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Whose name did you check on the box? Don't excuse yourself from your decision. Energy independence is a bad thing? The media dismantled our credibility with its incessant "Trump-this" and "Trump-that." The constant falsehoods were laughable. Thoughts on the $3.5T spending plan which is actually going to cost closer to $5-5.5T? Oh wait, disregard, President Biden says it won't cost anything. My mistake. What do you mean is it worse now? I am being threatened with a dishonorable or other than honorable discharge from the Reserves after 15 sat years, 3 deployments, one to combat where I employed multiple times. I have multiple decorations but because I am hesitant to receive a vaccine that has been known to cause increased and more severe seizure activity in those diagnosed with epilepsy, like myself, I am going to get discharged adversely? That's interesting because it doesn't seem like it. MANDATED VACCINATIONS are being required or you will lose your job and ability to provide for you family - I also stand to lose my job as an fighter pilot instructor as a civilian if I don't get the vaccine. But sure, if that's how you feel... Feelings are what matter most, after all - Right? The path forward is recognizing that people who didn't take care of this caused this "pandemic." Now all the healthy people who make proper choices are being asked to subsidize their poor decisions. I'm sensing a theme with the party you voted for here... What happens when the trillionaires President Biden wanted to tax heavily, yes he said "trillionaires," and not billionaires like he, I assume he meant, become millionaires? What then defines millionaires? Is it net worth? Then when that old couple across the street who bought a house in San Diego in the '90s for $350k which is worth $7.5m in 2028 and have retired long ago on social security... Are they included too? Lines are easy to move once they're drawn... Is that right? From the side of the aisle that supports "science" but says a man can be a woman and vice versa or a million other things, simply based upon how that person feels? What if I And what you are referring to was blown massively out of proportion by the MSM. Or perhaps I'm a racist too because I don't believe in critical race theory even after having read the garbage put of by DiAngelo, White Fragility. We'll disagree on that, at least the part regarding our allegiances. We've hung ourselves with making what has always been good, now bad and vice versa and probably won't be able to come out of that unless we have a great Presidential prospect come 2024. But I agree, the left has accomplished their mission and has ended American Exceptionalism. Yeah, making everything that has made America great and making it wrong has worked really well - That makes for a brighter future. What 10-20 year plan? That statement sums it up perfectly - Lack of personal accountability. Thank you for that. What you don't seem to understand, or simply don't care about, is that the water in the pot is heating up...

I'm late to the fight. Use of racial slurs will absolutely not be accepted. Not in original posts or quotes. I'm removing them now. The original poster has been warned and all of his content must be approved by a moderator UFN. Prozac, your posts were hidden because you quoted the racial slur. I don't really have the time nor inclination to deal with racial slurs, in original posts or quotes. Knock it off

I don’t have enough words to describe the amount of disgust I feel for you if you look at your fellow squadron members who are making the hardest decision of their life as a promotion opportunity for yourself. Your brain is broken for even thinking that way. As a senior leader, I have had grown men come to my office and completely break down. It’s heartbreaking to watch some of the most competent and loved informal leaders describe their position on these mandates. They have legitimate concerns based on personal factors.

This shit has gotten really really old. He’s not the president anymore.

I see the masked crowd now as virtue signaling rather than any health or welfare reasoning. Especially when I see people outdoors or driving with a mask on. For them, it's a magic talisman against evil spirits. And just as effective.

