brabus

$4.7T in federal untracked payouts. Doesn’t mean that’s all FWA, but it does at least demo the complete incompetence of the federal gov. The gov is managing our money like children, some of them with sinister intent.

The top 1% pay nearly 50% of federal taxes, top 10% pay over 75%, and the bottom 50% (I say again, HALF of tax payers) pay less than 3% of total federal taxes. The top 50% pay over 97% of the taxes. It is pure insanity and completely illogical to argue “the rich don’t pay their fare share.” But it’s a nice progressive talking point to be absorbed and repeated by ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and/or unintelligent people. Other related points… - We need to rein in spending on a historic scale. Should Medicare/SS be shuttered? Well I do believe we need a social safety net (we agree on that), but these are horribly ran programs, and as of now all of my SS witholdings across adult life are literal theft because the program will be completely insolvent and defunct by the time I’m of age…unless they fix it. We need a new system along with a SS sunset - I’m OK with taxes staying flat for a short time while we solve spending problems and reduce the deficit. But reality is we the people are currently being taxed 100s of billions that are paying for utter bullshit. Thats 100s of billions that need to be back in taxpayer pockets via cuts as soon as feasible. We can’t right the wrong of the past (because we need to reduce deficit), but we should at least start righting it ASAP (e.g. start with a clean slate) - General point: conservatives aren’t anti-tax, but we are anti-tax to fund bullshit the federal gov has no business funding, let alone managing/controlling. For example, Dept of Ed had a $238B budget in 2024…that dept shouldn’t exist at all and $238B is either not required by the gov (and therefore tax reduced) or I could see still collecting it to pay down deficit (again, for a short timeframe, not forever). That’s one example from a large sea of examples.

I’m in that camp. There will always be threats and there is never a good time. I think we can do it without crippling ourselves, but maybe that means we don’t go shoot X% of WRM at OWA drones from Iran, we don’t spread ourselves around the world at the rate we have for so long (e.g. where did 20+ years of spending like a drunken sailor in OEF, OIF, OIR, OFS, etc. get us), we stop sending hundreds of billions around the world and getting little to nothing in return, etc. There will be tough decisions to make, we can’t “save them all,” and bad things will happen to good people. We won’t turn off the lights by any means, but we will tighten the belt. We’ll come out much better on the other side in the mid 2030s.

I was more addressing the way forward, using the failures of the F-35 program as an example of what not to repeat. How are relatively recently written contracts written, and have we learned anything from previous fiscally retarded contracts (the answer is no)? Many weapons programs are also great examples of what not to repeat. We absolutely can start today not signing contracts that don’t include favorable condtions for the gov. We kick cans down the road so egregiously already, so fuck it, I’m fine with kicking some stuff down the road a few years until primes start bending the knee a bit. I’m with you on that. There does need to be some trust busting done with the big primes. It has become well out of control. I read a book about industry leading up to WW2, the differences in mindset is staggering - they were whole heartedly pro-America; current day LM, Boeing, etc. execs do not GAF about America.

@Banzai I’m not saying you’re wrong in general, and you have valid points. If I truly sat down, went through the data, and DOGE’d this thing, what could the savings be? I did not get that number from any research or math, just thrown out as a starting point, knowing full well the number could, and probably would be less. - cut 1/2 the civilians and save approx $40B (based on average salary). Obviously I wouldn’t just blindly cut that right now, but i bet if you went full DOGE you’d find near half are unnecessary/not remotely earning their paycheck. Go work on the staff - that number is about 90-95%. Directly related to this problem are the processes of course, so you’d have to streamline our BS processes which in turn would nullify the need for the guy who provides the 3rd rubber stamp prior to sending the request to Bob - Industry: I think you’re wrong on that, fuck yeah we could tell them GFY and actually sign contracts that are judicious use of tax dollars. The F-35 program has doubled in cost for 1/2 the initial buy (and likely will continue to shrink), and all we do is throw billions at LM while they laugh at us. What if we signed all contracts with cost+ limits and delays/setbacks were 100% eaten by the company? You say no company would sign that? OK cool LM, we’ll go to your competitor, or we’ll just chill for 5 years on all your potential contracts - how’s that bottom line doing now? Industry is incredibly greedy - I’m a huge fan of capitalism, but capitalism does not mean you have to completely take it up the ass with a smile on your face. Long story short: many TRILLIONS saved over a few years if we took this approach across the DOD. Walk out of the car dealership - the dealer will call you more often than not. Theres a lot more, just two big ones off the top of my nugget.

On the Defense budget subject - spitballing, but could probably cut a couple hundred billion. Having seen deep inside the acquisitions side, all the way to sustainment (and what the warfighter gets for it), it is criminal the money the DOD wastes/misallocates/pays out as it willingly bends over and takes it from industry who enjoy near zero accountability. The DOD accepts shit like paying LM billions of dollars for “F-35 modernization” which really means “make it do the things you told us it would do in 2013.” The millions I spend referenced above should be 100s of thousands, but I don’t hate the player, I hate the game. And the DOD is OK with all of that…fuck us, we deserve to lose billions in funding when that’s how we spend tax payer dollars.

Great memories…the stories I could tell (but not on the internet!) @Zero I remember 2008ish when we all were “fuck these gay scarves!” Fast forward to 2013 post-Shaw - “fuck you chief, check out my ascot!” The swings are humorous looking back.

