Leaderboard

Not that I disagree with your literal statement, but I do disagree that such a situation is unavoidable for adults (at least it is far more unavoidable than the Dems like to make it seem). A couple local examples: 1. I have several friends who own their businesses (builder, excavation, roofing); they have vacancies paying $25/hr (and if we’re honest, there’s a lot of “under the table” paying going on). They also pay a lot more than that to many of their employees who have been with them for a while/acquired new skills while on the job. It’s hard for them to find people, let alone keep them. 2. Local area power companies (the 2 I have personal connection two) are begging for lineman. They are offering to pay $25-30k for the training/certs, and within 4 years that person is making 6 figures. Blew my mind, but it’s true. What do I see scattered all over street corners the past 6-9 mo? Abled-body men under 40 begging for money (while also getting Covid handouts I bet). They’re not disheveled, sitting in wheel chairs, etc. Many of them look like they probably work out at a local gym daily and are pretty healthy. I’ve heard every excuse in the book about these people, but when it comes down to it, they can swing a fucking hammer, they’re just too lazy to do it…they want easy money they don’t have to put effort towards. The point: Min wage is a bit of a smoke and mirrors discussion, the RC is not $15/hr (plenty for the HS kid), because we haven’t asked/answered the question why there are so many jobs out there that pay well above Min wage/offer substantially more than “that McDs job,” yet people walk right past them complaining about the “rich folk holding me down!” Barring significant medical problems preventing work, I believe the RC for these situations is our society rewards laziness while breeding ungratefulness and a weak work ethic/sense of personal responsibility.

The top 1% of earners pay 40% of the taxes taken in.

I’m sure bringing in even more unskilled labor into the US via illegal immigration will help raise wages of other unskilled American workers… Supply vs Demand…or something.

I hope your anger keeps you warm this winter.

Been reading all these comments, I wonder if it was like this for officers before the Civil War given orders to march to their home states. LT Col Robert E Lee USA being offered command of all Union Armies just to turn it down knowing that he would have been ordered to kill Rebel Virginians. Myself being retired and USAF civil service, being just given a ultimatum to comply with the covid shot, I took it way back in Feb BTW but it was my choice and I am scared of what my long term health prospects are. I believe our Federal Govt leaders are corrupt to the core and pray the states call a convention of states just to start over. I'm just hoping I can make it to my Colorado cabin in a year and half and live out my days being left alone.

And it is still not enough according to some! Even if everyone paid the same rate (and I am not saying it should be that way), if I made 10 times as much I would pay ten times as much...but that is not enough. Under the current progressive tax structure I pay 36.5 times as much...but I am greedy? Make ZERO sense. No other country in the world offers so much opportunity. In this great country the only thing standing between you and wealth is hard work.

Agreed, except this was a completely foreseeable and realistic outcome. So when policy is developed to toss a hand grenade into the economy and the societal norms at large, a realistic possibility that a mutation will completely negate the monumental fist-fucking the policy exerts on society should be cause to perhaps view said-policy with skepticism. The vaccine is still life-saving, but saving your own life isn't (and shouldn't be) compulsory. The justifications for until-now unthinkable government intervention have been completely invalidated by Delta, but the damage done by furthering the political team sports will not be so easily erased. Let's see how long it takes the party of "follow the science" to acknowledge these studies and adapt their policies. I'm not holding my breath.

Sent you a PM, but if this is related to your other thread, look elsewhere. The T-38ADAIR side of the 301FS has been defunded by AFRC. The F-22 side is not hiring and is treading water until the unit converts to the F-35 at Tyndall or the F-22s move to Langley.

Very simple, when you start dropping insults...just like your passive aggressive comment above...the "discussion" is over. Your reply is riddled with anger rather than logic so I see no real point is going back and forth.

