probable gain but might bankrupt you. I did the mortality math a year ago and flying a single fighter training sortie had the same mortality for me as COVID. Why is the government and the media pushing for this so hard? THAT to me is creepy as hell. edit - spelling

Except we are celebrating it… Go look at social media people are taking this as an excuse to expose all the times they handed in their chit at whatever challenge the encountered to be applauded by others in this self licking ice cream cone. You wanna quit something fine, good for you, now move the F along. This isn’t about whether it’s right to quit, it’s about a mob of idiots so used to easy self satisfaction in the form of like/upvote/whatever that not only is quitting good, we need to reevaluate why we as a society place so much emphases on success. This is the “everybody gets a trophy” coach still takes you out for ice cream after you lose but on a whole new level. You don’t want to stand on the podium fine, step down and clap for those that do. While the media sphere spends effort and Oxygen in Simone there is a whole team of people earning medals and still putting down that are not being talked about. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4 months ago if you had the shot and didn’t wear your mask then you were labeled a grandma killer, you know, because science…then a short time later, you were told you didn’t need to wear a mask because you did your duty and got the shot (because you didn’t want to kill grandma). Now if you’ve had the shot and you don’t wear your mask then you want to kill grandma…you know, because science. Keep in mind that John Kerry literally used the words “settled science” wrt global warming. And if you say “pregnant mother” (see link below) then you’re a horrible person because somehow men can now have babies. If you still think this stuff isn’t political then you’ll never see it… https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-california-medical-prof-apologizes-for-saying-pregnant-women

There are some pretty good covid memes out there right now. And I would tell you a Covid joke right now, but I’m 99.9% sure you won’t get it.

Here's the thing I'm struggling with. I got COVID really early on in the pandemic. I think I even posted about it on here at the time. Knocked me on my ass for a few days, but I rebounded quickly, and had no lasting effects. Perks of being young (relatively) and without co-morbidities I suppose. I have natural immunity to the virus as a result. I haven't gone and taken the vaccine yet, because the data on re-infection is pretty clearly showing it doesn't happen very often, and I don't seem to be a good carrier of the virus, even with the Delta variant. However, I'm constantly being pressured to get this vaccine, because it's "better than natural immunity," even though it (admittedly rarely) has side effects, and hasn't been shown to do anything else for me other than make my antibodies last for a few months longer. Woohoo. I'm not seeing the cost/benefit as being worth it right now. That easily could change, and if the DoD says I have to... then that's fine. However, I'm being treated by the state and national rhetoric outlets as some kinds of a backwards idiot, because I'm one of the "unvaccinated." I promise I'm reading more medical journals and info than some dipshit who thinks Bill Gates is microchipping folks. I bet I'm also doing more research than the people who are chastising folks for not having the shot, because they actually believe "the science." Bottom line, the rhetoric on this stuff is fucked.

Keep the bonus money AND get to the airlines earlier? That would definitely be a pro Air Force move.

I'm not certain how flippantly or seriously I'm taking my analogies, but I do know that with each passing month, this COVID thing makes my head explode, especially now that we're re-masking on base. I don't know how anyone can be contemptuous or condescending to non-vaxxers. Considering the survival rate of the actual virus for healthy people under the age of 70, and considering the track record of the science/government/media conglomeration of "experts", everyone should think long and hard about electing to get vaccinated. We can all compose a laundry list of examples in which something went very wrong with scientific "expertise", whether it be the imminent ice age of the 1970s, thalidomide, or the pitiful track record on COVID. ("Masks won't help! It's not an airborne virus! COVID won't be a big deal! The flu will be worse! There's no way it came from a lab! Yes it did! No it didn't! You should wear two masks! If you get vaccinated, you won't ever need a mask! Yes you will!" ) On and on it goes. And yes, I have been vaccinated, as has my family (and that second shot was not fun). I especially cannot understand the mindset of those who demand more lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations, and masks for elementary school kids. Everything in life is a risk/cost/benefit trade-off, and the world has gone so far off the deep end with this COVID thing that it's incomprehensible. Why not ban air travel? People die! Reduce the highway speed limit to 45! Ban swimming pools! And alcohol! And make sure your kindergartner is wearing two masks on the playground! No, wait! Ban playgrounds! Utter madness.

See the 2014 annexation of Crimea. I promise we militarily had all the ability in the world to combat Russia conventionally. But that’s not how it’s going to happen.

Did I not say that it’s China’s to take if they want it? If they’re not wanting to take the island it’s because it’s not their interests to do so right now (it would cost them resources, etc)—they’re not worried about the US stopping them. Also, if you think the US would do anything meaningful to defend Taiwan then we’re in complete disagreement (go figure). Edited to add: Sorry if that came across brash—I’m tired and haven’t had dinner yet. My points still stand.

Yes. Snort died in his L-1019 up in Lewiston. Got the word from my warbird / airshow buds. He was heading back to Ft Snort when he crashed. Quite the character, and there are a lot of opinions about him. But Snort was part of the dying breed of old school fighter pilots that the current military really doesn't want around much anymore. My Tomcat buds that flew with him and worked for him think the world of him. Even the ones that didn't care for him! The fact he flew the way he did, and was able to live as long as he did... well, that's quite a feat. Snort was a Brother in Arms, and I raise a glass for him tonight. edit: for those not aware, Snort was the pilot of the famous knife-edge Tomcat pass. https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-and-video-behind-dale-snort-snodgrass-legendary-super-low-banana-pass/

Similarly, Yak-18T

“I'm just an old worn-out Major I can't count the places I've been And I can still tell a good story But the truth is somehow wearing thin And this drink in my hand, it is fadin' And there is no chance I can stay So I'll bid you adieu And wish I was you Back in the LPA” Oh those were the days 😂

Again, it’s on the internet so it must be true right? I see that dailywire, rebel news, and a couple other alternative “journalism” sites are carrying this story. The professor is not named, nor is the university other than that it was in the UC system (crazy Californians, amirite?). Sorry, but I call bullshit on this one. Simply another case of media creating something out of nothing to keep you engaged in the culture wars.