Lord Ratner

It's not news to me. Manafort was a crook, who's indiscretions had nothing to do with Trump. And obviously Trump ordered the payments to the porn star he cheated on his wife with. That was baked into the equation when he ran for president. Get him to commit perjury, and I'll support the same punishment as Bill Clinton: impeachment with no further action.

The 40 hour work week has nothing to do with socialism. Zero. No one here is talking about work hours and child labor when they refer to socialism. Socialism is easily summed up by the old Soviet mantra, from each according his abilities; to each according to his needs. Another simple socialist concept is an equality of outcome (not to be confused with equality of opportunity). They are not fatal due to the evil intent of their promotors. They are fatal due to their irreconcilable conflicts with human nature. Remember, there are no flawed political philosophies, only flawed human characteristics. The success of a political philosophy is measured by how well it mitigates and minimizes the effects of those human flaws. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

The problem is that there no accepted definition of "too far" for the left. For the Right it's easy: racial superiority. Hitler, KKK, etc. But the left has no obvious "too far." For the educated, it's quite obvious: socialism. No political philosophy has a body count approaching the horrors unleashed by socialism. But your average voter is not aware of history, and even the educated are unaware thanks to who controls the curriculums of college campuses. I don't care how great a politician seems. If the word socialism falls from their lips, they are a threat. Useful idiots at best, evil megalomaniac at worst, but still a threat. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

I've said that since the primary victory. Trump as president was only possible because "the establishment," over the course of decades, dissolved any moral accountability in the underlying system of government. They cheated, they stole, they lied, they enriched themselves and their circles, they abused, and they evaded punishment. Eventually these practices became ubiquitous, and all that was left was the facade of decency and honor. But a facade cannot protect the system from intruders. Enter Trump, who's only distinction is that his words and appearance match his/their actions. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

You're right, they probably don't know each other... Also, most people doesn't include the top brass. They keep their clearances indefinitely. Well, until they piss of Trump it seems. I love that Patreus had the balls to sign that letter. Well I don't think any of them are particularly trustworthy, as they have so adequately demonstrated. And it should surprise no one that the urge to provide those hard-hitting soundbites and breaking scoops has caused more than a few honorable men and women to develop loose lips. So yeah, I would disqualify anyone who becomes an analyst for Fox, CNN, CNBC, etc.

Ok, so he's defending his friend. That's great. But honestly I can't watch any of these retired honorable men on cable news for more than a minute before I stop venerating their service. I don't care if you're a republican or democrat, if you want to be a pundit, you should lose your clearance. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Yeah, you missed it. But it's the internet, so no worries. I'm against govt-run healthcare. One reason is because in order to have it, those choices need to be made. People who want govt healthcare never want to talk about those choices. My grandma should not be supported by the govt. They are paying to fight an unwinnable battle at the expense of other programs. If people want to spend their own money to do so, great. All for it. QOL is not QOL. If you can't see the difference between a sick child and a sick old person, I can't help you. Denying the concept of differential worth between humans is one of my least favorite aspects of the progressive movement. Promised? By who? If you promised to make it to my birthday party, but then the power went out in your part of the country for multiple days, and the only way to make it to my party was to leave your wife and child at home alone and unable to fend for themselves, would you still go? We can argue all day about what is and isn't right, and what promises the government should or should not honor. But at the end of the day my political philosophies boil down to two very simple premises. 1) We don't sacrifice our children's future for today. Taking a loan out is okay, but not when you know that you will be worse off at the end of the loan then you were at the beginning. 2) Never ignore human nature. People will always choose their family over a principal. You see this everywhere. Rich liberals who decry school choice, but send their kids to the most expensive private schools. Calls for renewable energy, from the same people who demand no wind turbines be built that obstruct the view from their porch. Old conservatives who talk about the unsustainable levels of handouts from our government, as they drive to their govt funded Medicare appointments. The ultimate goal of the progressive, socialist, liberal, whatever you want to call it, movement is the creation of a global community, and that will never, ever succeed. Even if it wasn't an impossible goal, people will always work harder for their family and their immediate community. Working harder means producing more. Producing more means more overall wealth. More overall wealth means a better world for everyone. Does it seem like a coincidence to anyone that the greatest, fastest improvements in the overall condition of humans on this planet, to include the very poorest amongst us, have occurred during the last century of unbridled capitalism in America? And the parallel socialist experiments have all, every single one, resulted in unspeakable horrors and millions of dead? Free healthcare in Britain isn't helping the starving kids in India. The incredible fruits of the profit-motive are. I'm not against universal healthcare because I don't think it's fair, or because I pity the rich doctors, or because Hillary likes it. I'm against it because a capitalist system is the best chance that my grandchildren won't know what cancer is. If I have to die at 86 instead of 92 from kidney failure to achieve that, so be it.

