Blue
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Posts posted by Blue
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On 12/17/2022 at 8:20 PM, arg said:
And that's why I voted for him twice. The establishment needs to get gone.
On 12/18/2022 at 12:00 AM, Prozac said:Like it or not, “the establishment” is a framework of necessary evils we get to work within. I don’t care much for it either, but the “establishment” in the United States currently beats all the other options out there.
I think for most on this board, "the establishment" has been a relatively decent deal. Decent pay, benefits, retirement, etc.
There is an entire subsection of this country that has been more or less run over by the "establishment" over the past 30 years. Humans, on the whole, are good at sensing what's fair and what's not. And people have seen decades now of unfair behavior; of all the money and wealth flowing up, and nothing but poverty and pain coming down. Trump was able to tap into that demographic. Believe it or not, Bernie did something similar, albeit from a different angle (money and social programs for all!!!!). The DNC was able to shut down Bernie, but the RNC didn't (or couldn't) stop Trump. Combine all that with the competition being the most establishment candidate out there in Hillary Clinton, and that's how you ended up with Trump in the Oval Office.
16 hours ago, arg said:I don't know of any right off hand. Seemed like he was trying. He did shake things up though.
Trump wanted to portray himself as slaying all the swamp demons. I have no doubt that, behind closed doors, he was beholden to the age-old Golden Rule as every other politician (as in, those who have the gold, make the rules). This blogger does a decent job of pointing out some of the promises that evaporated as soon as he was elected. Particularly how Trump's campaign website had three distinct bullet points about promises to eliminate medical monopolies, that were subsequently deleted within 15 minutes of the election being called for him in 2016.
Realistically though, he was in many ways over-powered by the swamp. He reportedly explored firing Dr. Fauci as our Covid response floundered, only to find that even as President, he didn't have the power to unilaterally remove him.
In his final days in office, he put forth an order to create a new job category for civil service (Schedule F) which would include all govt employees who were in "policy related" positions. Employees in these position would be able to be removed at the whim of the President. Critics decried it as something to be abused by the Executive Branch, and described a scenario of the the federal bureaucracy being packed with the President's patronage hires after every election, which granted, the power was there. More importantly though, Schedule F would give the executive branch some level of a check on the obscene level of power held by unelected bureaucrats. Your average swamp creature leans left, and we're at this strange point in our history where we have this bizarre, hugely powerful, yet unelected administrative state.
Schedule F got slow-rolled, and then quickly cancelled when Biden took office. It continues to be brought up in the press as something that would be "The End of Days" for American Civil Service, threatening national security, Mom's apple pie, and all kinds of other things. I hope it gains traction again at some point in the future.
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A year ago today, I was promised a Winter of Severe Illness and Death for the unvaccinated.
Still waiting.
QuoteFor unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death — if you’re unvaccinated — for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm.
But there’s good news: If you’re vaccinated and you had your booster shot, you’re protected from severe illness and death — period.
Number two, booster shots work.-
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11 hours ago, SpeedOfHeat said:
If the GOP wants to win elections, they have to put forward better candidates. It's not too much to ask. The candidate that could have beat Warnock didn't have to be perfect, or a genious. He or she just had to be someone of decent character who could speak moderately well. Instead, they put up a complete fool, and this is the price they pay.
At first blush, it really looks like both parties are pretty awful at developing any kind of "bench" of up-and-comers.
Then, you realize the up-and-comers are out there, serving in the US House and various state government positions. It's just that the DNC and RNC do equally awful jobs of elevating people off the bench. Instead, they seem to reach beyond the bench and grab these oddball outsiders. Who knows why; there are questions of money, power, conspiracy that I'm sure others can opine on.
To make it worse, both parties are seem to neglect the process of "gracefully" shuffling the "elder members" into retirement. So all us little people end up with this current crop of geriatric, ossified leadership. And when one of those fossils finally decides to hang it up, or kicks the bucket, we end up with the Theater of the Absurd like Warnock / Walker.
Before the current Warnock / Walker saga, you had the Georgia Senate race of 2020. Spent way more time than I wanted to reading about that race , but I just couldn't pull myself away from the train wreck.
