Lord Ratner
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Posts posted by Lord Ratner
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58 minutes ago, Sim said:
The Biden DOJ just sued Tennessee for making it a crime to knowingly transmit AIDS. 🤡
The article doesn't give much detail, but if the legislation distinguishes between someone with a viral load and someone who has taken the appropriate medication to suppress their infection, then I don't see the problem.
The laws and approach in general to AIDS have to adapt to the medical reality that this is now a manageable disease. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be disclosure obligations, but it's not as simple as claiming that HIV is a death sentence and as such giving it to someone else is akin to attempted murder.
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15 minutes ago, BashiChuni said:
Someone is letting them in. I wonder what changed? Who could have done this?!
Which is why border legislation is so necessary. The previous/current system allows a president to simply "open the floodgates" as it were. That needs to be reined in legislatively.
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20 minutes ago, Clark Griswold said:
Broken record here but until you arrest the employers and prosecute them you would have to 10 x the border security (both north and south) and interior enforcement to move the needle
Turn off the electromagnetic pull of illegal employment and benefits then you can address this, it’ll never completely go away but it will get to a tolerable level
🎯
This is how you know the "elites" don't want the problem fixed. You could shut down illegal immigration in less than a year, to include the self-deportation of millions of illegals, without building anything. No additional agents, no increased court resources, nothing. Just redirect 5% of immigration agents to random workplace inspections across the country. Fine the employer $10,000 per illegal, per day of employment. After your third separate violation to go to jail.
And as a bonus, the countries that actually need working age men working towards an improved society get them back. Seriously do we ever expect the countries of Central and South America to advance to stability if we keep poaching their most motivated workers?
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14 hours ago, brabus said:
Wow, I don’t know a single person who makes their own primers. That’s impressive…and short of full anarchy/Armageddon, below the cut line for me.
You know, That's actually an interesting point. A much more effective and effort-efficient way of prepping would be to make sure you have a bunch of books that describe how to do the things that you only need to do if shit really goes to hell in a handbasket. Like the chemistry of making primers.
99% chance you never read the books, but for a couple hundred bucks you could probably put together a pretty extensive survivalist library.
I'm going to have to add that to the project board. 🤣😂
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14 hours ago, Lawman said:
And in the last ten days you read that bill in its entirety when exactly?
Again when the head of the organization that is critical of the current admin but is tasked with actually solving the issues on the border says “yes we want this by consensus.” That means a lot more than Trump screaming “this bill is bad” which he did 5 days before normal people could read it, and a bunch of reps in the house lining up to say “we don’t support this.” We know they didn’t do anything to actually make any improvement to the border except bitch about Biden.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkIf your argument is "you have to read the entire bill in its legislative text form before you are allowed to have an opinion on it" then there is a follow-on issue with your claim that the Republican senators in favor of it should be some sort of endorsement. I assure you, they did not read the bill in its entirety.
Unfortunately the conflict in Ukraine is not exempted from the process of politics. You ask why Israel gets a pass on their funding, that's because both sides believe in funding them. That's it. Ukraine does not share the same support, so it must go through a more negotiated process.
I would love to live in the world where political brinksmanship wasn't the standard on every issue everyday. But we are nearing the end of this saeculum, and that's just how it works. In 20 to 30 years, if we are both still around, we can marvel at the newfound efficiency that follows great global conflicts, and the cycle will repeat once more.
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1 hour ago, Lawman said:
Then fix THAT bill.
Stop the bullshit of “we will do X if we get everything in the Border Bill we want” when we know the second it’s threatening getting Trump into full campaign mode we will sacrifice that as well.
Ukraine/Israel/climate change/whatever new issue excuse to avoid funding something has absolutely F-all to do with the southern Border and should be governed in laws as such.
The people now stepping forward to say “not without the border” in this thread only to immediately pivot to “Europe should pay first” when they are have simply decided whatever yardage or reason they will move the goal posts because NO is their only answer in regards to Ukraine.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkFine. Fix that bill. Then you can have the Ukraine bill.
I think you're trying to lump too many people into one group. At no point have I objected to spending the money on Ukraine, and I do not object to it now. In fact I have disagreed with those who claim we shouldn't be spending money on Ukraine because we have problems at home. We can do both.
What we can't do is only support Ukraine, and continue to let our domestic issues languish. Both, or nothing.
Politics is about negotiating, an inescapable, if sometimes unpleasant, reality. The Republicans are not crazy about funding Ukraine, and the Democrats are not crazy about fixing the border.
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3 hours ago, Lawman said:
There is a deliberate separate Border bill that went through the Senate and is effectively torpedoed by the house to allow Political hay to be made out of it for the election.