Your point is that easily acquired, skilled blue collar labor jobs exist. I disagree with your overarching point that there are an abundance of these opportunities. It’s not as easy as existing to actually just get into one of these pipelines. I used to think this myself until I had personal family try to make it happen. My brother tried for years to get into the electrician mafia in our hometown - turns out it’s more about who you know than anything else. Also, most of these jobs are at will contracting with totally unreliable hours, no insurance, no benefits, and significant stress on your body. Hopefully your friends are running their businesses differently. My additional counterpoint to this is one example that highlights a million others. You almost assuredly partake in restaurants, right? Therefore, you want those jobs to exist. Therefore, you want people working in the restaurant industry. I assume you know there is absolutely no way that the restaurant industry can staff from just high schoolers. Also, that shouldn’t be the expectation. High schoolers should be doing school if you want to compete with China. But the dissonance in your logic is that while you simultaneously believe the restaurant industry exists and therefore should employ people on an ongoing basis, you believe that almost none of these jobs should be permanent. Why? Why should someone who provides you with a service you agree on and enjoy under market conditions not be paid long term a living wage? It’s because these jobs have been relegated to second tier sorts of positions. Even though it’s something you would pay for regularly. Now, we’d all say, “well restaurant workers/retail workers/etc can work on themselves in their time off.” Throw a kid, a needy parent, a health problem, or a multitude of other unfortunate situations into the mix, and it quickly becomes a gigantic uphill battle for people’s economic lives to improve. This is the cycle of suffering. And I’ve seen it in my own siblings. My position is that the level of economic prosperity that existed in 1950s-1990s America is no longer possible for anyone but the rich. No longer can you pay for your child and better yourself. No longer can you purchase a house on a union job. No longer can you support your family on one salary. But the rich are getting richer faster than ever before. This is trickle down economics - take from the poor and give to the rich. Oh, and don’t forget to have the middle class sneer when the poor want their dark blue line to follow their light blue one.

If the lineman walk out as winter sets in, whoa boy! I almost wish it to happen, as they’d be fighting the unjust bullshit this admin is pushing down our throats, and it’d be entertaining to watch all the douchebags lose their minds without electrical power…hmm, guess being a smug, condescending asshole doesn’t keep you warm in winter, who knew!

I think because there is more to the approval than just the chemical compound that results. Everything from labeling to directions, packaging, manufacturing conditions, and supply transport are also evaluated. The FDA likely had no way to verify those conditions were identical in earlier Pfizer batches. There is a letter from Pfizer that actually details what the ONLY interchangeable batches with Cominarty are, I posted it earlier in this thread.

Not sure if this is true or not but a Belgian colleague told me once Switzerland has a death tourism market where cancer patients or other suffering people will travel there for assisted suicide (because it's legal). But the majesty behind it all is you have to wait like 7 days in country and while you wait they tell you to go take some walks. So people go to die, then they start absorbing all the views and by the time they're allowed a procedure they change their mind. But for anyone who has never been, that is how beautiful Switzerland is. I can't really think of another way to illustrate it. It literally causes you to contemplate life differently.

Want to remind you guys that this is not something that has been like this. In fact, there are multiple studies showing that for the alpha variant this was not and is not the case - it more effectively prevented transmission in the original strains. Lets not pretend like this was expected or some conspiracy. Delta changed things, and now we must update our expectations and game plan. This is actually how science works.

Agreed. I will be voting in a primary for the first time in my life if Trump runs again in order to try and do whatever I can to prevent it. And like you, I voted for him twice (and don’t regret it). But yes, the future of this country is not Trumpism.

Lobsters and Mobsters! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I voted for Trump twice and I agreed with nearly all of his policies. But, I’ve got to admit that the real tipping point for this country will be if he runs again. Not if he wins. If he simply announces his intention to run. I hope the pendulum swings hard right but it’s got to be with someone other than Trump.

Yes first time doing a 1031, have owned the home for 27 years. Three items; 1. Identify the new property soonest and have a backup. I am lucky already had a property that I am buying from a friend. Would have to go back and review the rules but I think you have to close on the replacement "like kind" property within 120 days. 2. You will need an intermediary, by IRS rules you can't touch the proceeds of the sale. In my case I have a lawyer in South Carolina (where the original property is), that performs this service. He will hold the funds in escrow and deliver to title company in Florida upon closing on the new property. 3. Try to find a replacement "like kind" property that is slightly more than the property you are selling. Some of the literature says it has to be equal to or greater but checked with my CPA and you can actually go lower. It does trigger capital gains on the difference and you don't want to pay that out of your "winnings." Good luck.

Well it’s settled, CH is running in ‘24.