A shorth history below as I could summarize it from a couple hours of falling down the rabbit hole. TL;DR, the Georgia Senate seat that Warnock just won has been a source of all kinds of odd behavior since Johnny Isakson announced his early retirement in 2019. Like a story arc from the West Wing or House of Cards, but less believable.
QuoteIn 2004, Johnny Isakson (R) was elected to the Senate. He had a pretty decent pedigree of serving in the House for six years, and various other position (Georgia state government, etc).
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2016, but announced he'd still run for re-election anyway. I'm no health expert, and I know living with Parkinson's is a complex topic. Regardless, at that point he was a 72-year old diagnosed with a degenerative disease, running for another six-year term in the US Senate. It was painfully clear that there needed to be planning for a successor. Isakson ended up serving only three years of his six year term, retiring in Dec 2019. He died a short two years later.
Isakson handily won three elections to the Senate, and by all accounts, seemed to be a pretty talented politician and a decent human being. Surely with 3+ years of notice, the State of Georgia and the RNC could have come up with a worthy successor, right? Indeed, they needed to appoint someone who could "hit the ground running," since by Georgia state law, whoever they appointed would take office Jan 2020, and then be up for reelection less than 12 months later.
With that challenge before them, surely they'd find a worthy successor to Isakson, right?
Many in Georgia supported Rep Doug Collins. He held an impressive resume, including serving as a chaplain in both the US Navy and US Air Force, a law degree, and had served in the Georgia Statehouse, as well as the US House. Certainly Collins, or someone with a similar pedigree and appeal to Georgia voters would be appointed?
Nope. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler, a political neophyte who's resume essentially consisted of working a couple years in finance, and then marrying the CEO of a financial exchange she worked at in the early 2000s, catapulting her into the 1%. As an aside, at the time they were married, Loeffler was a blonde in her early 30s, while her husband was a wealthy balding dude in his late 40s. Who says you can't sleep your way to the top anymore?
Not to be outdone, when the time came for the DNC to put their own candidate in the 2021 runoff election, they chose Raphael Warnock, a candidate with a resume just as think as Loeffler, who's primary accomplishments revolve around being a popular Baptist pastor.
Loeffler lost the election by a slim 2% margin to Warnock, setting up the current Warnock / Walker train wreck.
Walker's ascendancy seems to be just as absurd as Loeffler and Warnock. He at least had some decent name recognition from an NFL career. He boasted of success in business and some nebulous claims about working "in law enforcement." A somewhat decent resume for an "outsider" candidate. Except that all of those claims were proven to either be outright false or incredibly inflated with just a little bit of vetting.
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On 12/3/2022 at 2:10 PM, uhhello said:Pinned by blancolirioJuan, just to give some further context to your excellent reporting, the Air Boss was brand new. This was his first air show as the "Air Boss" and is the son of the former air boss who had retired the year before after a lengthy career as the Wings over Dallas Air Show air boss. According to pilots that were in the briefing prior to the show that day, they report that the briefing was lacking in various substantive and vital information such as altitude deconfliction yet no one including a FAA representative that was in attendance raised any concern about the inadequatenes of the briefing by this new air boss.
Juan Brown currently has this pinned as a "highlighted comment" below his video. It was originally attributed to "Matt," whoever that is, and now is attributed to "Editor," although it's unclear who that is, too.
That comment has 440 replies, and the video has over half a million views.
As far as I can tell, it's a random comment, from a random person, and people see it pinned to a Juan Brown video and take it as gospel.
Aviation and Social Media are an interesting combination. Aviation is one of those things that generally inspire people. At the same time, the barrier to actually participating in aviation is high, both in money and time. Social media fills in the gap for a lot of people - you can look at YouTube and consume all kinds of aviation-related media (some of it of incredibly high quality).
At the same time, "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" holds true. Chuckleheads like Juan Brown and Dan Gryder race to post on YouTube with a video collecting the available footage and data from an accident. They present things in a digestible fashion for the general public. But then they jump off the deep end and add their wild-eyed editorializing. When they're wrong, there is no penalty. When they're right, they get to tout to the online masses about what great aviators and detectives they are. There is almost no downside for them.
They both found this new niche of "YouTube Aviation Accident Investigators," so I think a lot of their popularity is that they're first in the space. I can only hope better competition comes along.
