kaputt

She was just interviewed on Fox. To her credit she clarified she’s a pilot select and honestly she sounds like she’s got her shit together. Could be far worse advocates for the Air Force that are in the public eye. I think she’ll do well down the road.

Appreciate the responses, looks like it is going to be the ass pain I assumed it would be. I should be done with the PME course in March which gives some cushion from my July R/R date. As far as rescheduling days, I’m an IMA, so I don’t support my unit on a traditional drill schedule. Further complicating it is I support a civilian organization under the DoD that is having budget constraints beyond just CR items. AT and IDT day discussions have centered around being pushed further into the FY, potentially beyond my R/R date, even if a subsequent CR gets passed. Points only has been discussed and as of now is not being authorized. I am thinking about reaching out to the Academy and CAPRAP programs and seeing what it takes to pick them up as additional duties. At the very least it’s additional OPR fodder even if the budget stuff gets worked out. Ultimately I think I’ll be good points wise if the PME points get credited on time. Hopefully the budget will work itself out and this will be moot.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens if a DEI hire in the future plows a fully loaded aircraft into the ground; reference the Atlas Air crash. That whole story should be a big red flag to the industry. Honestly kudos to Mesa, often known as a bottom feeder regional, for refusing to upgrade that clown. It’s not hard to imagine why Atlas was maybe afraid to fire him. All this to say, it doesn’t matter what skin color you are, gender you are, etc… to be able to competently fly an aircraft. But if you use purely immutable characteristics as your guide to hiring, you will eventually get a poorly qualified candidate at the controls. If you want diversity in aviation you have to start at the ground floor. You need to get kids involved who are from communities that have little or no aviation ties. One of the coolest things I’ve done is be involved with Young Eagles and CAP in the SoCal area. We got lots of kids up in the air and around airplanes who otherwise would never even gotten near that opportunity. Hopefully a few of them stick with it. The problem is, those long term changes take 20 years to show up in statistics, and no CEO is going to let his or her follow ons take credit for something they could fix in a few short years with just biased hiring practices.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/01/11/nadler_we_need_immigrants_birth_rate_is_way_below_replacement_value.html Just another racist old white dude who thinks “illegal immigrants” are only good for picking vegetables and making babies to support Social Security and Medicare. Oh wait, a Democrat said this? Never-mind, nothing to see here, move along.

Bringing this thread back because I have a question of how quickly points are awarded from these PME courses. I'm an IMA reservist and thanks to a perfect storm of continuing resolution and other organization specific budget issues it's possible that I'll run the risk of not getting my 50 points for a good year by my R/R date. Planned IDTs and AT keep being pushed further and further into the year. Unless something changes its possible I'll have 18 IDT points and 15 membership points, and that's it. Now I've been enrolled in a PME course, and kind of been slow rolling it, but I'm now at a point where just based on the facilitated courses I know I can be done in around the next two months, which would still give me a couple month cushion from my R/R date. So for the points questions; in theory these should be added automatically to PCARS once I finish the course, correct? If so, how long should that take? OR, am I going to need to create a ticket in myFSS to ask for these to be added? Also, some of my courses I finished in my previous R/R year. Will they retroactively add ADL points to that previous year, or will all of the ADL points just get put under the year I finished the course in? Thanks!

And many of them actively vote Republican, so yeah, it’s not going to get fixed. A college buddy of mine owns a landscaping business in Virginia. He’s a vocal, very right of the aisle on almost everything, guy. But he never has anything to say on immigration, as nearly all his staff is “undocumented” Hispanics. It becomes easy to throw away your values when money is on the line.

“Nothing to see here, just people that we think will eventually produce mass amounts of children that will vote for us, based simply on the fact their skin is brown. No, I’m not racist.” - The left’s inner thoughts

Migrant Released Into US Told to Check in With ICE 8 Years Later (newsweek.com) See you in 8 years! Yeah right...

You guys are wasting key strokes. This is the same guy who equated deer hunting to killing dogs with jumper cables; because “freedom”.

This has been a bad take for two straight years man. That being said, the Democrats refusal to come to the table on the border in order to also fund Ukraine effort is frankly sick and proves they don’t give two actual shits about Ukraine or America. Their only focus is funneling more and more people across the border in order to try and force as much demographic change as possible. The “border funding” they claim was in the failed bill is mostly to streamline the asylum process, which will only ensure more masses flood the border. It’s not like the Republicans were looking for an either/or and wanting to completely cut funding to Ukraine. I personally think what’s happening in Ukraine is still in our national interest (and I realize some disagree with that), but the border is an absolute embarrassment and MUST be addressed. The democrats refusal to even remotely pay attention to the border and then try and play the sympathy card about Ukraine just proves that they are corrupt, inept, and don’t give a shit about doing anything that’s right for the country. If the Ukraine funding dries up, they only have themselves to blame.