Congress had the opportunity to do something about the border separate of Ukraine and they are deliberately choosing not to. Don’t now use that to justify not supporting this action.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkIt's a garbage bill. Plain and simple. It does not fix the problems at the border, and exists solely to take away the Republican talking point going into the election. I 100% support torpedoing that bill.
I'm completely in favor of supporting Ukraine, but they exist to me as just one issue facing this country, not *the* issue.
For better or worse, Ukraine is not an issue that unites the Republican party. However it seems like the issue is of minimal importance to the Democrats as well. There are at least well-reasoned arguments on both sides surrounding the Ukraine debate. There are absolutely no well-reasoned arguments supporting the absolute dumpster fire situation at our Southern border. Democrats would condition aid for Ukraine on perpetuating an overtly anti-American border policy, and as such they can be trusted with *nothing* that isn't codified in legislation.
How many times are Republicans going to fall for Democratic border "solutions?" No more. The Democrats dug themselves into this hole, and they can easily dig themselves out by simply fixing the border problem. Instead, for whatever unfathomable reason, they wish to perpetuate the millions of illegal aliens coming to this country, while still hoping to neutralize the issue going into the presidential election.
Let's say that they are successful, and as a result are able to retain control of the White House for another 4 years. I believe that would be terrible for the country, and far worse than whatever is going to happen to Ukraine, especially considering that even the positive possible outcomes in the Ukraine conflict are nullified by incompetent American leadership in the following years.
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I've said before that there's no reason why we can't support Ukraine *and* deal with the border crisis at the same time. We are capable as a country of multitasking.
However if this bill does not include the border provisions, then we are by definition choosing Ukraine over our own border, and that I do not support at all. I hope the Republicans in the house tank this bill.
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If they truly change the inspection system to be random and unannounced, that will greatly improve the lives of airmen. A lot of nonsense will have to be cut out for fear of ruining the records of Wing commanders everywhere.
I wouldn't count on it
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6 hours ago, HeloDude said:
Once again, this is a good thing. Now maybe more people who support this guy and their nonsense will wake up. Maybe.
I'd bet dollars to donuts that this guy thinks cutting services will somehow cause his constituents to apply national level pressure to Texas to stop the flow.
Of course it won't work that way, but I think a lot of people are gradually coming around to the realization that we have been electing sociopathic clowns to all positions of power for quite a while now. Legitimately, these are people who are exceptionally good actors, matched only by their exceptionally weak intellects.
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20 hours ago, General Chang said:
3 words: SERVICE BEFORE SELF.
I knew it was coming, but it's still a thrill 🤣😂
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3 hours ago, ClearedHot said:
The scenario quietly playing in the background, and the one that scares me the most...
Dems get to the Convention and Michelle comes sweeping in to save the day. Maybe then she could finally be proud of her country.
I just don't see a path to victory for her. Obviously all the Democrats vote for her, though I don't think she will stir up much enthusiasm amongst the moderate or Union Democrats. Obviously the Republicans won't vote for her, but she'll probably do a decent job boosting Republican turnout a bit.
But the but the independent voters? Does she really pull them? Trump doesn't, though he'll do better with the spiraling immigration situation. But Hillary Clinton at least worked as a politician before running for president, Michelle Obama will purely be a president's wife running to be president. I don't know.
But I think the bigger issue is that if she runs, there's no chance of getting RFK Jr out of the race, and I think he will harvest millions of votes from Democrats who don't just want to vote for the wife of a politician.
You may have noticed that there is almost a complete media blackout of RFK Jr. They do not want anyone to realize he's still running.
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17 minutes ago, gearhog said:
I can't believe this interview is allowed on Western media outlets. Just a few quick thoughts.
1. Tucker was cringe. His trademark giggle seems fake and it was almost as if he was fawning over Putin. He just let Putin ramble for 15 minutes at a time.
2. Putin took the first 30 minutes to give a 1000 year dissertation in ancient Russian history. Tucker tried interject and get the interview back on track multiple times. No one wants to hear all that. We all want to hear the recent relevant highlights while Putin apparently thinks and talks in encyclopedias. It's called "History" because it's over. It has nothing to do with the current situation.
3. Putin kept baselessly claiming NATO was expanding, that we provoked a coup in 2014, and the Donbass separatists were being bombed. And Neo-Nazis? Is he being serious? Sounded like a lunatic.
4. For being the head of the Russia state, every time he was asked about his assessment of the actions or rationale of the US, his answer would be something to the effect of "I don't know what the hell they're doing. It makes no sense." How can someone in his position be this perplexed by our strategies and methods?
5. Putin said he had neither the capability or intentions to invade Europe. Which is what anyone would say before they did just that.
6. He did mention that we should be more concerned by the massive invasion of our southern border and our unsustainable debt, which he might have a fair point.