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4 hours ago, brabus said:
In today’s news, Biden trades a prolific arms dealer who conspired to kill Americans for POS Brittney Griner,
Worst trade in the history of the WNBA.
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5 minutes ago, nsplayr said:
Then again there are people like this who seem to think people voluntarily choosing to wear masks makes them Nazis 🙄
I don’t wear a mask except where required (many but not all medical facilities it seems like) and rarely see others wearing masks in Tennessee…but if folks want to by all means go for it!
It does not affect me in any way whatsoever and I make no real judgements either way. People that don’t share that mentality at this point I think are clearly in the wrong.
I don't see anyone in this thread criticizing anyone who voluntarily wears a mask.
To add, when the mask mandates finally started dropping, I recall brief public service campaigns about "being respectful to people who choose to wear a mask." I recall those campaigns quickly going quiet, as people realized the vast majority of non-mask wearers don't give two shits if someone voluntarily wears a mask.
People don't care if you decide on your own to wear a mask
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The US Army has something like 2,100 Blackhawks, so I assume V-280 Valor buy will eventually be somewhere in that neighborhood. And obviously more opportunities to replace Air Force and Navy Blackhawk variants down the road, USMC H-1s / V-22s, etc.
I don't like the "Winner take all" approach of these competitions. Proponents talk about "economies of scale," and the like, but there is never a focus on the benefits of a split buy. Keeping competition in the industrial base, for one. Along with protecting yourself from any technical/reliability issue grounding your entire fleet.
I would have liked to see the US Army do a split buy between the Valor and the Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant-X.
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Northrop CEO sure likes to hear herself talk, doesn't she?
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Quote
In 2005, The Associated Press reported that Perrys, then an Air Force captain, was charged in Louisiana with burglary and assault with a deadly weapon while wearing a mask, and that he faced up to life in prison. Perrys allegedly entered the home of a judge and beat the judge’s daughter, who was his former fiancée, with a metal baton as she left the shower. Police said that when he was arrested, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and his vehicle contained knives, handcuffs, parachute cord, a shovel, and a mask, according to the AP.
Convicted felon, violent crime, nine years in prison?
I'm gonna go with: "There has got to be more to this story," Alex.
I want to know the background of his parents, and immediate family members. I'm willing to bet Mommy or Daddy, or some close relative, has some kind of connections on Wall Street. Investment banking, private equity, or similar.
Seen it before in Corporate America, although it's usually confined to someone's kid or close relation getting elevated through the ranks at rocket speed.
Whatever deal got worked, I bet they hadn't planned on it becoming a major news story. Will be interesting to see where it goes. So far, it's only appeared on The Daily Wire (on a holiday weekend, no less).
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Don't usually get into the minutia of upvoting/downvoting, but @Best-22, why on earth would you downvote that article?
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4 hours ago, JohnyTodd84 said:
So, I’d like to know if a student can have a car loan.
As for a car, I’m currently looking for an rx7 fd for sale. I fell in love with that car when I was a kid, so I’d be very happy if I bought it.
Can a student have a car loan? Only way to find out is to ask the bank of your choice. If your a ROTC/Academy cadet, or otherwise associated with the military, look into USAA.
You've been given some good advice by @FourFans130 already, so I won't repeat that. I will say, some personal anecdotal experience: I did the "buy a used performance car" fresh out of college. It was fun, but looking back, I wish I hadn't. Assuming you buy as a student and keep it through your first couple years after graduation, it's more important to have things like: reliability, cargo space, etc. Hearing the whine of the turbo was fun, but I quickly got jealous of my buddy with the four door whatever, when he didn't have to tear into his car on the weekend to fix things, and could easily fit stuff in the trunk.
An old man's two cents.
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5 minutes ago, hindsight2020 said:
Flying B-17s were already on legal palliative care due to insurance unavailability. Even this being the fault of the cobra pilot, it might put the final nail in the coffin of a lot of these larger experimental-exhibition-carve out relics.
Never thought about the insurance aspect of CAF Warbirds, but have to wonder what kind of insurance they carry (if at all), and what it costs.
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10 hours ago, kaputt said:
So is this pass thing the precursor to a booster requirement?
I mean, escalating incentives / threats has been the trend, right? Speaking from the civilian side:
- You should get a Covid shot!
- If you get a Covid shot, you'll get a free donut!
