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Oh look, Pawnman’s here…

get out of here nav

Depends. The relationship with government and business is a tough issue. On one hand my libertarian side says government shouldnt get involved. On the other, I don't want to go back to businesses lawfully being allowed to discriminate based on race/other factors, just because it's the business owners right. Personally, I could care less if drug testing was banned because I could care less if people do drugs. But none of these are apples to apples comparison. Big picture, my opinion, SWA has the right to mandate the vaccine if that's what their board wants. But the unions absolutely have a right to strike and leave SWA on its ass in the middle of a labor shortage as well. SWA needs to figure out how to balance that.

I agree on people skills, you either have them or you don't and you certainly can't teach them at Berkeley. I never said we should push for nothing but STEM majors, the world needs artists. The problem comes when people with good people skills can't do basic math, as you know and underlying requirement for high end IT/Cyber/programing. I was a STEM major pilot, I guess I am the exception 🙂

Just stop fucking with college loans entirely. Like you said, supply and demand. If the government keeps destroying one side of the equation, we can't expect the other side to balance. If the world needs more xxxxx degrees, the market will incentivize those degrees. The problems with advanced education are entries caused by government intervention. The trend line is not good. 60% of college kids today are women. 60% of the workforce is not women. Another imbalance. If you want to make social change you have to get to the chosen minority as toddlers. If they fall behind as small kids then no amount of college loans, affirmative action, or fake degrees will make up for it. But fixing those problems would completely unravel the current social justice narrative that many people are making millions from, so don't expect it anytime soon.

SWA - what a perfect example of how fast misinformation spreads and how quick people spread it to try to push their agenda. What a sad social media world we live in when this is our reality. Nobody wants the truth. They want confirmation bias.

100% agree, but don't expect a living wage this choice. As you said, supply and demand and there is very little high paying demand for the overwhelming pool of soft degrees.

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.

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.

They all seem about equal on fuckery, so might as well get the single dose and be done with it, if you’re going to do it.

I think I confused you with my answer. To be clear, I dont think Abbot should have made a mandate. My whole point is, keep shit at the lowest level and keep the government out. It's a corporate/labor dispute like anything else. Unless there is criminal conduct, just let it go.

Was a Belgian astronaut in the European space agency. If you decide to go this route I can probably facilitate that connection. That is a worthy cause.

Once again this issue (like all others) comes down to the one simple question: Do you believe the government should be more involved/have more control over X issue, or less. It’s obvious from all the other posts on this site who favors more government control, and who favors less. And if you are only a favor of more government control when your person/party is in control, then you’re also part of the problem. It will be our downfall.

Agree on teachers unions becoming too political. And yes, cancelling gifted programs in k-12 is a disservice to kids that are ahead of the curve. People learn at different speeds, and holding back students hurts their development as well as further academic or career pursuits (particularly if those careers require formal education). Also, maybe "advanced" or "accelerated" is a better word than "gifted" to describe these classes. Less talked about is advancing students for social reasons; good for social reasons, but for subjects like math and science where all the coursework builds on understanding of previous concepts, it can cause students to be overwhelmed and fail with no real ability to catch up (unless provided outside help). There probably needs to be a slow kids class to ensure those concepts are learned, so they can build on the knowledge. There's also generally time for students who are behind to catch up on math and science by the time they graduate high school. The equity argument is dumb. People excel at different things, or have different interests, and can learn at different rates; everyone is not the same. At the same time, how students get placed in advanced classes (or catch up classes) should be monitored for bias (both for and against); placements should be based on student performance, and not on race, ethnicity, sex, etc.

Selfish interest topic. I'm paralyzed and know a couple of other military pilots who lost their jobs as a result of a serious accident/injury (amputation, paralysis, etc). It seems with the advancement of technology and its complete control of a/c systems they could reimagine flight controls/ manipulation tools so that injuries of the lower extremities wouldn't impact a pilots ability to fly an aircraft. My research was in information systems/technology (to earn tenure and keep academically qualified) but I did team up with an engineering prof here to do some preliminary work around cockpit accessibility. We worked on a grant from the FAA but never received funding so I shifted my focus back to research I had to do to keep my job. I know in passenger aircraft with the pilot also serving as an evacuation coordinator it might never happen but I could see on cargo type aircraft a day when a pilot with some type of serious mobility issue could still fly for a living. I guess I'm dreaming of an Elon Musk type paradigm shift but in aviation / aircraft cockpit controls and not automobile propulsion systems.