You're kidding yourself if you think the way players are getting paid today is anything even remotely similar to any shady, back room, under the table deals that used to go on. Johnny Manziel got $30,000 in a suitcase. Some players today are getting $1-2 million, if not $6-10 million for skill position guys. But only a few schools have the donor base and resources to come up with these "endorsements" that pay these kids. Most college kids, even the good ones, don't have national name or face recognition. Yeah a couple get a Nissan, Dr. Pepper, or T Mobile commercial; but most are getting fed money from school connected donors/businesses that are nothing more than a thinly disguised pay to play scheme. Their name, image, likeness is actually worth nothing, its simply their presence on the field that matters. That's pay to play, not NIL. It's completely unchecked free agency; a wildfire fed further by the transfer portal. The backroom stuff that used to go on is nothing in comparison to what's happening today to try and get kids to come play for certain schools. You may ethically be okay with the money moving around, and the Supreme Court backs that up. But its still going to destroy major college football. Road to hell, it's usually paved with good intentions.

It should also be noted that the "committee" kept FSU in the top 4 even after the injury. They then won all their remaining games. Yet the "committee" comes out today and said that the injury to Travis was the deciding factor. The injury happened weeks ago and didn't impact the rankings until it looked like an SEC team was going to be left out. It's all a corrupt scam.

The college football post season is a scam. Always has been frankly. The poll era, BCS, 4 team playoff, and the upcoming 12 team playoff are all scams based on beauty contests and money. The irony is the old systems actually allowed more outsiders to flirt with national prominence than the current playoff scheme. There is a reason the NFL has a defined, record based, system to make the playoffs. If Mahomes breaks his leg before the playoffs, the but the Chiefs have the record to make it, they’re in. No question about it. Hell, every other level of college football has a well structured playoff that actually rewards a season of success. This whole “committee” thing is bullshit. Then pile on the disaster that is NIL and transfer portal, and college football is on a path to self destruction. It’s just that the football factories and TV networks haven’t realized it yet. If you’re going to watch people get paid to play football, might as well watch the NFL where there is a salary cap, trade rules, and a real playoff. Signed - Former die hard college football fan

First class just started. It's being run by CAE in Dothan, AL, just down the road from Rucker/Novosel. Same facility the Army does their fixed wing training at. A few years ago the Air Force put out a bunch of RFI's for various contractor run programs to increase UPT production. The IFT-R idea was one of them, along with GOCO T-6's and I think one other contractor run program, maybe to replace T-1s? I can't remember. Looks like the IFT-R idea won out. Word I've heard on the street is that this had less to do with improving rotor wing training and instead was seen as an easy-ish way to open up a handful of T-6 slots per class. I guess they were finding most kids who ended up going helo's in the Air Force wanted them, so the powers that be decided pushing them down that street sooner and opening more fixed wing training slots is the way to go. I'd be interested to hear from anyone involved in selection how they're picking studs to go to this program before they've even flown a DA-20. I'll leave it to rotor wing dudes to discuss whether they think this will be better for the final product. I'm sure more time in a helicopter is better than not. I'm guessing some studs later in life may miss the opportunity to get at least an ASEL commercial through mil comp if they decide they want to push buttons in the flight levels vs buzz tree tops.

Michigan didn’t play anyone either.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/ Never thought I’d live to see the day where Americans would show support for Osama Bin Laden, but here we are.

Can’t wait to see who A&M over pays for next just to go 8-4 every year.

Well that’s kind of my point. The country is a dumpster fire right now and instead of being the party of solutions, a large amount of conservative political and legal capital was spent on overturning Roe v Wade, all the while losing elections and letting the truly serious challenges facing this country go unaddressed. So instead of being a party of leadership, fiscal responsibility, national security, etc…, the GOPs crowning achievement in recent history is overturning a Supreme Court ruling that in the grand scheme has turned a distraction into a rallying cry for low information and low participation voters; and made them actually come out to the polls. Again, a strategic disaster for the party and honestly it’s less about the abortion issue itself and more about the Republican party’s complete inability to come up with a comprehensive vision for this country that will lead it out of the problems it’s currently facing. Edit: Just watched the Ramaswamy clip above. Not the biggest fan of him, but those comments in many ways are spot on. The current Republican Party is a bunch of losers.

In a perfect world (imo) the Republicans and Democrats would work together to come to a bipartisan federal law that codifies abortion rights for women that meets a middle ground of avoiding the extreme lefts desire for late term abortion availability but also gives a woman a chance to know she’s pregnant before making a choice to go through with it or not. I realize some of you aren’t going to like that, but that’s my personal opinion. Since that has a snowballs chance in hell I’d at least like the GOP to put pressure on states that outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest to change those provisions. That really just looks bad from any way you slice it. Beyond that every GOP candidate for Congress, senate, and president is going to have to either moderate their stance on abortion or consistently promise potential constituents that they aren’t going to push for a federal abortion ban, because the left is going to use that as a rallying cry otherwise.