- A free gift card!
- Your job may require a shot, you should just get it now!
- No entry without a vaccine card!
- Get a shot or lose your job!
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18 hours ago, ClearedHot said:
A few interesting stats:
1. The DNC has spent over $200M on Beto on three separate elections, $100M on last night's election alone, he has lost every attempt.
2. The DNC has spent over $100M on Stacy Adams on two elections, both of which she lost. During her most recent campaign she was raising (and spending), funds at a rate of 3:1 on Kemp, and she still lost.
Do you think either one of these extremists will get the message?
Perhaps I've seen too many episodes of Ozark. But, when you look at the DNC spending those kinds of figures, on those kinds of candidates, you start to wonder if they're really supporting candidates they feel have a viable chance of success? Or is it all just some kind of elaborate money laundering scheme?
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On 11/3/2022 at 8:35 AM, Lord Ratner said:
Just watch, the microsecond after the election is over the Democrats are going to be suddenly and deeply concerned with the mental health of the president.
Zerohedge article pointing out how coverage from the New York Times and CNN has suddenly become critical of Biden within the last week. It's not hard to believe that the Democratic Party is looking for an exit strategy for Biden, and this is just the beginning of them "softening the beach head" for an eventual Biden bow-out due to "mental health issues" or whatever they decide to call it.
QuoteFast forward four days, and both CNN and the New York Times have gone scorched earth on Biden, in what appears to be a' coordinated effort' to distance mainstream Democrats against a President who's become an increasing liability.....
It'll be interesting (in a train-wreck sort of way) to watch. Age-related cognitive decline gets worse as time goes on. It does seem like Biden has gotten noticeably worse over the past two years. I can't imagine what it would be like after another two years, coupled with what's sure to be a bruising reelection campaign.
Looking back, it seems like early-on there was a concerted effort to put Kamala Harris in the public eye. After several very public stumbles and gaffes of her own, she seemed to disappear into the background. I wonder if Plan A was to put her out there, and get the public used to seeing her in a position of power. Once that failed, I wonder if Plan B is to keep her out of the public eye until it's time for Biden to make an early exit due to "mental health issues" or what ever they decide to call it.
Going down that path, would be interesting to see who the Democratic Party pushed to replace Kamala in the VP office. The 25th Amendment states that "The President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." So the Kamala and the Democratic Party chooses the nominee, but it's got to get past what will likely be a Republican House, and potentially a Republican Senate.
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11 hours ago, O Face said:
I doubt Kirby even knows what it means, but yes I agree, Uncle Sugar has his hand up Kirby’s ass far enough to get his fvckin lips to say whatever horseshit he wants.
Scott Kirby (United CEO) is a particularly interesting example. Opinions of the guy vary, be I don't think it can be denied that he's a pretty intelligent guy who knows how to run an airline.
His Linkedin profile is pretty active, with posts several times a week. Scrolling through there, you'd think that diversity is the single biggest challenge facing the airline, with climate change a close second. Every once in a great while, he talks about serving customers, fixing airplanes, flying airplanes, etc. You know, real airline stuff.
Kirby is not an idiot. He knows diversity, climate change, and similar ilk are bullshit. But he also knows that the airline industry is beholden to the federal government, through both regulation, as well as the fact that the us govt. is one of United's biggest customers.
When Uncle Sam says his priorities are Diversity and Climate Change, Kirby (and other CEOs) march in lock-step.
Guys like that don't get to the corner office by "fighting City Hall."
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18 hours ago, uhhello said:
It's not America though. They are certainly trying their best to make it seem like this is common though. Sure does wonders for keeping people enraged and engaged.
Yup. Always have to keep in mind that the media is incentivized to keep your eyeballs on their site/station. You occasionally get a window into the sausage being made, like when Ariana Pekary (MSNBC producer) resigned via a scathing public letter.
Quote"The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others… all because it pumps up the ratings."
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1 hour ago, Ram said:
Yeah, +1 to all of this. Reddit is just another echo chamber. Trash.
The concept of Reddit is really compelling, and I'm told that in the old days (pre-2010 or thereabouts), it really was a glorious place with a free exchange of ideas.
There are still some interesting corners (the Air Force subreddit is entertaining). MilitaryStories is another one. If you have some obscure, niche interest, chances are there is a subreddit for it.