A huge percentage of healthcare costs goes towards keeping old people alive when they should be dead. We cannot have a productive conversation about changing the healthcare system in the US without first addressing this. In the market, it's simple: until you're out of money. But when it's the government's money, the system collapses before the fake money runs out. I love my grandma. I like visiting her whenever I can. But she shouldn't be alive, and the amount of money being spent by Medicare to keep her alive is staggering, and the only thing she's dying from is old age (94 years old). We can easily afford to give every child in America unlimited healthcare. In fact, I think it should be that way. Full coverage until age 20, then lifetime coverage for chronic conditions that manifested during childhood. After that, you better have insurance. But if you think the boomers, or any other generation of senior citizens is ever going to vote for something where other people get free healthcare and they don't, just ask my Sean Hannity-quoting, millennial-bashing, proudly conservative father who loses his mind anytime someone mentions making cuts to his precious Medicare. This doesn't even get into the issues of producing doctors, questionable data on the efficacy of medical coverage, incentives to plan for retirement, etc.

This! I guess you just have to live over there to realize just how successful the American project has been. Though I'd argue places like San Francisco and Manhattan are already there.

I disagree. Few people on the extremes believe their positions to be extreme. And when a politician is even slightly less ideologically pure, it seems like centrism. Hillary was ten times the centrist that Obama was.

Honestly, I'd pay the $21 just for the automatic Google calendar updating. I got my first line next month (hired in March), so I signed up. Lite Sabre is amazing, even on reserve. You should sign up for the free month to see if you agree, but when I end up back on reserve next year, I will keep it. The HIRPB interface is great. When you're a line holder, it's almost silly to not have it.

Thanks, I'm still putting it all together still. But I was correct on green vs red and dropping, right?

Dropping means it goes back to the company (into what it's called "open time"), without you taking anything in return. I'm very junior, so none of my lines were green. You can trade your trips for trips that are in open time, as long as it doesn't interfere with other flying. Red or green doesn't matter here, because it's one-for-one. You can also trade directly with another pilot, again as long as it doesn't conflict with your schedule. This also doesn't involve red or green. Disclaimer: I'm new, so I could be wrong on certain things

It has to do with trip dropping. If a trip is green, you can drop it off your schedule. If it's red, you can't (but you can still trade it). Apparently things are red a lot more following the December debacle where everything was flagged green erroneously, so everyone dumped their Christmas trips. I wasn't working here at the time though

A little birdie told me that bumble is surprisingly useful for unicorn hunting, if don't happen to be single...

Y'all are gonna ruin the best thing about being a tanker pilot

As a counter point, I commute to reserve in the 737 in NYC covering three airports. I am on a plane commuting to my crash pad as I write this. I've only been with AA since March, so my seniority is low, but I could have transferred to Miami, DC, Los Angeles, or Boston already. NYC is better for me since I live in PA. I sit 18 days of reserve per month, so twelve days off. But if I get a bad month that could require me commuting on the days before and after my reserve blocks, that would cut my days off to 7 nights home. I make less money than I did in the AF, though that will change in a year. In the AF I had it easier than most. Good assignments, much more interesting flying (though less frequent in the tanker), and a lot less time doing the terminal march. I rarely got tasked with inane additional duties, but that was mostly a function of having torpedoed my own career, so nervous DOs were disinclined to trust me with anything the OG/WG CC would see, which is everything in these micromanaged times. I never once wore blues or ABUs unless a specific event required it, and I planned no Christmas parties. The airlines are 100x better than the AF. There is a logic and predictability to the job that changes the way you feel about work. Ever wonder how someone could work on a factory assembly line putting the same bolt into the same part for 8 hours a day, five days a week? I get it now. It's the lack of surprises. There is a strange power to it, and in the airlines you get the variety and adventure of flying with the intensely placating effect of knowing what the immediate and mid-term future hold for you. The exact same effect goes for your spouse/girlfriend/kids. Do not discount it. It's not all lollypops and blow jobs, and commuting is a kick to the coin purse, but it's so much better than the AF that it will baffle you. An active duty retirement is not worth it, especially if you can chase a reserve or guard retirement after securing a seniority number.

