Smokin

Seriously? You really think anyone that supports Trump Or Musk is incapable of criticizing them? Look back through this forum alone and you will find many people that voted for Trump (like me) criticizing his policies and him personally. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly. Give you a break? How about give us a break from this stupidity. What else has Musk done that would make you think he has any Nazi sympathies? And if he did, do you really think that a guy as intelligent as Musk would be stupid enough to make a Nazi salute at a large event where there had to be dozens if not hundreds of people filming it? This whole thing is an absurd witch hunt. The left hates them, so is willing to grasp at any straw to say that they're evil. Remember it is the Democratic big cities that were holding Anti-Israel rallies where many people were chanting death to Israel. Did you hear anyone calling Biden a Nazi because of that? Also, not all Democrats are Islamic terrorists, but all Islamic terrorists are Democrats and there's a perception (far more obvious and objectively quantifiable than the MAGA movement) that the liberal movement in America is inherently racist. See how dumb that sounds? Bad sections of society support both parties. Constantly bringing those bad actors up in relation to the entire party is nothing but an elementary smear. You said that you're not calling Musk or us racists, but you're implying that he's a Nazi or at least a Nazi sympathizer since he gave a "Nazi salute" in the middle of a speech, so you're implying that he's a racist. And it would be difficult to support an overt racist without being racist yourself. Stop pretending that you're taking the high road by "not... claiming that Trump or Elon (or you) are racist" when your post clearly implies the opposite.

I've always wondered how old white dudes could be pushing DEI. If he really believes in it, he should resign to allow a minority into his position which would be the equitable thing to do. To do anything else is hypocritical.

And much like the Federal government, I doubt the surplus to deficit transition had nearly as much to do with tax revenue as expenditures.

Says every FAIP that was wrong but doesn't want to admit it...

True. When I was looking at retiring in the midwest with threats of tornadoes, I was going to try to get European style roller shutters. Had them on my house in Europe and they were awesome. Those would stop most things short of a bullet (and were awesome for sleeping in on night flight mornings, bedroom was pitch black). I'm sure that as big of a deal as this fire is, it won't be big enough of a deal to get most people to think outside the box and most those houses will get rebuilt on the same 1940s mas production technology that 90% of American homes are built on.

I equated nothing. I used WWII leadership as an example of how hard it is to hire people for jobs none of the applicants have done and that firing bad leaders may clear the path for good ones. That does not imply that war and working for Trump are the same. If you inferred that, then that speaks more to your presuppositions than my statement.

Yeah, that's nuts. The fiber cement siding results are impressive considering it's usually 1/2" or less thick. Would have been nice to see how long that window would have lasted if it were closed. My house is largely made of concrete, so I feel pretty safe from any outside wildfire. But I have had a window crack due to a grill being too close to it when cooking some brats that flared up. I'd imagine that in a wildfire, the heat could fully break the glass. Also would have been nice to see how long the attic held out with the embers there as that's the other significant vulnerability, even with a passive or concrete sided/walled house. I'm sure some passive houses have sealed attics and more might after this, but you throw 18" of loose insulation in the attic and your heat transfer there is negligible so I don't think most have sealed attic spaces. If you're thinking of building, I would absolutely look into the passive home. Sounds like it's only for hippies, but I think the long term payoffs are well worth it and the fire stuff is just one more reason.

It would be interesting to see a study in how houses were saved verses the ones that weren't. I don't buy the catching fire inside from floating embers theory; very few HVACs have external ducts that could transport an ember to a flammable area inside. Attics generally have vents, but the soffit grates are small enough to keep out most pests, which would preclude an ember big enough from getting through to catch a 2x4 on fire. My guess is the fire is hot enough against the side of the house that the inside of the exterior wall heats up enough to catch fire. Kinda like how papers catch fire inside a gun safe with zero direct flame contact. Or the fire is hot enough that it breaks the windows and gets inside that way. Hopefully the insurance companies figure it out and make policy incentives to help since I have zero confidence the government there will get their act together. I'm betting that a 1000 gal cistern with a gas powered pump would have saved many of these houses and would have cost $2K to install (or $5K since its California). Multiple stories of houses being saved because the owner turned on a bunch of $5 sprinklers around the house before leaving.

The implication is that turnover is a bad thing. He has to hire people for a job they've never done before. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. Look at the rate of senior commanders fired in WWII and how well it worked out in the long run.

Other than the ice cream bribe idea, which is disturbingly possible, the only explanations that make sense are: A- He knows they committed crimes that merit prosecution or B- He thinks that the judicial system is unjust enough to commit law-fare against political opponents of the party in power If A, then clearly the Biden Crime Family is as bad or worse than the right wing social commenters have said they are. If B, I wonder where he got that idea? Maybe the last 4 years of his administration had something to do with it...

Russia is and has been a threat to US interests since 1945 (maybe 1918?). China is a bigger threat right now, but if you're fighting two guys at once and one falls to a knee, it isn't time to ignore them, it is time to stomp their face so they are out of the fight for a long time allowing you to focus on the other guy. Is it expensive to fund Ukraine? Yes. Are we getting a way better return on that money compared to much of the other junk we burn our national treasure on? Absolutely. This is another Russia in Afghanistan scenario except the "good guys" aren't Islamic terrorists. We'd be foolish to walk away from this opportunity to spend some money and help an enemy bleed themselves out. Way better to defeat an enemy via a proxy war than face them directly in a war yourself. And that doesn't even address the good of helping a free people defend themselves.