I get what you’re saying, but think you’re still looking at it mostly from a legal standpoint. That’s why I specifically said strategic. And I disagree with the fact that moving it to the states will make the issue go away. One, the left is not going to let it go away unless and until it is protected or codified again at the federal level. You may not agree with that, but that’s the only way the dem’s think they win on this. Not to mention, any conservative politician wishing to make a national level campaign will have to answer for their stance on abortion or have their stance used against them, especially if they come from a state with an abortion ban. Abortion was always a fringe issue out there that got talked about from time to time to get a rise out of people, but it never got the level of electoral attention it’s getting now on a national scale. In the recent elections since the overturn of Roe v Wade it has been a forefront in the decision making of many voters and has not worked in favor of conservative candidates. That’s why I think it was a colossal strategic mistake to shake the hornets nest of Roe v Wade.

Election 2023: 3 key takeaways on abortion, Trump and Biden | Fox News A small sample size of elections for sure, but some strong messaging from voters nonetheless. I've said this on here before, but the overturning of Roe v Wade was one of the single dumbest strategic moves by the Republican party in a very long time. Forget about the legal or technical aspects for a second and look at the big picture. One, abortion bans are in general not popular across most of the country. Two, the right essentially went at the heart of the left's version of the second amendment. This galvanized support and basically proved to many voters the Dem's drum beat of "they want to take away abortion!" was correct after all. Looking at the last two years, the overturning of that single measure has led to numerous election losses and looks like it will continue to do so. Also, the moderate democrat Kentucky governor winning (again) in a deep red state highlights to me the desire in this country for moderation in politics. The far left and far right garbage that dominates the headlines is not what most people want. Personally, I think on the presidential level the republicans have the best candidates that actually could lean center on many issues and also provide genuine leadership. But of course, somehow, someway, Trump is going to be the nominee; nearly ensuring 4 more years of the current garbage we have. The only positive light I would take from this for conservatives is that this week's elections were far more local in nature, and the economy, the border, national security, etc... were not exactly what was being run on. Those three things look very bad on the current administration. But again, they're probably going to run against Trump so the issues will go out the window for half the country anyway.

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4288044-oregon-just-dropped-all-graduation-standards-failing-all-of-its-students-in-the-name-of-equity/ “Oregon just dropped all graduation standards, failing all of its students in the name of ‘equity’” But we have the highest graduation rates in the country!!!

You are the king of posting small Twitter clips and adding your own click bait title to it to try and steer your own narrative. Maybe I missed the woman getting beaten in the first video? I mean yeah I see a man, silencing her since he knows they’re being recorded, and that’s definitely not good, but welcome to mass patriarchy of Islamic society. However she didn’t get beaten like you so emphatically claimed. Where’s your source that those Orthodox men were protesting the war? There’s zero evidence in the clip either way of what’s going on in that video. Not endorsing the police officer body slamming that man in the street, but you have absolutely no way to prove what’s happening there. I tried to find an article referencing that incident and the only one I found was Al Jazeera. And we know what straight shooters they are. Now I’m not debating the wrongness of those videos, and perhaps more will come out and back up what’s happening there. But what really gets obnoxious is over and over on this website you post links to short video clips on Twitter with some sensationalist title or post about them, and most of them are easily proven to be false or carefully cut and crafted to take a small snippet out of context. Be careful how much 10 second Twitter clips you’re consuming as your “news”. I realize I’m probably wasting key strokes here, but shit like a this just proves how fucked we are as a society. It’s mind blowing how many people, both left and right, will get sucked into a 10 second video clip with a short title that has no basis in facts, and take it as gospel, so long as it aligns with their own personal views. I haven’t been on this site as long as some, but I’ve been around long enough to remember there was generally a lot more critical thought that used to go into discussions here. It was a real gem of the internet, now it’s just mostly shitpost central like everywhere else. It’s no wonder some long time posters have left this site. Whatever, long and probably useless rant over.

Seems like they made some poor business decisions at the height of the COVID demand. I bet the Chinese buy it too, especially since the CEO they brought in is the former Glasair guy and that got sold to the Chinese. Really a shame for what’s arguably the premier experimental aircraft company. This also speaks to the larger issue of GA being close to a death knell in this country. The most popular kit company facing potential shutdown, new Cessna 172 and PA-28 family aircraft are north of a half million dollars and basically only bought by flight schools, and the legacy GA fleet is facing a reckoning on remaining in flight worthy condition. I was just recently tacitly involved in the attempted restoration of a Beech Sundowner. Now it doesn’t have the wide support that 172s and Pipers do, but it was a flying condition airplane that looked like it needed moderate restoration to bring it back to a like new condition. Turns out once things started getting dug into, the level of corrosion hidden throughout the airframe was far larger than one would have guessed. It was a full records and relatively well maintained aircraft too. Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft, etc… probably never imagined these planes would still be flying today, let alone make up the backbone of the actively flying fleet. With no affordable supply being put into the market it’s hard to see a sustainable future for GA.

Ever since Chang, all other trolling on this site is weak by comparison.