I know that this is intentional bait, but I’ll respond. Almost everyone on this forum didn’t vote for Biden, per say. They voted against Trump. I bet many would do it again. I think that’s the crux of the issue. In almost no ways do I think we’d be in a better spot as a nation with Trump at the reigns. I agree with your assessment of many of this admin’s errors. It sucks. But do I think it’d be better with Trump? Fuck no. The Trump admin did more to dismantle the credibility of our democracy and give credence to blatant conspiracy theorists and bigots than anyone in recent history. I can think of very few Trump policies domestically, internationally, economically, or militarily that I really wish Biden would implement. Is the economy worse now? No, but it’s not better. We’re fucked and have been ever since Obama era Fed reserves pumped $4T into the stock market. Trumps economic policies pumped $3T in in 12 months. Turns out blue and red are both idiots here who will play fiscal conservative when it’s convenient but still do the same thing. Is the military worse now? It’s good we actually left Afghanistan. How we did it was stupid, but it took some balls to just pull the cord and leave. Withdrawals are messy. But we are going to benefit from that, I think. I have no idea if Trump would have followed through. Are we going to modernize to be relevant on the world stage? No, doubt it. Probably would do better with Trump here, but we could have an argument on whether or not it’s even possible. Tell me if you think a war in the Taiwan straits is actually winnable from not just a military perspective, but a geopolitical one. Are we doing better with COVID? Maybe. Current admin definitely has a more coherent messaging schema and plan. I do believe that vaccines were created and pushed more under Biden than they would have been under Trump, which contributed to higher rates. Delta would have hit regardless, and I’m sure Trump would have been peddling pseudo science, still. Sucks the vaccine doesn’t work nearly as well as we hoped, not really a clear path forward here. From an economic inequality perspective, I have an admin that isn’t literally run by a sociopathic billionaire. The fact that they are talking about finding ways to close loopholes that allow the mega rich to have a lower effective tax rate than a teacher is the right answer. If that involves taxing unrealized gains above a certain threshold, then do it. I wholly believe that Reagan era economic principles of just giving rich people all the money, which is what Trump selfishly pushed, are part of the moral decline of our country that basically started right after the Reagan admin. Are we socially better off? This is the big win. But it’s all only temporary. Putting hateful folks in their place by showing them more than half the country disagree has been nice. I know you guys largely don’t fall into that group, but the idiots that were empowered during the Trump admin to say racist, authoritarian bullshit really helped the unraveling of America. Our our allegiances across the world in a better spot? Yeah, I think so. Public perception of America has shifted an order of magnitude in our favor. And I believe we will not be a superpower by our own choosing, as we were between 1990-2020, anymore. We live and die based on our alliances and diplomacy as China expands. Is the future brighter? I mean, maybe more so than the Trump admin, but the future is pretty god damn dim. Global warming, climate refugees, and water wars are actually going to be catastrophic events in the next century. The Trump admin chose to actively dismantle any efforts to think about that, so that we could compete with China. Not an effective strategy. I appreciate having a 10-20 year plan on how to tackle a problem, as opposed to the Trump admins easy button of “well deal with that later, we have to use coal to beat China,” when we’ll never actually “beat” China. Moral of the story is from a I-voted-against-Trump standpoint I’m happy he’s not there in basically all areas other than military modernization. I would not say I’m happy I got Biden. But it’s the lesser of two evils in this dumbass iteration of a democratic republic that is really just a nicely wrapped 2 party system. Implement ranked choice voting and expand past the biggest issue with our country: 2 party politics. I don’t want Biden. I don’t want Trump. I don’t think anyone is “happy.”

How about we remove government regulations from healthcare all together and allow people and those in healthcare decide who they want to treat and who they don’t, at what cost, etc? Because if you’re proposing that those who are unvaccinated not be allowed medical care for COVID, then why should medical folks provide care for HIV, overdoses, etc to those who use drugs? Why allow those who are not married be treated for STDs? This is what happens when you pick and choose. This is also why I’m against shared healthcare expenses, forcing insurance companies to except pre-existing conditions, etc.—healthy and responsible people have to shoulder the financial burden for those who are not. And before some of the progressives on here bring their emotional counterarguments, nothing would prohibit you from voluntarily giving money and/or providing care to those you want to help.

Let's deny all obese people medical care that is related to their choices too - I'm down!

Have you read Israel’s results? WSJ has. https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-coronavirus-breakthrough-vaccine-natural-immunity-cdc-fauci-biden-failure-11631548306 The best data on vaccines vs natural immunities is coming from Israel. Their stats are being fully reported and studied. I’ve read in multiple places where it says natural immunities are 13 to 27 times less likely to get covid again than those with the vaccine.

Yeah, but if you don't get it more 80+ year-olds will die. Or maybe some kids? No no, some other unvaccinated people who have accepted the risk. Or the hospitals will overflow? I forget. At the end of the day I'm beginning to think this fell along predictable political lines because it's actually a fairly representative disease of conservative vs progressive ideology. Conservatives (today, in the past it was the classical liberals) accept the fallibility and irrationality of individualistic humans and construct a system that works around those constraints (e.g. capitalism, freedom of speech). Liberals disregard the clearly observable limitations of human nature in pursuit of a "perfect" solution, and willfully ignore all evidence of their strategy's failure well past the point of hopelessness (e.g. socialism, climate change, war on poverty). Same goes for the disease. Masks work (science), but mask mandates do not (human nature). Sure, a virus can't spread through a population that doesn't interact, but lockdowns are not in compliance with human nature either. And in further accordance with progressive ideology, when your plan based on centralized control fails, demonize people and pour obscene amounts of money on the problem.