As soon as you realize that it's almost never about the issue at hand, but rather the act of opposition itself, it actually becomes quite understandable. Muslims and gays. Taxes and abortions. Illegal immigration and the environment. These issues only go together under one paradigm.

As I said before, these things are way further ahead than people realize, you included. https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/31/16579180/waymo-self-driving-test-facility-castle-google

My LOC and LOR both had them. Hard to keep a straight face reading it

Tesla is not a self driving car, it's only at level 2 automation. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/path-to-autonomy-self-driving-car-levels-0-to-5-explained-feature The vehicles coming out from Google, Uber (if they can stop cutting corners), and now the major manufacturers are level 4 and 5, which, yes, are safer drivers than even you are. Just wait. The stats will come out very quickly showing these cars are safer. You'll see commercials with crying mothers talking about how drunk drivers (or texting, high, distracted, etc) killed their kids. 35,000 people per year, mostly human error. Couple that with mayors of major cities imagining all the things they can do if parking garages are torn down. How much prime real estate is that? Then of course there will be the hold outs, people who think they just love driving so much they would never switch over... Till the first time they can't find parking, or get tired on the road, or want to have a third beer. There's a reason rich people have drivers... I think this revolution will be a quick one. Most people don't like driving much, and the huge number of road deaths each year is compelling. Even with the fairly huge shift in public perception of drunk driving, how many people, even officers in the military, still drive after having one too many? Self driving RVs, no more blue-hairs driving through the front door of sandwich shops, no more rushing home from work to pick up kids from school, no more taking the car to the shop, no more pumping gas, or worrying about your kids playing in the street. It sells itself.

It's already here, bud. Most people are completely unaware that there are fully functional, no-safety-monitor self driving cars operating in the US, and starting in a month or two they are launching as a taxi service. Cadillac plans to have all vehicles with a fully autonomous mode (not the half-baked Tesla version) by 2020 or 2021. And the safety improvements over human drivers are so dramatic, you can make a safe bet there will be a push within the next ten years to make manually driven cars obsolete. You don't have to believe it, just incorporate it into your investment strategy.

That form of respect is from an era where members are drafted, disposable, and only in for a couple-few years. Senior leaders need to work harder for respect, and in an all-volunteer force where subordinates are making the same sacrifice (with far fewer perks) as the boss, parking spots are an easy way to demonstrate servant leadership. I remember a Marine officer in Moron commenting on how the leadership table at AF events gets served food first, while the Marines, who will annihilate an E-3 for so much as looking at an officer the wrong way, always had the leadership eat last. There are definitely structural and procedural mechanisms for reinforcing rank respect, but when those methods are also perks for the leaders receiving them, the effect is greatly diminished.

Just to be clear, Duplex is not operational yet, correct? I love my pixel 2. I'll get the pixel 3 as soon as it's out (October). I upgrade every year, and the resale value on pixels is almost as good as iPhones on Swappa. Apple is falling way, way behind where it counts, AI. Self driving cars become a common reality next year, and Alphabet is the main game in town. Home automation is finally getting it's stride thanks to voice control, and though Amazon is ahead in market penetration, the Google Assistant is miles ahead of Alexa in capability and comprehension. Apple isn't even on the chart. Android lets you tie into it seamlessly, and having the pixel means you get the new stuff first. I'll probably get the Pixel watch as well, but I'm more skeptical of that. And the unlimited original quality photo storage is a huge bonus. The pixel cameras have been the best performers both years, and Google photos has become a very feature rich album service. Yes, I'm a fan boy. I have a Google home (or mini) in every room of the house (including bathrooms), Chromecast on both TVs, Android auto in the car, and I'm planning on grabbing some Nest cameras soon. Some are concerned about privacy, but these companies already have all this data on you for advertising purposes. I might as well get something out of it too. The only place that Apple wins IMO is the iPad. Google has never put out a solid tablet.

141 is still incredible!