@VMFA187 Did a great job of raising important questions and issues, let me try to calmly pitch in because I simply don't understand how a rationale person agrees with much of what Biden has done AND many of the socialist policies his is supporting if not pushing. To be completely open and honest, I voted for Trump. I found it a painful thing to do for several reasons the most important being I found him to be a bloviating narcissist. Additionally it might surprise you but I am socially liberal; I support gay rights including marriage, I am 51% in favor of abortion (it is abhorrent, but as a nation based on personal freedoms I don't think the government has the right to tell a woman what to do inside her body...we will circle back Jenn to that one shortly), and I think we need some social safety nets to protect those who can't protect themselves. That being said, Biden is an absolute idiot who is clearly in mental decline. He has been wrong on EVERY foreign policy decision over the past 50 years. I would invite you to read Chris Wallace's new book on the Neptune Spear for more on that topic. In totality I believed as a nation we would be in a better situation and I think that has CLEARLY played out over the last year. I think the economy is worse now and under Biden for several reasons. While both parties have issues with deficit spending, by all measures of reason Biden has taken that to a stupid level that will drive us down a dangerous road. There is much to debate about Trump's tax cuts and the impact on the national debt, but a large portion of his deficit spending was COVID expense. Is the market up under Biden? Yes, even with a 9% correction over the past two weeks (we were due), but the underlying dynamics have completely changed. We now have inflation and it is going to get worse. The repeated stimulus packages are fueling what could turn into a terrible storm given the second and third order impacts caused by global supply chain issues. In general the DNC policies (paying people not to work, $20 min wage and general malaise about getting back to work), have caused incredible secondaries throughout the market. There is currently a major shortage of truck drivers, the backbone of our supply system and I would invite you to look at the situation at the port of Los Angeles. There are so many ships lined up waiting to offload they had to tell them to stop coming. As of the report I heard yesterday there are 500,000 shipping containers waiting to be offloaded and entered into the supply chain. Also as of yesterday, there was one...I repeat ONE large crane operational and manned to offload those containers. When people don't want to work unless they are paid $100,00 a year to flip burgers, you will feel it in the system. The current administration is completely removed from reality as demonstrated by an "absurd" comment from the White House Press Secretary who thinks businesses won't pass increased taxes and costs on to consumers"There are some … who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers," Psaki said. "We feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that." How you can defend or accept comments like this is simply BEYOND me. Yes we left Afghanistan and yes it took balls. Trump started the ball rolling with a conditions based deal. A few points of order. 1. The Taliban were not in compliance with the conditions. 2. No I do not think 2500 troops could have sustained Afghanistan. 3. Biden claims his hands were tied by the deal...he undid almost every other Trump policy but this is the one that got him? Gimme an Fing break. More importantly, regardless of your opinion on the decision to leave, we left Americans behind...I say again...WE LEFT AMERICANS BEHIND. You with a straight face can say this puts us in a better position as a country? Those four words should be my only reply to this post...it should be game, set, match to anyone who has every served. Seriously? A more coherent message? Our policy is a mandate for all military, federal workers and companies that do business with the government but the hundreds of thousands of illegals that pour across our borders each month get a pass? In what universe my friend? For the record, Trump enabled the system to deliver a vaccine in record time and despite assurances from Biden he has NOT handled this better than Trump. As of yesterday more people have died of COVID under Biden than under Trump...WITH A VACCINE AND APPROVED THERAPEUTICS. I have to disagree with this twisted assessment. If you want to close loopholes I am ok with that as long as you account for the unintended consequences. A few items in particular and I would love honest feedback on how this is fair to rich people. The current U.S. economic system is already highly redistributive Taxes – How much more should the rich pay? Seriously, the DNC mantra that seems to hate rich people is “the rich should pay their fair share”…give me a freaking break. What is “fair” given the following facts from the IRS. #1. The top 1% pays 40% of the U.S. tax burden while earning 21% of all income. #2. The top 5% pays 60% of the U.S. tax burden while earning 37% of the income. You used the example of the marginal tax rate of school teachers...we should rich people have to pay a higher tax rate? If a teacher makes $50,000 and pays 10% they are paying $5,000 a year in taxes. If a rich person makes $500,000 a year and pays 10% they are paying $50,000 a year and taxes, but this is not "fair" Lunacy. Regardless, the progressive tax system is EXTREMELY unfair. Under the current tax code that rich person pays 37% or $185,000 a year in taxes...but that is not their fair share...you and Biden want more? Going back to 2012 In 2012, individuals in the bottom quintile (that is, the bottom 20 percent) of incomes (families with less than $17,104 in market income) received $27,171 on average in net benefits through all levels of government, while on average those in the top quintile (families with market incomes above $119,695) pay $87,076 more than they receive. The top 1 percent paid some $812,000 more....but that is not FAIR right? From your comments it seems you agree with the DNC that we should go after unrealized gains, I don't even have the words to describe how unfair and dangerous that is. That is straight up income redistribution right out of the communist manifesto. Again, seriously? We have a vaccine mandate, we want to tell women they don't have the freedom to control what they put in their body, but they do have control of what they take out of their body? Mixed message much? You don't find that to be authoritarian? What about the admin suppressing free speech? The Biden DOJ has again weaponized the FBI and will investigate parents who push back on school boards as DOMESTIC TERRORISTS. That should be staggering to anyone who has sworn an oath to the Constitution? And to make sure I understand the policy, it is okay to protest social injustice by burning down cities, rioting, destroying government buildings and property, and attack the police but if you attend a school board meeting and push back on Critical Race Theory you are a domestic terrorist? I actually laughed when I read your comment. #1. We abandoned Bagram and our ally in the middle of the night with no warning or notice. #2. We left Afghanistan to burn to the ground despite a conditions based agreement that was not satisfied. #3. We denied our ally air support and left them and the ones who supported us to die. #4. We negotiated with a terrorist organization and left them in charge of a country. #5. We LEFT AMERICANS BEHIND. #6. We screwed NATO. #7. We left the Brits so mad they officially condemned our President in Parliament for the first time since the war of 1812. #8. We pissed off the French so bad over a Sub deal that "Biden was unaware of", the French recalled their ambassador for the first time ever. If Trump did one thing right it was stand up to China while we still have tools and levers to pull. Pull back the curtain, China is going to go high order either internally or externally, much sooner than most think and hope. The United States could go to net zero carbon emissions and it would not make a difference, look at the numbers. The issue is China and India. I would rather see the U.S. remain energy independent and pour those taxes into innovation, accelerate a Manhattan like project toward fusion, clean energy and renewables. The only real solution seems to be fusion. Instead we have decided to wreck our energy industry, again become dependent on OPEC and others for our energy and give up the leadership position. I guess we disagree on the lesser of two evils. I see us as far weaker today.