The same could be said in reverse. There are a lot of fat folks in the US. Also maybe you just “see” what you want to see in the world? Bottom line is fat people shouldn’t rely 100% on a leaky vaccine, nor a cloth mask to save them when the rona hits. Can we agree on that? Cloth masks may help, they might not. I have a difficult time believing the actually work since the holes are so large in a cloth mask including the gaping holes around your nose — Non-one way N95’s are a different story. Outcomes with all sickness including covid are not random- despite what the MSM would have you believe. Everyone can help themselves. Everyone can reduce their risks. CV19 and the last 2 years of media coverage (overblown imo, but if it bleeds it leads) should be wake up call to everyone of all ages to eat real food, mix in some weight lifting and/or aerobic exercise, supplement if needed and go outside. Then you happen to covid instead of the other way around. That I am against mandating that anyone to reduce their risk. Although it would help you be healthier, Would you be in favor of the government forcing you to eat real food? Forcing you to take particular supplements? (insert “Floride” argument- I got a well so go f yourself), Forced exercise? All of which could arguably reduce your risk of death from covid greater than a vaccine could. I wouldn’t want to live in that world. The arm of the federal government is going captain insano- and captain insano shows no mercy.

Let me ask the mods directly: Why have my posts taking issue with another member’s use of a racial slur been removed? I see the post with the slur is still up. Please don’t tell me you are ok with a post using the word “ch**k” but not with posts questioning whether we want that here. I have enjoyed the banter here for many years. It gets spicy at times & is definitely not constrained by political correctness. That said, I believe racial slurs cross a line & that said line exists on this forum. I’d really like to continue to believe that is true.

As long as smokers, obese people, and high-impact athletes are similarly excluded from coverage, you've got my vote.

That argument died when a highly effective vaccine was offered to the entire at-risk population free of charge.

Weeellll the hydromechanical MEC of the -2s IS inherently nuclear hardened. 😁

Go ahead and find a part where I advocate for more gun control. Just because I disagree with you about military vaccination mandates doesn't mean I'm diametrically opposed to every opinion you have.

Copy rog. The timing of your post was immediately following my pitch in. Your comment on total authoritarian nature could have been directed at my decision to delete posts that included a racial slur. All good, bugging out of this one now. Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Holy shiite this thread is scaring me. I can't believe this group has so many authoritarians in it. I assumed we were all Americans and mostly military members or at least members who served and swore an oath to defend the constitution. Some of you are straight out militant on your authoritarianism. Hopefully you are talking shit like you are sitting at a bar, otherwise you should be separated immediately and not placed any any senior level position.

Yeah, my bad on the original post still standing, that was in error. Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

So...15%. And out of what denominator? If 100% of the population were vaccinated, 100% of covid deaths would be from vaccinated people. This statistic isn't helpful without the vaccination rates.

Yes and no. They don't spread exponentially but they without a doubt affect others - and in some cases can spread. If you really think there is only impact on an individual for any of those items, I'd be happy to share many tales proving otherwise from my days in EMS.

Jesus Christ… that is insane. Hope no one trusts their life to you ever. How can you be so convinced that this vax is for everyone?

Hey…this was a lawful order, and if you don’t support lawful orders then you’re not for freedom…or something. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation#background

They can still get COVID again given sufficient time, but even if that wasn't true there is no way of knowing who has natural immunity and who doesn't in a practical enough matter to prevent the deaths public health policies are trying to prevent. In other words, even if you as an individual have natural immunity, that fact is irrelevant when considering public health policies (like mandatory vaccination). Hope that is clear enough. Also, here's a study showing a third of COVID cases don't produce protective antibodies, so even if we had something like antibody cards you could still pose a health risk to others. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/9/21-1042_article