Sometimes it's nice to hear from the passengers... ...like when they say "Nice landing" or the hot chick in first class says "here's my number." But the rest of the time - yeah, sit down, put your seat belt on, and STFU. Nobody cares what you think.

Incorporate it into your 3-5 minute bio when they have you introduce yourself; put together "tell me about a time" stories with your RPA experiences that include CRM, time-critical decision making, and/or something that makes you sound relatable. Don't overthink it too much.

Flying long deployed tanker sorties sometimes leads to discussions other than “would you rather…” 😂

Up to 30% of their flights cancelled this weekend. Major news sources pushing it was because of pilots calling in sick and vaccination strikes. Sick call numbers published showing completely false and the flight cancellations broke down from Manning being below the required number to be able to handle any sort of weather or delay issues without causing huge rippling affects. No one fact checks anything anymore. Just push any news that fits their agenda and it’s annoying and doesn’t seem very reputable sources around anymore that are on TV.

I agree that easy government loans contribute to the student debt problem, particularly since it's not tied to a degree program. Easy money also probably also contributed to the rapid rise in the cost of college, an unintended effect of trying to increase access. A way to shape or workforce is to provide incentives, for example, only providing loans for certain courses of study (like engineering or hard sciences). Or changing proportions of degree programs that are eligible for government loans (more loans for technical degrees than for soft degrees). Though it's admittedly hard to determine how many of each degree to fund via loans. (Is business or poly sci a soft degree not worth finding via government loans?)

Many moons ago the ATC boyz thought that they had Ronnie Raygun by the cojones and they went on strike..the controller who lived next door at the time ended up running a muffler shop. A lot of laid off pilots got jobs with ATC in various roles like clearance delivery..ground control etc. that they could handle i.e. not approach to KORD for example. Those jobs and alert lines kept them going. It was a goat rope but they (the controllers) all got the bootaroo so best be careful. A lot of pilots headed off active duty? That a rumor or not?

Your perspective is interesting, because I think the incentives are there. The incentives and consequences are showing up in our massive and mounting student debt crisis. That *is* the signal. It's a signal our government is sending by virtue of providing effectively unlimited student loan debt for degrees that provide no meaningful ability to receive a higher standard of living. Individuals who attain degrees that provide massive remuneration (CS, engineering, etc) are not having a hard time paying off their student loans. The solution is to get the government out of distorting the market for these other worthless degrees. There is that there is no market for much of what colleges produce. The *only* reason these colleges get away with it is because the government provides a funding stream for what is otherwise valueless. So you're right, while the government can't *mandate* a school produce more engineers, they can certainly shape the incentive structure that these schools inherit.

Oh good! pawnman is in the airline thread now. Finally some real perspective on all of this.

Do you have any idea how hard this is? Maddening brother! It is so easy to just wave a hand and say "just pay more" or "fix your business model." Not trying to insult you but have you ever run a business? First, you have the federal government telling you who you can and can't hire and crawling up your ass if the employee population is not a perfect reflection of society. I have seen companies go to extraordinary lengths to meet these government quotas but fall short and be punished when the reason the goal can't be achieved is there simply were no qualified applicants. Second, American kids are far more enamored with a liberal arts degree from Berkley that allows them the time to "find themselves" and identify social injustice rather than investing in the hard sciences and technical degrees. For the record we have invested in recruiting and retaining talent. We have gone to HBCs, opened paid internships ($23-$25 an hour for College Juniors), and offered to hire 30-40% of those interns. We offer free lunch on site via catering and food trucks, tuition assistance, excellent benefits, box seats to sporting events and concerts. In certain jobs we give $30K spot bonuses to keep talent and we still can't keep up. Simply not true...absolutely not true. The government dictates many business models and I am sorry but I can't waive my hand and have a Berkley female studies major perform the same duties as a C++ or C Sharp Dev. And, while I pay many new college grads 6+ figures eventually I run into the brickwall of the government telling me what my profit can and can't be.

