kaputt

Is there a Vegas line on when the first press conference will be?

On base this morning and realized when I parked the only mask I had in my car was a purple surgical mask and not one of the “approved” mask colors. Joked to myself that I’ll probably pass the wrong person and get lectured. Literally the FIRST person I pass is a Chief who stops me, “Sir, just so you know, a purple mask is not authorized.” “Yeah, understood but it was the only one I had in my car and I’ve gotta get to my desk.” He probably sensed my give a crap level was zero and followed it up with a “when you are in uniform Sir you’ve got to meet all of the standards.” Ah yes, you mean this stupid piece of cloth that was never ever meant to be a part of a military uniform and is actually allegedly being worn for the safety of me and you? Unfortunately I don’t have the balls to say that last part. Just moved on with a “copy” and walked away. Just for shits I looked up the approved mask colors again, and literally the most common surgical mask color you can find (the light blue) is not approved for use in uniform.

Not only has he been a clown his entire career, he now likely has legitimate cognitive decline on top of that. To be honest I do feel kind of bad for him at times. I certainly am not a fan of Biden politically, but no one deserves to be propped up like this man is being, when he should be enjoying the latter stages of his life in peace and quiet with his family.

To be fair, there is a pretty massive difference between saying you are going to boycott a product, service, person, sports league, etc.. (even if some of the reasoning seems silly or ridiculous) by not buying or partaking in what they are offering; vs a concerted effort to smear and ultimately remove and destroy a person, business, idea, symbol, tv show, book, movie, etc... Example: I personally do not watch a second of NBA basketball and have not for years now. My reasoning is based not only on the ridiculous woke, political, and pro Chinese crap the league has spouted in recent history, but also the fact that it’s absolutely garbage basketball. However, my choice to not watch is my own and I don’t give a shit if someone else absolutely loves to watch the NBA, that’s their choice and they have every right to do so. By choosing not to watch, I don’t have to see the stuff I don’t like (imagine that!) and if enough people ultimately start to feel like I do, it will hurt the league in its pocketbook and they may actually make a change that adjusts to the demands of their customers. Which btw, actually seems to have happened with the NBA when their ratings went in the absolute toilet last year, and magically this year they’ve reduced a large amount of their political messaging. Maybe the next move they can make is raising the shot clock to 30 seconds and making them play defense. I digress... What you won’t see me doing is throwing a temper tantrum through social media and interviews on CNN about how the NBA doesn’t prescribe to my cultural norms and needs to be removed from the face of the earth, damn the rest of you!

Thanks gents for the detailed info. Definitely some more research I’ll need to do on my end before heading in this direction. Glad to know it’s feasible though and that’s is something fairly commonly done.

Appreciate the responses. It good to hear that some have had a positive experience going this route. @brabus, when you mention depreciating the plane, I assume you were hinting that there might be some sort of tax advantage when factoring in the depreciation amount on the aircraft, is that correct? Is there a big difference between going this route with a new aircraft vs a used one? I know that aircraft value does not exactly operate the same way as say, a car, and that values tend to eventually level out and hold at a certain level as long as the aircraft is well maintained, has full records, etc... I had been looking at used Citabrias in the 10-15 year old range or less. Hadn't considered going new but wouldn't be opposed to that necessarily. @ClearedHot That is exactly the nightmare scenario I would want to avoid by prohibiting solo rental. Its incredible to me what some rental pilots will do to an aircraft. A tailwheel I used to rent was totaled by solo renter who had only 6 hours of tailwheel time.

Not to mention it’s a guy who was no longer even actively serving.

Has anyone used an aircraft they’ve owned for instruction? I was potentially looking into picking up a tailwheel aircraft (Citabria or Decathlon) and having it be available at a flight school I have a relationship with for tailwheel endorsements and spin training. It would not be available for solo rental and myself and the school’s chief pilot would be the only instructors authorized to fly it. I’ve read a lot on the financial/tax items of registering it under an LLC and the cost offsetting that can come from an aircraft being used as a business asset and not just a recreational hobby. I totally understand this would likely not cover the total cost of the aircraft but it seems like a potential way to help offset some cost of ownership via tax incentives and instruction revenue. Insurance quotes are significantly cheaper if the aircraft is dual only and honestly I want to avoid anything to do with solo rental pilots, especially in a tailwheel. Other costs would of course be 100 hour inspections plus maintaining a maintenance fund. Anything else I’m missing? Dumb idea or a legit way to own and operate an aircraft? I enjoy instructing so being able to do that is a positive in my book. Flight school owner is of course game, but who wouldn’t be for the potential of adding an aircraft to the fleet with limited risk to their own bottom line 😂.