Why did they not include any patient outcomes? We want to avoid hospitalization and death- that is the important thing, not total “cases”. I thought the purpose of the vaccine now was to reduce symptoms? PCR is not to be used as a stand alone diagnostic tool, yet it was: “* Case-patients were eligible for inclusion if initial infection occurred during March–December 2020, and a subsequent positive nucleic acid amplification or antigen test result was received during May–June 2021 (using date of specimen collection). Cases for analyses were restricted to persons aged ≥18 years at time of reinfection.” Placed have been forcing testing upon unvaccinated people much more than those vaccinated, so the total pool of positive PCR tests is likely much larger for the Unvaccinated group than the Vaccinated group. Maybe almost “2.58” times more, I don’t know, they forgot to put that in the study. Why is the CDC revoking approval of PCR in December? Notice that it did not mention the cycle threshold of the PCRs used in the study. also isn’t the vaccine aiming to achieve what survived natural infection would do, but with less risk?

If fat f***s overwhelm the hospital/healthcare system because their immune system can’t fight a minor virus it does.

I hope you're right. Last year we cut almost half the cadets from ROTC because we were up against officer manning numbers. If enough officers don't get the vaccine, maybe we can get back to the 80-90% selection rates of yesteryear.

IIRC they pulled a F108 off of 0123 early to get some data on engine fatigue in 2011. The motor was initially installed in 1984. I’ve flown tails that have never swapped R model motors since their initial mod. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Sounds like a legit case for an exemption.

Can you expound on just that thought because from where I stand, Biden took our already fragile relationship with NATO and dropped a huge deuce on it. They DO NOT like Biden right now between Afghanistan and AUKUS.

The SCOTUS rarely likes to take a military case due to them knowing their holding may affect/change the UCMJ, part of the Executive Branch. It’s a delicate dance. There’s two appellate courts for military in between an appellate and the SCOTUS.

I get what you’re saying, and it’s all true. But the scientific reasoning i’m arguing that makes vaccine and mask mandates significantly less palatable to me, now, is that everything changed with delta. The virus won, unless we commit to another few years of this. Even if the vaccine stopped 50-75% of transmission and masking stopped 30-50% more and society was 75-90% vaccinated, the virus would still spread. That’s because it has an estimated R0 of 5-9. You can’t get it below 1. You can see it now, in actual data. We are at phenomenally high levels of infection even with high masking and vaccination rates. I’m starting to believe reports that herd immunity is a myth with Delta - literally impossible: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/08/12/herd-immunity-is-mythical-with-the-covid-delta-variant-experts-say.html https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00728-2 Even with 99% of society vaccinated, we would see the virus spread and cause cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Will there be less than if only 60% is vaccinated? Sure. But at what cost? To make the remaining 20-30% of society get vaccines against their stubborn wills would require, likely, an overreach of government power. All to still have a virus that exists, mutates, spreads, and continues to cause sickness. Also, I want to understand your data on how many people can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. I keep hearing it’s “plenty,” but I’ve never seen any numbers to back that up. Those numbers matter, because if it’s 500k people or 50M people changes the calculus. Masking, social distancing, and getting vaccines may seem like a minor inconvenience, but there is a limit to cost benefit societally. Every day that cost increases. At some point, yes, it stops being worthwhile for 300M people to have to change their lives and social interactions to protect a very small subset of society. Unfortunately, I think we’re pretty damn close, honestly. I did my part, societally, and got vaccinated and social distanced. I wear a mask. But I’m about over it. That’s where I’m at.

Does his/her/its name rhyme with lawnman?

I can remember a time when I held a very firm belief that our government wouldn’t actually make a run on our right to own guns. This was largely due to the fact that I didn’t think there were enough members of our military or police force that would salute smartly and do the work necessary to remove guns from law abiding citizens. I’m clearly wrong. Hell, I’m convinced that there are folks on these very threads that would gladly get behind gun confiscation efforts.

This is the BEST open source Intel product on Afghanistan right now and I applaud the work this guy is doing: https://afghanwarnews.info/taliban-victory-2021/kabul-neo.htm I've seen a lot of info come across that there is some major infighting inside the Taliban and Haqqani Network right now. One of the things I specifically remember in studying regime change for my masters was the turbulence when a new regime is instilled. The people that led the revolution are rarely the people that actually take control of the country and new leadership is filtered by the party to the top. Generally they will use 1-2 charismatic leaders for their military leadership but have zero desire to instill them as political heads of state. I believe there actually is a moderate sect of the Taliban that seeks international recognition but they are actively being suppressed by the more radical elements. I predict 2 outcomes. 1.) The moderate elements attain control. The TB realize they are incapable of actually holding Afghanistan as a state and governing on their own. They appeal to their moderate side to broker international treaties with Arab states and Asia to help arm, secure and govern for them. 2.) The radicals win, they attain power and lock the country down temporarily. However they are completely incapable of militantly holding the country and governing. The country collapses into factional civil war and things get a whole lot worse before they get better.