7. He said he was willing to negotiate a settlement, but then said he refused to call Biden, contradicting himself.
8. Tucker tried to get him to release a US journalist and he refused, and claimed he was a spy.
Overall, it was thinly disguised Pro-Russian and Pro-Putin propaganda. Do not watch.
I have always thought that Tucker Carlson has an excellent record on domestic issues and a nearly perfect streak of getting international issues dead wrong.
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50 minutes ago, BashiChuni said:
i think the democratic establishment is setting biden up to step aside
1) no way the special counsel was allowed to write those damning words about bidens age without strategic messaging from democratic strategists. it would have been LESS damaging if they had simply charged him. instead they unequivocally said he is not mentally competent to stand trial. huge blow during an election year.
2) biden took off the cuff WH press corps questions for the first time since? i can't remember the last time he took un-scripted questions. biden has been held on a very tight leash by his political handlers....it doesn't make sense that on the worst day of his reelection campaign so far they let him speak AND answer press questions. doesn't make sense AT ALL.
3) NBC and CNN WH correspondents were asking openly hostile questions about his age. those networks have not done that during his presidency. they usually ask pre-scripted softball questions. not this time. and as the twitter files have demonstrated there are numerous connections from political strategists to the press. these questions are not asked without explicit permission from the party power brokers & news chiefs. those press corps reporters would be replaced on the spot if they weren't towing the company guidance IRT tough questions.
4) Biden is clearly not mentally capable to be president. it's becoming too obvious to hide. he called the president of egypt the president of mexico in his presser. the democratic power players are starting to get nervous that the dam of bidens incoherent faculties is starting to fracture, and not even the most powerful media spin playbook is capable of sweeping it under the rug anymore.
i don't think he makes it to election day.
Yeah but did they wait too long? They know Kamala Harris is a guaranteed loss. Do they have time at this point to run a primary? I don't really know how it works this late in the game. If Biden is out then it seems like zero chance they are able to rein in Robert Kennedy, and I think if he's running as an independent the Democrats are in a Ross Perot scenario, also guaranteed to lose.
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8 hours ago, SocialD said:
Only the best Charlottesville has to offer! Lol, when I was on the WB, I used to hate on my plane flying to the 'burgs & villes," but now they're going to have to shut this thing down to get me to leave lol. I'll take my MSN layover over AMS any day because I wont be dead tired walking around...I just gotta bring my sunglasses.
Speaking of fight club. Anyone see that Delta clown at the Transportation Committee Hearing? The memes generated from this goober are hilarious! BTW, if you didn't know, Mr Nehls has a 63 year old Delta pilot brother. He's one of the reasons it's made it this far. I didn't watch the hearing to know if this flexing pilot is him or not.
I'm sure his head will explode when he finds out that a lot of us don't think anyone over the age of 65 should be allowed to serve in Congress or the executive branch either.
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3 hours ago, SurelySerious said:
Yeah…but it shouldn’t be on without visible moisture or a contaminated surface, so this damage occurs outside of proper system operation. Not a real shocker.2 hours ago, HossHarris said:Yup. Nobody ever forgets to turn it off ….
Lol, exactly. Forgetting to turn off the anti-ice for 5 minutes and you get a total engine failure? That's the definition of a "real shocker."
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14 hours ago, Spoo said:
You may have found it humorous, the rest of us were terrified. I still have no idea why Big Blue thought it was a good idea to bring back a UPT 65-14 grad.
Until I flew with Huggy I had no idea that we even had pilot training in 1865. His class patch was printed on papyrus...
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1 hour ago, SocialD said:
Not sure what year that was, but I was a Capt, 4-ship flight lead in 2012 when orders dried up for a bit. I went to a regional to pickup some hours because, even with my 700 hours prior to UPT, I was still shy of legacy requirements (not that they were really hiring). Starting pay was $19/hr with a 72 hour guarantee. With the staffing levels we had at the time, there was no way to make extra cash. Second year pay was something like $30/hr...$25k/yr. I think Captains we're lucky to get in teh $60s...really living large lol. But none of those dudes seem care about those years, because you're making good money right now and it didn't happen when you were at Delta. Never gonna be another down turn or black swan event!
This was 2010 and 2012. Same.
I fly with a lot of captains who spent 10-20 years making those crap wages. Seems like they all thought they'd be at the regionals for a year or two, so they didn't care what the pay was, but then everything went to hell and suddenly it mattered.
Personally I think the regionals are going to get swallowed into the legacy airlines if we don't get a slowdown soon. The huge benefit to the corporations of lower pay is dead, and if you get your regional pilots on to the mainline seniority list sooner, it makes it much less likely they will jump ship. The aircraft are also getting bigger and bigger, and in many cases are operating with fewer installed seats due to contractual limitations with the mainline pilot contracts. Suck the regionals into mainline and those limitations go away.