I believe that Gen has the dreaded IMS bearing issues. That will help keep prices depressed as well. FWIW, I personally think horsepower is overrated. Give me a well balanced car with enough power to work the chassis and I’ll be happy. Slow car fast is always the best mantra. The next Gen Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86 is probably going to end up in my garage. P car money, even used, is still too much for me and Subaru/Toyota appear to have fixed the one problem with the original: the torque hole right in the middle of the power band. New version has a naturally aspirated 2.4L with 228hp and torque is up to like 184lb ft right in the middle of the power band. That’s similar numbers to my BMW 128i I used to have and the BRZ/86 will weigh 300lbs less.

I think you're talking about the flight crew, but I've seen comments on Facebook links to this article where people are scolding the individuals on the ground where the pieces fell for not having masks on. 🤦‍♂️

On the California vs Texas energy deals: As someone who has lived in both states, they are not even comparable. California has rolling blackouts every single summer for predictable and annual heat waves. You literally have to factor the power going out into your summer planning here. Texas had an energy issue for a once in 80-100 year cold snap. Could Texas have been better prepared? Absolutely. Has Cruz made a fool of himself during this, yes. Is comparing the Texas snow storm power issue to the decades of power grid mismanagement in California fair? Not really.

Also a tailwheel. The same Air Force that is afraid of VFR is sure a hell not going to try and train guys to fly a tailwheel. Absolutely ridiculous of course. I’d sign up to fly one in a heartbeat if I could.

For someone like Tulsi that may be okay. Likely no future in the way left turning democrat party and if she wants to keep the D by her name (sts) she wouldn’t be able to go through the Republican primaries to get nominated.

Or once they break they just leave them standing there. Banning Pass in California has more than a few broken down windmills just sitting out there doing nothing but looking ugly.

But not farther!

https://notthebee.com/article/behold-the-woke-insanity-that-is-a-san-francisco-public-school-board-meeting I have no idea why anyone would want to live in San Francisco.

There are systemic issues holding the black community back. However most of them are driven by the same party that says “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.” Look at the dominant political party in each city that had massive unrest this summer. Democrat policy has by and large owned the black vote by developing social programs that keep the black community dependent on government assistance. Most of this “assistance” is then paired to the narrative of the hopeless black man still being held down by the American legacy of slavery. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy that has engrained itself into black culture and is self defeating. And the “solutions” coming forward on this are just more of the same. ViperMan mentioned the death spiral of these communities. Corey Booker wants to implement “baby bonds” where every child born in America gets a $1,000 savings account with money added to it each year until they turn 18, with the the poorest families getting the most money deposited (up to $2,000 I believe). Anyone with a brain sees that a policy like this merely encourages further poverty and govt dependence. Why would you work to improve your standing in life if your kids can get nearly $40,000 handed to them by remaining in poverty. The proposal for this program also specifically mentions aiding those in minority communities, so it’s no doubt who this vote getting scheme is meant to target. The death spiral continues... Republicans do share the blame in that none of them have the stones to actually address this issue, probably for fear of being called racist, so instead they sit silently on the sidelines and try and pretend the problem doesn’t exist. All that being said, this whole narrative of a racist fabric within America that holds minorities and blacks back or a racist army of cops executing black men in the street is such a freaking cop out. It’s a convenient distraction for a political party that shares a large part of the blame for the plight of African Americans in this country yet counts on their vote every 2 and 4 years. Unfortunately it’s seemed to work. There are real solutions to this but they take actual hard work and will also likely take decades to see results. If we want to see something succeed it will take people that recognize that the very real problem of decades of mistreatment and discrimination of blacks was not helped by a policy of government dependence that has actually pushed the community into further despair.

This is a first, but I 100% agree with Rashida Tlaib. Edit: FWIW, I also disagree that Reddit users should be labeled as “manipulators”. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t they notice that there were more shares being borrowed than what actually existed? So in my opinion the hedge fund managers were already manipulating the market with the shorting.