One of them is a Captain at a legacy. Another one that got dragged down in the craziness is a FO at purple.

Hopefully the universe provided the needed correction and they're all enjoying post-military careers which allow them the professional satisfaction and personal/family enrichment they deserve. 🙂

No, Roth TSP/401k would still be a thing. It's just saying you can't convert after tax monies into a Roth IRA. This would mean most of us "rich" guys wouldn't be able to contribute to our Roth IRAs via the "back-door" or "mega back-door," like we do now. It's simply a money grab by the dems...something we've all known they've wanted to do for a long time. A lot of us Delta guys (not sure what other companies have the option) use this to stuff our Roth IRAs to the gills. As an example, last year I used the "mega-back door roth," to convert 30k into my Roth IRA and was still able to contribute 6k into a traditional IRA (after tax), the convert that into my Roth IRA. So even though I made too much to directly contribute to my Roth IRA, I was still able to put 36k into it. That option would go away. Not the end of the world, but certainly a loss in a very nice benefit. This is just the start of what they really want to do, because us rich guys are so greedy and "we didn't earn that." Means testing SS, eventual taxing of our currently "tax-free" Roth TSP/IRAs will likely be the next things in their sites. I'm certainly not planning on getting SS as part of my retirement plan, if it's there, cool more beer money. If that still doesn't make sense, check this out. It's different than the standard back-door roth.

Is this how you cop out when someone points out fallacious arguments or mistruths in almost every one of your points? I mean, this is the mentality you have to have to make O-6 in the Air Force, so let’s not say I’m surprised. And I’ll just remind you that you’re the one who created an itemized list of reasons why I shouldn’t be glad we have Biden over Trump, and then you got offended when I provided any support of that list. Projection is a cruel thing, buddy. Address the points or agree to disagree.

