gearhog

Help me out here. I've probably been listening to way too much Ray Dalio, Peter Schiff, George Gammon and others. The end is near! Tell me why I shouldn't pull out of the market tomorrow, build a gold vault under my house, and stock up on ammo based on the following ideas trapped in my head: - $23 Trillion in debt and the Federal government under Trump continues to add $1Trillion per year when the Federal Government owns only about $4T in assets. - Growth in Banking/Finance/Services industries accounts for the growth in GDP while manufacturing continues to decline. We're consuming way more than we're producing. - Economy is 70% consumer spending and consumers are more in debt than ever. Home, Auto, Student, and Credit Cart Debt are all time highs during a time of record prosperity. - On top of that, the individual taxpayer share of government debt is approx $140,000. - Quantitative Easing is flooding the system with dollar bills that will drive massive inflation. That inflation will force lenders to raise rates. A 1% raise in interest will cost the government an additional $200 Billion per year in debt maintenance. Artificially keeping rates low during inflation is effectively stealing the savings of you and I. - The market is propped up by cheap money flooding into corporate buybacks and bad businesses whose shares are priced according to revenue, not profitability. - We're going to see some social unrest before and after the election. Trump won't win. To mitigate the anti-capitalist social unrest (already occurring elsewhere), the next socialist-leaning democratic administration won't cut benefits, they'll raise taxes, print money, and fuck everything up. Can anyone make the argument that everything is just fine?

The part where it was found that she had rented a full size vehicle in lieu of a compact vehicle was some top notch investigative work.

I just watched the Mandalorian with the kids last night. -#3/10 StarWars stories. Lauded by Home/CC "Outstanding!" No PC BS. 98% compliance w/orgnl series.

Ah, I figured it couldn't have been intended the way it looked at first glance. No prob.

Did a herc deployment last year. All the austere locations asked us for was pizza and energy drinks. if you can arrange payment, the tac airlift squadrons would be happy to order, pick up, and deliver.

I don’t understand the relevance of the quote here.

I would also like everyone held to a high standard of conduct because we want decent human beings making decisions for us. But let's face facts, that's not how high-level government operates. For many (most?) at that level, the ethics and values that you and I conduct our lives in accordance with are, for them, arbitrary boundaries and obstacles to the pursuit of wealth and power while only being useful as weapons against political opponents. I would like for a room full of people like you to investigate and hold Trump, Biden, Clinton, and all the others to the same standards. But to reach a position where you'd have the power to do that, you would have had to compromise your own principles every step of the way. Only the corrupt can investigate the corrupt.

And Epstein didn't kill himself.

Penske buying the Indy Motor Speedway and IndyCar is huge news. Tony George effectively destroyed open wheel racing in the US and now, perhaps there's great chance it can make a comeback. https://www.espn.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/28004980/roger-penske-buys-indianapolis-motor-speedway-indycar-series

Reminded me of a recent trip with a former Soviet fighter pilot. The commander showed up one day and told everyone "Go home and don't come back." They were shocked. "What do we do?" "Whatever you want." There's zero chance of that happening here. Just an interesting story about pilots who didn't expect it to happen.

"There's no difference between us and them." AF just found a whole bunch of people willing to fly lower pay without bonuses or incentives.

Recently took an Uber ride in San Francisco with an Afghani interpreter who was given asylum status for him and his family a few years ago. Amazing conversation. I'd place his patriotism far above 90% of the people we drove past (which may not be saying much).

Wow. Brutal....

Reserve select was around $220 for me, the retired reserve is almost $1100 with higher copays. It’s insane! I’d wager almost any airline plan is more reasonable. Here’s a good tool too compare tricare plans: https://tricare.mil/Costs/HealthPlanCosts/TRR

#4 was reported to have mag problems. #3 as well as #4 were feathered. Fuel was not suspect. The implication being an engine may have been inadvertently shut down, but there is no way to know for sure.

Yes, it does. Very sad.

Exactly. You've paid more than your fair share of the bill and I've paid mine, as well as most of the people on this forum. When I read "we" should be staying continuously engaged in Syria, it seems "you" is implied. Some people are tired of being threatened with the worst possible outcome being realized if we suddenly end our 18+ year subscription to the Middle East Clusterf^&* Vacation Club. There's war when we're present, there will be war when we're absent. If Russia and Turkey want to wear that anchor around their neck for a change, good.

He seems like a reasonable guy concerned about the welfare of people and families. Perhaps he could start building the refugee camp for the 3.5 million Syrian refugees Turkey is about to move back into Syria.

There was an article on Drudge yesterday (not seeing it today) interviewing one of the ship based radar dudes involved in this incident and others. He says after upgrading the ships' radars with a new technology/capability, they're seeing these things often. 80K feet down to the surface in a matter of seconds and back up. At first, they thought it was a glitch in the new tech, but what they're seeing on radar is corroborated by pilots.

Yeah, I know... (eyeroll). I don't believe, I don't not believe, I've never seen anything. I just don't know and don't spend much time thinking about it. However, I watched the latest JRE podcast this morning and I had never heard of this guy. If I want to hear a UFO story, I want to hear it from a pilot. Cmdr. David Fravor tells an amazing one. EDIT: This is just the first part of the podcast. The full podcast is pretty good if you have almost 2 hours.

Need to watch the trial to see if he blinks Morse Code for "G-U-I-L-T-Y".

Genius. Free steak dinners would certainly improve morale and productivity.

Another tanker seized. We're clearly being provoked. My guess is they're hoping to trigger a political/economic crisis in the West and are willing to risk conflict to achieve it. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1178571/iran-news-iran-oil-tanker-Strait-of-Hormuz-gulf-saudi-arabia-uk-us

That is a wild guess, and wildly inaccurate. As I've said, I've been visiting Prestwick Aviation for 17 years and those folks are on the up and up. Contract fuel prices are set. Lodging and perdiem rates are set. The Turnberry was only offered when it was the only accommodation available. Do you know of an alternative airport that meets all the requirements of transiting military aircraft, crew, and pax with fuel prices 50 cents less? I challenge you to find it. There's quite a bit more to RON planning than the price of fuel. If you've ever been deployed and are looking to save $25K of taxpayer money in Scotland, you're looking in the wrong place. If an FBO/hotel provides a great experience while conducting business within the government rules and government rates, how is that a hustle? That's just good business. This is no Fat Leonard, just another instance of politicians throwing shit against the White House walls hoping something sticks.

Not hating, I know you're just doing you're supposed to. I'm just fatigued with leadership's fascination with and addiction to electronic data collection, be it ORM, MICT, GTIMS, PEX, ASIMS, surveys, etc, etc, etc. All so they can walk over to HQ and present it to more senior leadership in hopes of an "Attaboy!" from people who pretend to be interested in it for 30 sec during a staff meeting. Let's face facts, none of this changes anything for the flyers. We've never cancelled for an ORM score at step time, we're just told to be "extra safe."