But whatever makes the least sense is what will happen.
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Bottom line, the airlines made being a pilot absolute dog shit for anybody who had to go through the regionals before making it to a legacy carrier. They took advantage of deregulation, mergers, and bankruptcies to rape and pillage the pilot pipeline for years. They did such a good job taking advantage of the regional pilots that everybody told their friends and family to pursue other careers.
I remember when I was a FAIP having the regional pilots show up and talk about how they had to join the guard because they couldn't live off of $15,000 a year anymore. Absolutely insane that someone flying dozens/hundreds of people around the country everyday would be making that type of wage.
So now we get the crocodile tears from the airlines about how there aren't enough pilots in the pipeline, and how unfortunate it is they have to pay the regionals so much money now to keep them from jumping ship. Fuck these guys. They took on billions of dollars of debt so they could buy back shares and bump their share-based compensation a few pennies each quarter, and they have the audacity to cry to us about manning and compensation.
The 1500 hour requirement was put into place because of aviation mishaps and a reassessment of what is required to operate in the modern airspace. Absolutely nothing in that regard has changed, so neither should the experience requirements.
If we keep rewarding these shitty executives by letting them run to the government to solve their self-induced problems, we're just going to get the same behavior over and over again.
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3 minutes ago, Danger41 said:
During a recent trip to the shitter, I looked into this and was surprised to see ALPA thinks this is bad. Why would they do that? Isn't their motivation to get their members more money/better QOL/better work rules?
Yes. And there are far more members under 63-64 who are against this than those in favor. Many remember the stagnation caused by the previous increase. And it removes leverage.
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I will support age 60-whatever when there is meaningful testing that filters out pilots.
Too fat? Bye. Can't handle *complex* surprise EPs in the sim? Bye. Can't pass a real medical exam from a random AME? Bye. Comparative cognitive testing from your previous attempts shows a decline? Bye. And not just for 65+, all pilots.
But right now this is about guys who aren't ready for retirement, many of whom are convinced their particular struggles make them uniquely deserving, wanting more.
My ability to retire early is affected by how soon others retire. So if the 65+ crowd can make a financial-based argument, so can I. But mostly I'm just tired of the Baby Boomers upending every system for their financial advantage then acting shocked that other generations don't appreciate being left the tattered ruins of a once functional societal pact.
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3 hours ago, FourFans said:
What ever happened to the US's stance of "If you start a fight with me, I'll finish it" ???
Seriously.
Now it's "please don't start a fight...please please please please...ok fine I have enough dead Americans now and my populace is rather pissed...I'll strike something NEAR you, please don't hurt me"
This weak dick foreign policy needs to go.
It's not going anywhere. The population is more interested in what they can get from the government, and they will elect politicians based on it. Neither Trump or Biden claim any intention of fixing the deficit caused by these giveaways.
Any threat to global stability is a threat to the governments' ability to continue the domestic handouts, so they will keep their head in the sand. Ironically, the obsession with short-term stability is going to guarantee the deterioration of conditions long-term.
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6 hours ago, arg said:
I don't think SNL is as funny as it was in years past but I chuckled at this.
He's one of my favorite comedians
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7 hours ago, ClearedHot said:
Thread revival...
Given the recent lack of blots panel blow out issue a lot of folks are leery to fly the max. I saw this a couple of hours ago on a Delta form, anyone on the line have validation or an update?
"Update from second leg on Max9 aircraft: Well folks stuck here on the ground at DEN in a max9 we pushed back then the aircraft lost power and emergency power came on. Captain came on a few minutes later and said that 17 other aircraft are experiencing the same issue. A value in the APU is freezing over and not allowing the engines to start. The current temp on the ground is 36 degrees. I think it’s another issue with Boeing possibly? Waiting on a tug to get back to the gate. The flight attendant told the group of us in the back that he’s never heard of this happening nor has experienced it."
Depending on exactly what the problem was, I've had this happen before. Tried to spin up the engines and it only got to ~13% before stalling out. We couldn't figure it out, and then the plane next to us reports the same problem. And then the plane next to them, and so on.
Turns out the planes were angled such that the freezing rain froze the valve that controls air intake to the Apu. But only the planes that were lined up in the same direction.
The solution was to shut down the APU and let the heat from the APU radiate outward and unfreeze the valve, but that required external power and by that point DFW was a circus. Eventually they called freezing rain in the METAR and just closed the airport for the night.
VRRAD is Back!!
in General Discussion
Posted
You sound like the twat in this interaction. Take that for what it's worth, which isn't much.