I actually came here to post about this. As a former college athlete and someone who hopes to have kids that will participate in sports, this absolutely pisses me off to no end. “The party of science and women’s rights” conveniently ignores biological differences between men and women and then signs an EO allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports. What kind of message does that send to young women athletes in this country!? Connecticut has actually already shown what a complete cluster this is. 15 girls state track titles have been won by biological boys. A large portion of the girls state records are owned by individuals with a penis. That’s up to a potential of 15 young women that have had their state championship dreams taken away from them by a man. “Guess what girls, yeah we fought for decades to even give you the chance to compete in athletics, but now we’re going to wipe our ass with the whole Title IX thing and let guys who feel like girls come beat you.” Does anyone with half a brain in the Democrat party think through this garbage before they move forward with it? Does anyone remember how angry the world got when the East Germans were sending roided out women who were basically men to the Olympics, because guess what, it was completely unfair to real female athletes. Transgender athletes need to either compete within their biological gender (“follow the science”) or you need to create a transgender division for them to compete in.

I liked most of Biden’s speech. Only dislike was it seems like the democrats are already setting up the white supremacist/domestic terror line as their distraction crutch if some of their other policy moves don’t play out as successfully as they hope. Otherwise, I think he genuinely wishes to lower the temperature and try and make the country more united. That being said, I am highly skeptical that others in his party wish the same and I’m also skeptical of his ability to manage those same people. There are a few republicans that worry me as well who will likely not play ball simply because the other team is in power. The next two years are going to be really interesting. Probably the most challenging period we’ve had for a new President in a long while. I truly wish him the best and hope he succeeds, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about where the country may head.

On a slightly related note, did anything ever come of the RFI for entirely contractor run UPT? Did COVID kill that idea for the time being?

Don’t be this clown 🤡. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democratic-rep-cicilline-caught-removing-mask-to-sneeze-on-house-floor/ar-BB1cJsUz “Democratic Rep. Cicilline caught removing mask to sneeze on House floor”

Ridiculous what passes for journalism these days.

Ive seen all of this garbage as well. The sad thing is, a lot of the people I’m seeing this crap from are generally people that at face value I would not consider to be extremists or non-rational individuals. Many of them I was good friends or co-workers with back in the day. It’s becoming very clear that the crazy is leaking down into much more normal levels of society these days, on both sides.

I think you're misunderstanding the point I was trying to make. I don't claim to be a great writer so maybe some of that is on me. However, I am not trying to yell and scream "BUT BUT the libs did this and that!" I'm simply pointing out the fact that neither side has done anything for the last 4 years (and probably longer) to actually try and unite the country or cool down the tensions that are spilling over. Instead of taking the higher road and trying to be the party of leadership and unity, the democrats have often stooped to Trump's ridiculous levels and embraced divisive policies that do nothing more than continue to split the divide of this country right down the middle and feed the beast that is Trump and his cult. On the flip side tons of republicans spent years stonewalling everything Obama did simply because he was Dem, which basically created the wave of feelings that led to Trump. They then sold out their credibility to embrace Trumpism and now are left with that albatross hanging around their neck with no clear path on how to move the party forward and and actually become a party that can lead and unite Americans. I continually point out that I voted for Trump not to make a claim that I am a Trumper, or that I believe every single thing he did was good. I simply point that out to show that there are those of us out there who voted for him because the alternative options we were presented did not seem like better choices. That's a problem with our political system that we are so polarizingly (is that a word?) limited in our choices for elected officials. I'm not going to go point by point and argue each thing you listed out above because I think that takes away from the real point I was trying to make (again I'll take a hit for that due to my lack of written skill). What's really the issue is that everyone in our political system has played a big part in creating where we are now. I think arguing over the minutia of who is more at fault is just unconsciously retreating back into our own biases, of which I will admit I am occasionally guilty myself. I already stated above that yesterdays disgusting display falls on the shoulders of Trump and I also stated my disgust for his behavior since the election ended (not to mention the many things during his term I disagreed with). It's absolutely time for him to fade into the distance and have his legacy forever tarnished by the events of yesterday. But I cannot in good conscious sit here and look at what has transpired in our country recently and think that one person or one party is solely responsible for the mess we are in. TLDR; our political system and the soul of our country is broken and the blame for that can be laid heavily on everyone in Washington. This country needs a unifying center force that can mend many of these wounds. To Biden's credit he has said he plans to try and be that force. Can he do that and will other members of his party and the republican party play along? I'm not so sure. I am willing to give him the chance though. Edited for typos