Another fallacy in this line of reasoning is that all bottoms are equal. If you lack the timing and luck that are allegedly required to succeed in america, you still end up in a vastly better position than if you lack the timing or luck required in another country. And if you take one step up from the absolute bottom, you see an even bigger disparity. The second from the bottom quintile in America lead dramatically wealthier and more opportunistic lives than the second to the bottom quintile in European countries. And whereas our citizens in that quintile pay no taxes effectively, European lower and middle class workers pay quite a bit of taxes. So while this system isn't perfect when compared to a non-existent perfect system, it is thoroughly more beneficial to those at the bottom than other systems that do exist. There are only two valid comparisons. That which exists in other countries today, and that which existed in our country in the past. By both metrics, our citizens come out way ahead. Add in the opportunities for upward mobility, and the competition isn't even close. I do agree with the problems regarding college debt, housing prices, and wage stagnation. But the boom times of the 1950s did not come remotely close to the level of regulation and interference we have today. College debt can be directly traced to government backing student loans. That seemingly well-intentioned policy completely decimated a lot of millennial and gen z lives with astronomical debt as teenagers. And we effectively derailed the progress black Americans were making with a series of well-intentioned but ultimately catastrophic programs such as affirmative action. Decades of progress making up for a true evil, completely lost. And now no one on either side has a solution for the glaring racial problem that everyone sees but is uncomfortable verbalizing. The disconnect is that liberals generally see conservative resistance as some sort of lack of compassion. Incorrect. It's generally a realization that second and third order effects of seemingly innocuous (to liberals) government action can have quite devastating effects.

Sorry but all I hear is a lot of excuses. Is there risk, absolutely but there are many thousands of millionaires and hundreds of billionaires that started with nothing. Immigrants who arrived with $100 in their pocket and they somehow overcame all the drag of no college degree, low wages, housing and poor transportation.

Look into defectors into the US. Pretty sure we got a few teenager MiGs thanks to N Korean pilots, maybe some others.

They literally do, though I’m not speaking for the entire US, but in my state, they’re everywhere. Maybe not where you are, and I’ll take your word for it. Though I’m also guessing we’re not the only state in the union with employers other than min wage fast food looking for workers. Hyperbole and false. Hard work can get you very far in this country. I’m not saying shitty circumstances don’t exist or people can’t have bad timing/a run of bad luck. This is victim mentality at its finest and serves no positive purpose.

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!

ABC reported it too. https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/florida-flights-cancelled-air-traffic-controllers-conduct-mass-sickout-to-protest-vaccine-mandate/

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.

$oll$w t$e sc$Enc$

All perfectly 100% true. And as I've been saying on this thread for quite a while now, it has absolutely nothing to do with the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. It's been wild to watch people on the right take their frustration with Democrat covid policy and project it onto a vaccine that is literally a miracle of capitalism. Much in the same way, Democrats take their hatred of trump or joe rogan and protect that onto legitimate medical treatments like hydroxy and ivermectin. If only there were a third way where we looked at treatments based on empirical data, rather than judging them based on political baggage.

Stunning. I for one have literally never read a pawnman post without thinking to myself: "holy $hit, this guy is such a douche."

history is going to judge our politicians very harshly for their mandatory vax stance ruining people's lives for TWO months of immunity. hope it's worth it! https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/health/pfizer-vaccine-waning-immunity/index.html

A lot will is my guess. Certainly has been the case in my neck of the woods. And now we’ve got healthy/low-risk members with some real health problems due to the vax…wreck their lives all while potentially leading down the road of med retirement or at least get out ASAP. I wish I was making this up.

Well, well, well... if it isn't the consequences of his own actions.

Oh no, is your post-discharge job looking like it's in jeopardy? What do you think...gonna vote with your "deeply held beliefs", or with your wallet? I know which one I think you'll take.