But when it comes to politics, or really anything related to current events, Reddit is a left/progressive echo chamber. If you aren't posting the "approved" opinions, then don't even bother. You'll just be downvoted to hell, or just have your stuff deleted.
To add, Reddit is yet another social media site where it's not clear how they make their money (the advertising is minimal, they do have some "paid" user options, but those aren't very widely used). When it comes to social media, if you can't figure out what the product is, then the product is you. So, one wonders what exactly Reddit does with all the user data it vacuums up.
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1 hour ago, pawnman said:
Imagine thinking every off-hand comment from POTUS (especially our current POTUS) is the same as official DoD guidance.
45 minutes ago, pawnman said:So, do you have the same suspicion for every new drug on the market?
So, question the Commander in Chief, but don't question Big Pharma. Does that about cover it?
Aren't you involved in AFROTC in some fashion? I can only imagine what kind of quality guidance you're providing to those cadets.........
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1 hour ago, ClearedHot said:
In other squadrons on the same base, unvaccinated face continued testing (despite guidance that says follow local community conditions), and recently had all TDYs not only cancelled but individuals were threatened and counseled they would be PROSECUTED for wasting government resources.
If some squadron cc has put this kind of guidance down on paper / e-mail, they should be named and shamed on social media. Here, or the Air Force amn/nco/snco facebook page, or elsewhere.
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22 hours ago, Clark Griswold said:
Question CH reference the first article at the beginning of this thread of wonder
Is there any formal RFP / RFI for this concept?
Is this gonna windup being another Scorpion?Somewhat related, and taking from the article at the beginning of the thread:
QuoteThe tanker effort is part of the company’s desire to be a “trusted disruptor” among defense firms. In August, U.S. Special Operations said it would buy up to 75 small turboprops that L3Harris, the sixth largest U.S. defense firm, will turn into attack planes.
“It kind of ties into our strategy [of] identifying gaps, trying to get ahead of the budget process, if you will, and think differently,” Kubasik said.
L3Harris and Embraer seems to be a strange pair-up. Safe to say that the L3/Embraer combination is a result of the planned Boeing / Embraer partnership falling apart in the wake of Covid? As late as Nov 2019, Boeing was touting their work to jointly develop new markets for the C-390. Seems logical that, had the twin challenges of Covid and the Max not occurred, it would be the Boeing / Embraer KC-390? Assumedly taking advantage of Boeing's refueling boom technology?
Curious what L3 has next up their sleeve.
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2 hours ago, ThreeHoler said:
I’m lazy and don’t have time to chase down possible bullshit on the internet…where are the stories of being ed up by the vaccine and losing an AF medical?
Well, the OK ANG pilot (referenced several posts back), who keeled over with a heart attack after the vax presumably lost his medical. Due to being dead and all.
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1 hour ago, pawnman said:
something petty like the wrong brand name
🙄
I suppose people have wildly differing opinions on what constitutes "petty"..........
Either way, I am enthused about this latest development. The leaves are falling, there is a brisk chill in the air, and the yearly Covid-related internet arguments are beginning anew.
As much of a Fall tradition as when I pull in all my outdoor furniture for the season, and find the underside of one of the cushions full of black mold.
Or how the leaves fall off the trees, allowing me to see my mentally-unhinged elderly neighbor who likes to walk around naked in front of his open living room window.
Glorious, glorious, propaganda and absurdity-filled Fall. How I missed ye!
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2 hours ago, Biff_T said:
I agree that the Covid vaccine is bullshit. I also realize the military makes us all do things that could potentially harm us or others (sometimes against our faith or morals). That's part of the fun.
In theory, when the military makes people do things that could potentially cause them harm, there is some larger goal (supporting and defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and all that good stuff).
Have yet to see what the larger goal was with the Covid vax for the military. Sure hasn't seemed to do anything for military readiness.
On the other hand, sure has been a good method of clearing all the non-believers out of the force. Maybe the Covid vax was nothing more than some loyalty test all along.
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Promotion and PRF Information
in General Discussion
Posted
Loyalty.
They want to see who's loyal to the organization, and who isn't.
Loyal people don't question the absurdities and the nonsense. They just salute smartly and do whatever the boss says.