I think it’s largely a conspiracy theory with little proof. The citations, especially towards the end, are not legit. With that being said, it seems ever more plausible to me that this could absolutely be a lab leak. Let’s look into it, I’m down. I don’t buy the claims that Americans specifically collaborated to do this. Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity. On an unrelated note, my opinions on vaccine mandates for the current releases, at least, have shifted relatively strongly recently. What’s the point? Even if we literally vaccinate 90% of Americans, we’ll still have tons of breakthrough infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. And it won’t stop mutations. The rest of the world will pop out the omicron variant from the Nile river or something. The vaccine only limits spread by maybe 50-75%, which isn’t enough at all. R0 will still be higher than many seasonal flus with full vaccines. Herd immunity is a dead dream. What is the end state of a mostly vaccinated society? I am not prepared to go full retard and become Australia.

I think you’ll be waiting awhile for an answer to this.

After working the past 40 years on TF-33's or JT3D's anything will be a improvement. I had one stretch in Saudi where I changed 7 TF-33's in two weeks on the same tail number(E-3C). Always a oil pressure related problem. The last 7 years on KC-135's I've changed 4 engines on a fleet about 400 airplanes and some those jets still have the same engines on the wing when they were hung when upgraded from A to R model, that is what they are hoping for.

A couple months into my first tour my family asked what it was like..."it must be so exciting." I started to think about it and could not find the words to describe what a life drain it was. Walking into the building every morning, with every step closer you find yourself looking down, no one makes eye contact, no one says hello...you enter with the sole purpose of trying to survive and mark another calendar day off your sentence. In the beginning I was idealistic, maybe I can make a difference, then I saw how the sausage was made and the absolute selfishness, the dysfunction and the parochial decision making that defies logic and the good of the nation. It didn't take long to become jaded and salty. I watched the Navy lie and runs deal behind everyone's back to absolutely screw the Air Force AND the nation. During my second tour I watched a now sitting three star outright lie and manipulate the system to screw warfighters...AFSOC could have had all J models to replace the most deployed AC-130's and MC-130's YEARS ago AND they were already paid for, but this absolute scum bag argued AMC needed to homogenize the slick fleet at Yokota...which was doing one AEF rotation every 18 months at that point. I remember sitting across the table from him after a meeting with DEPSECDEF trying to appeal to his common sense..."these are by FAR the most deployed and used aircraft in the Air Force...63-64 year model MC-130Ps and 69 year model AC-130Hs that are flying three times the programmed hours every year and need to be replaced now...think of the young men and women we are sending out to fight in these machines. He just looked back at me with a blank stare...sickening. I have no idea how these people look themselves in the mirror. Speaking of mirrors, this was one of the best days in my career.

I sometimes wonder how many gun toting types have ever been in a situation to realize how little comfort carrying a gun gives you (or at least me)..That's why I have stopped recommending Horse dewormer and suggested using Pig tranquilizer..it works just as well for the bug (not at all) AND cools off any idea of invading the Capitol..or shooting someone..

I voted for Biden. And yeah, I'm happy. My W-2 is still higher than ever, my investments are progressing along nicely, and my property values have skyrocketed. In my particular champagne liberal paradise, vaccination rates are high, infection/hospitalization levels are low, and all of our family and friends are vaccinated (except the youngest, but we'll all probably jump on it when it gets approved). We're masked up, out and about, and enjoying life without too many issues. To tell you the truth though, all that would have probably happened regardless of who won the election. I generally support the masking/vaccine mandates. I'm hoping that will help open up reciprocal international travel agreements so my airline can turn an even higher profit. Plus, I'd imagine we'll shave off some seniority numbers because of it. And now that I think about it, mil promotion rates for those of us staying in will probably skyrocket because of so many guys like yourself choosing to die on this hill and get kicked out. Sucks they want to give you in particular an adverse discharge. Good luck with the future.