The old cone of survival saves another one

Nice find, I'm looking for a new place to land with the drastic decrease in USAA's customer service and just got soured on Navy Federal after getting a bait and switch on a car loan rate (apparently a credit score in the neighborhood of 800 isn't good enough for them).

They might be, I'm considering if this actually constitutes a deceptive practice and reporting it to the FDIC. I just googled a bit and I think they're walking a dangerous line on a deceptive banking practice under FDIC rules. Pisses me off to have spent time applying while thinking I was going to save a couple grand and then to be basically turned down. This is the first time that I've been turned down for something credit related and at a point in my life that I'm possibly the most financially secure I've been and making far more than what I did on active duty. Guess I'm crossing them off my next bank list.

Based on the apparent fact that she did over 1000 guys in a row, I'm pretty sure her standards are absolutely non-existent. If some new STD pops up in the next couple years, she is probably patient zero.

Have people had bad experiences with Navy Federal? They're currently advertising car refinance rates of 4.49% for 60 months. I applied and they gave me a rate of 5.79%. I questioned them on it and they came back with a BS statement about use of the loan (um, it's a car refinance, like advertised), credit score (excellent), credit history (not a single late/missed payment). Seems like a bait and switch operation to me because if I don't qualify for that rate, I can't imagine that hardly anyone does. I have my wife's car loan through them and everything went fine with that one, but this is pretty questionable to me.

I doubt this is what will happen, but I personally think it would be great if it did. If you don't need to wear a specific uniform because of job related physical requirements (pilots, MX, TACP, etc), then put on blues. If you work in finance, personnel, etc then it's not just Blues Monday, but Blues Everyday. You're a REMF; embrace it and do your job so the people that wear functional uniforms don't have to do your job for you. One of the problems of the in lieu of taskings during the height of Iraq was the 'every airman is a warrior' BS. If every airman is a warrior, then it is a logical conclusion that the actual warriors in the AF are no different than the finance troop. I heard Gen Walsh in person tell some random enlisted dude that at any given point he could be the most important person in the AF, as an enlisted maintainer. I think that type of mentality leads to some of the BS we have going on now and fully matures as a E-9 trying to correct a pilot's zipper not being zipped half way up the name tag. The average airman cannot articulate in a single sentence how he supports the kill chain. That's bad.

Hasn't anyone in CA thought about how much carbon those helicopters and planes are putting into our atmosphere? Such selfishness just to put out a little fire...

True, but insurance companies can't control federal, state, and city lands which are grossly mismanaged making them not just fire prone, but a ticking time bomb. Every time I walk through the forest near my house I marvel that the big one hasn't hit yet. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for forest management nation-wide. Also, I read that California prohibited insurance companies from dropping policies in areas that were affected by the fire (obviously only affecting future renewals not current policies), which might decrease their leverage for change. How anyone can think it is ok for the government to force commerce that was declined for non-discriminatory and purely reasonable business reasons is absurd. A second order effect of that might be the increase of privatization of fire fighting, which would be a rather funny thing to happen in CA. The rich people and their insurance policies already do it so it might start cropping up in the upper middle class. Net result would be the average families continue to get screwed even worse, which is par for the course in liberal states.

WSJ has a good article this morning talking about exactly the infrastructure stuff you mentioned. A utility company was widening a fire road and fire-proofing the electrical lines. They got a $2M fine and a cease and desist order in addition to the rehabilitation they were forced to do because they damaged some plants.

Sealed warrants, along with the ATF, are bull. The only possible justifications are organized crime and terrorism where any information can be used by the bad guys to stop the bleeding. But, even then it is borderline un-American like civil forfeiture and the like. I recant my defense of Liberty Safes.

Saw a picture of houses that were burned right next to the beach. Does no one have a water pump? I'm betting salt water puts out fires as well as fresh, just tough on the pump. The FEMA thing is a bit tough. On one hand, clearly this is a disaster and it is at least partially caused by government mismanagement and poor preparation. On the other hand, why am I paying to rebuild someone's house that burned down? If my house and only my house burned to the ground, would FEMA show up and give me a check? Don't think so. Why is it any different because it is a bunch of houses? FEMA should absolutely show up and hand out food, water, help with temp shelters, etc, but I don't agree with handing out money or the Federal govt handing out money.

ATF is setting itself up to be next after Dept of non-Education for cost savings under the next administration.

The other thing to consider is basically fireproofing the closet or whatever your safe is in. I originally considered adding three layers of fire rated drywall (which is basically what gives the safe a fire rating) on all the sides, which might allow the contents to survive a real fire. My current plan is to basically line a room in the basement with fire drywall and then cinder blocks. Big problem to solve is how to protect the ceiling... I actually did do the safe within a safe, put a "fireproof" document safe inside the "fireproof" gun safe thinking that the documents might actually survive. Until I didn't have space in the gun safe. Did the feds have a warrant for the Liberty event? While I'm against a backdoor code even existing for something like a gun safe, if they had a warrant then they were going to get into the safe one way or another. Just saved some time, money, and destroying the safe.

Impressive. Looks like it said 45 on the door as it opened, so probably 45 min at 1200. Also impressive as it's my understanding that most fire rated gun safes like that won't really survive a house fire. The temp and duration of the rating is usually well under what most stick built houses will burn. I'm getting ready to build a fire-proof walk in gun safe room and was going to sell my safe, but am now thinking of putting it in the corner as a double protection.