Yep, and not a surprise. Congress is horrible across the board - maybe it’ll shape up some day, but I’m not holding my breath until we have term limits and some investing restrictions while in office. What you fail to grasp is the majority of voters see this “destruction” (to use your description) as a very positive thing. We want the number of fed employees slashed, we want entire departments completely erased, we want gov spending/budgets massively curtailed, etc. That “destruction” is significant progress towards a more prosperous and stronger America - you don’t believe that, but the majority of America does. We all know by now Trump’s MO is to say wild things as part of his negotiating tactics. Every time in the last month he threatened tariffs people like you went wild and said he was buttfucking the country to death…except they worked immediately and perfectly, every time. Now if we actually “occupy” Gaza, I’m against that, but I am not worried about that happening for now - this is most likely Trump par for the course coming off the top rope initially to settle where he actually wanted to be later on. Same comment on slashing the defense budget 50%, though I do support some significant DOD slashing. The mind losing over Elon is laughable. DOGE has no inherent authority - they provide the info, Trump makes the decision (or has legally delegated authority in some cases). Is the General not in charge when I make large impacting decisions? When I decide how millions get spent, is the General just for show and playing second fiddle to me? Absolutely not, and you know it. He can shitcan me in a second, or immediately deny/turn back something I’ve done - at any point and for any reason per his judgement. He is unequivocally in charge at all times, even if I’m the guy making daily decisions, because in the end the General can’t do everything and micro manage, he has to have people like me to get it done. Bringing in Elon is no different. By the way, Trump has a long way to go to match Clinton in gov “destruction.” It’s just not your team doing it this time, so be mad about it is the only option.

Good example of a squadron scarf. The LPAs out there don’t have a hair on their ass if they don’t get this done (unless getting away with morale shirts, then carry on).

A fairly standard technique was wear it “normal” for the most part, but when you went somewhere outside of the squadron and felt like raising some blood pressure, do the tie thing, ascot, etc. Had a bro get his new ID picture with full ascot. They pushed back hard trying to say he couldn’t have that in his picture and he whipped out a printed card with the applicable regs - he won. The small victories were priceless.

Then you push back with wild chest hair. And if you don’t have an adequate amount naturally, find or make a chest hair dickie! The LPAs out there are more valuable now than ever before!

Why?

Sweet, no change from what I remember. The only possible bump is if you have a wing cc who’s a total douche and doesn’t approve scarves. As far as good taste, you all know your O-6s - if they’re not that cool, then just do a squadron color (maybe with the aircraft silhouette of what you fly in a pattern) and call it good. It’ll be enough to stick it to the douches.

Way back in the day when I went through my first “no morale” iteration we decided to do scarves. The regs didn’t specify how you had to wear it (other than generally around neck and tucked into flightsuit) or what color/designs it had. So welcome to chief aneurisms when you have a bright red scarf worn like an ascot on any day of the week as you walk into finance. It was 10,000 times “worse” (from the chief perspective) than shirts. It was the ultimate “you play fuck on me, I play fuck on you!” The ability to give a massive middle finger to the d bags and let them know you have bested them on a daily basis was 100% worth wearing a scarf. The entire wing did it for about a year until morale shirts were back. Do it boys, you won’t regret it. Only disclaimer is I have no idea what current reg says about scarf design/wear, so QC that before full commit.

They are min force for my last hurrah; only way to go out is with a bang. I imagine it’ll be like a movie where I’m walking away from absolute carnage in the background, laughing all the way back to DAL.

And your squadron’s shenanigans are epic…a model for others to follow!

Visual search from the RJ approaching 300’/1nm from touchdown is a red herring. PCF: helo altitude control/vis lookout RC: asinine procedures IVO DCA IF: Change the procedures/amount of traffic using DCA/immediate surrounding airspace. This is an easy fix that should have, and could have, been done years ago Everything else is just noise in the big picture.

Once saw a dude sprinting down a road (thinking he’s going to outrun death) and get speared through the back by a rocket that dud’d…the precision of that weapon is incredible. I don’t know about “ coolest,” but it was sure an impressive way to die!

Kill Obamacare while he’s at it…come on Congress, do something good for once!

I want to know when we’re going to see arrests of all the leftist outwardly hindering ICE. I’ve quickly lost count of how many govs, mayors, city board members, not to mention the countless random idiots, are happily breaking laws and think they’re untouchable. Frankly I’m disappointed in Trump’s admin that this has happened yet.

Elon’s not wrong, he’s just about 20-30 years off a realistic timeline (unless our entire acquisitions process massively changes, doubtful).

We can’t be too hard on Huggy, he did do UPT in a Stearman and has spent a lot of time at altitudes with very little oxygen.

No amount of base/equip seniority will make me fly the 73. The French have thoroughly destroyed Boeing on this one.

Sadly, impossible. Most of the Arab world, and many of its similar-minded neighbors, will always be filled with so much hate and will always be completely incompatible with western values and society. We cannot solve this because whatever re-building, AFPAK hands bullshit, etc. we do, it will never change their ideology that has existed for thousands of years. Best we can do is try to keep them away from us.

Those recommendations better include repealing the NFA and erasing the ATF.