Inflation and "stimulus packages" were bought in the previous year before Biden took over. We went from 4 to 7T dollars of Fed Reserve spending in less than 6 months. But yes, this is the democrats fault. Yes I believe that the unemployment incentives in blue states were a mistake. At the same time, I 100% empathize with the undeniable fact that there is literally no way to live any sort of a life under a 40 hour a week $15 an hour job. But that's where we differ, likely. The republican mantra is that these people should suffer until their life is better. I do not believe that bullshit. You're biased to propaganda over the last 30 years - the specific propaganda basically boils down to "greed is good" - and I honestly know I'm not getting to you. The point is that if you make $10M-$1B a year, in most cases it's not through income - it's through capital gains and profiting off of labor. And if you think that the stock market is a "fair" system, especially with how it has gone up during the pandemic, you're delusional. People who benefit extremely from the designed inefficiencies should be reasonably expected to pay more. This is not a new thought. In fact, Republicans backed bills pre and post WWII to raise marginal income tax rates to 77-92% for the top earners. This is not a 2012 thing, this is actually a history thing. Love of the rich - from people like you - is something that is new in history. The ironic thing is that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are paying total effective tax rates closer to 0% because all of their net worth is tied up in the stock market as unrealized gains. And your facts about income inequality are pretty out of touch. Yeah, you've proven my point. The top 1% pays more tax and makes way more than everyone else. Cool. They should. Let me put it to you another way. Your big-brain example about how everyone should be paying the same taxes as it would be better and more fair (school teachers and high net worth individuals): Do you currently support raising taxes on school teachers by about double? Simple question. The flaw in the system is that you don't have to contribute to the system at all once you have a certain nest egg. You just sit and reap the benefits off the work of everyone else by throwing it in the stock market. You will say there is risk, but let's be real. The Fed will just pump $7-11T in to protect your rich ass or bail you out. As I have stated numerous times on this forum, I support vaccine mandates that stop transmission and sickness. For the alpha variant, this was likely the case, so I supported the mandate. With Delta, science is showing it is significantly less effective, so I may have a different opinion. I have never supported CRT, and there is not a single credible example of someone going to rationally discuss CRT that was placed on an FBI wish list. I am not going to address the blatant fallacies in your secondary example, but if you want to have a more rational discussion about it, I encourage you to rewrite. #1 - is months of saying you're going to leave no notice? #2 - Trump actually committed to what almost everyone calls an unconditional withdrawal in 2020. Get your facts straight #3 - Afghanistan is not our ally #4 - Yes, the Trump administration did negotiate with the Taliban to create an unconditional withdrawal. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-taliban-doha-e6f48507848aef2ee849154604aa11be #5 - Yeah, I'm mad about this. But did we leave Americans that were trying to get out behind? Or is this political grandstanding to the extreme? And I'm not looking for a onesie-twosie example. We got the overwhelming majority of Americans out. #6 - You can't talk out of both sides of your mouth and say that you like Trumps anti-NATO isolationist policies and then get mad when we do something they don't like. Also, how did we screw NATO? I know you were just trying to make a list, but I don't think this one should have made it. #7 - Oh give me a break from your bias: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-parliament-condemns-trump-but-remains-split-over-banning-him/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/fascist-evil-racist-uk-parliament-unloads-on-trumps-twitter-outburst #8 - You're cherrypicking again. Like anyone in the DoD is actually mad about this. We've already argued about this. You think it was worth the Trillions of US dollars to be in Afghanistan. I think it was worth anything to get out. Afghanistan's fall is primarily on Afghani's is my opinion. And, I know deep down, that's most peoples opinion. Or maybe we can blame the effectiveness of military FAOs, Commanders, and trainers over the last 20 years, I guess. We had to leave. This is greenwashing bullshit. You want to know something? We could have gone entirely almost zero carbon emissions 30 years ago. Oh, how? Nuclear fission energy. We have the capability right now. Literally right now. You thinking that Fusion would change this dynamic is whataboutism to the extreme. Also, an overwhelming amount of Chinese emissions exist to produce American consumed goods. Look it up. Barreling towards the collapse of the world to maintain your American lifestyle just because you don't want other countries to have a slightly better standard will be a good way to reflect on the collapse of modern society in the late 2000's. Appreciate the specific responses that were based on facts and pure opinions.