Pooter

FWIW the best near term solution for school shootings is probably hardening schools. Armed guards and secured entrances will help a lot. The problem is that if you put those in place it will likely drive the shootings somewhere else that isn't hardened. It's a bandaid fix for a symptom, not the root cause. One idea that could fix the root cause is if the media all came to a gentlemen's agreement to simply not report on the shooters. Some outlets have already figured this out. I'm convinced the attention and notoriety is a huge part of what drives these things so if they refused to show names, faces, or any identifying information about mass shooters that would remove a lot of the incentive. The same goes for social media where "going viral" is valued over all else, so maybe removing the viral aspect of these tragedies is what needs to happen. You'll never be able to squash notoriety at a local level, but I'm convinced the nation/worldwide infamy you get after committing an atrocity is a big motivator for a disenfranchised mentally sick person looking to go out in a big way.

I don't buy this argument any more than the mental health one. The entire western world has been trending more secular/woke/declining social fabric/whatever you want to call it for decades.. but we're the only country with a mass shooting every week. How do you even measure a nebulous concept like declining social fabric? Church attendance? Because that was certainly higher on 1950.. along with racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and men beating their wives. The social fabric argument strikes me as another pie in the sky deflection because it doesn't come with any proposed solution.

Appalling mainstream media reaction aside.. I see a lot of people talking about mental health and how family or someone should notice the warning signs and just because I'm the asshole who always has to play devils advocate.. How would that actually work? People going through deep mental health problems often purposefully conceal it from the friends and family. This is really common in cases of suicide as well. Not to mention your family are probably the least likely people on earth to suspect you of potentially committing mass murder. You extend benefit of the doubt to family by default. I think it's so easy to say "how did they not see it" when it's someone else's kid but if it was our kid I doubt most of us would. Even if you suspect something is off, most people wouldn't immediately jump to report a family member to a government watch list red flagging them for gun ownership. That's quite the leap with potentially life ruining consequences. This is why I find the right's "mental health" argument just as disingenuous as the left's "guns are the problem" argument. Copy broken homes with shitty parenting produce bad kids. But you can't un-ring that bell. Much in the same way you can't un-ring the bell of there being hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation in America. And neither side of the political aisle seems to want to actually do something about guns or mental health when they have the power to. Dems controlled the house, senate, and presidency until last November and didn't do crap. Likewise republicans just say "mental health problem" to deflect without ever proposing any public funding or resources to fix our supposed mental health problem. Mass shootings are literally a fad / social contagion and I worry that the political parties using them as a bat to whack each other with does nothing more than prolong the fad's popularity.

Relax dog I was (mostly) joking. Wear whatever you like/what is most comfortable/fits your mission the best. I have no doubt other garments outperform the green bag in many ways. But not in uniqueness, heritage, or looking dope.. which is probably why the Air Force will get rid of it some day. When I see flying group and wing CCs wearing OCPs or the two piece that tells me the green bags days are numbered. Because anything special or cool going on in the flying ops world must eventually be neutered in the name of inclusivity and preventing hurt feelings.

The only uniform item that I derive any morale from whatsoever is the green bag. It serves as a daily reminder that I'm better than the nonners and the paper pushers who convene meetings like the one that produced this worthless uniform reg update. hot take alert: if you wear the two piece flight suit you're a beta cuck flyer who is complicit it the eventual eradication of the green bag. Shame on you and your disrespect for tradition and may god have mercy on your soul

Exactly. This is how I view the difference between the words equality and equity. Equality = cast the widest net you can by publicizing opportunities for underrepresented groups.. but still select for competence at the end of the day Equity = prioritize quotas and percentages over all else at the expense of competence

There's a phenomenon where people will subconsciously self-select out of a career fields if they don't see people who look like them doing those jobs. As white dudes we don't notice it because we're well represented in most desirable high caliber fields. But I have multiple female family members who are military pilots, and they say that feeling is something they had, and is still prevalent among girls. I'm not for quotas or specific DEI hiring initiatives but outreach campaigns like the "fly like a girl" one the Air Force has pushed are great in my opinion. If you truly want to get the best talent you need to cast the widest net you can and whittle down the pool from there.

Lol I'll take a useful AI in leadership roles over the dg hunter xmas planner douche canoes we currently promote 😂

Except the narrative has a character counter so now we just have to gnats ass the character count instead of the line spacing. I trust we'll find a way to make it awful too. At least there was bullet buddy for the previous OPR forms that would auto lengthen or shorten bullets for you. Now I have to think of actual English words to shack the character count? No thank you As for the static close out, I'd personally prefer an even workload spread around rather than the all out shitstorm the captain close out is gonna be. Maybe it'll work out nice some orgs but in my experience flying ops squadrons are ~75% captains, none of whom ever lead turn their OPR with enough time.

Feel the same way. I totally recognize investing and getting into the details is a full blown hobby for some, but for me it's a means to an end. Shoveling money into a reliable index fund combined with maxing out your roths/401k is more than enough to get to a 90% solution and it takes next to no brain bytes once it's set up. It's trite but the older I get the more I've begun to truly value my time, and if I make a marginally less by not gnats-assing my finances but get more time to do the things I enjoy, that's a worthy trade off to me

This actually reminds me about a fun wind power fact not a lot of people think about. What do you think they do with wind turbine parts/blades at the end of their service life? They bury them in the middle of nowhere, of course! Meanwhile in Gillette, Wyoming https://apnews.com/article/industrial-waste-wyoming-gillette-085d653f2f46a279236b7633a7b6014f

you're not joking.. my base is still un-f-ing OPRs that were stranded in limbo when they euthanized myeval v1 last year. But don't worry let's bring that train wreck back along with a litany of formatting and process changes. The old way wasn't good by any stretch, but it's amazing how when we change/revamp something its almost exclusively for the worse.

Here's a fun evals update for you. Hopefully it will be transparent to most people but if you have a lot of subordinates or if you're blessed with a queep lord position like me, get ready for a reaming. All of these OPR changes coming down the pike this year. -A new form -narrative format -Static close outs (ever wanted all your captains to close out on the same day?! What a great way to spread out the work) but wait there's more!! Stay tuned for the imminent relaunch of: Myeval 2, electric horse abortion boogaloo Can't wait to spend all year figuring out how to hit this moving target.. rather than actually getting better at hitting real moving targets. /EndExecRant

Sounds like we're in violent agreement. I just enjoy calling out the right when the opportunity presents itself. The left's transgressions are very obvious and very well-thrashed in this forum, so it's good to be able to play devils advocate sometimes.

Correct. And the right has no credibility when they try to launder a 5 minute video into some kind of game changer bombshell that *surprise!!* Jan 6th wasn't that bad. If I can get nothing else through to you guys please hear this: blind subscribers to either political party are intellectual trash who will use any shred of anything that appears to lean their way to validate their pre-existing views. This goes for the entire MSM and the vast majority of right wing online news culture. I think the first step to recovery is acknowledging that both sides have gone incredibly wrong in very different but very severe ways, and after you admit that it's easy to stop playing the tit-for-tat tribal political game.

Lol you guys threw an almighty sh!t fit when the left called the George Floyd riots "mostly peaceful" and then you turn around and act like the thing we saw happen at the capitol was no big deal.

I'm talking about the thousands of people smashing in windows, destroying police barricades, assaulting police, vandalizing the capitol.. you know.. literally every other video of the event aside from tucker's super sweet 5 minute compilation. But you're probably right I don't know what violence is, I'm just a soy boy cuck. Not a big strong stone cold killer marine like you 😂 Do you hear how you're coming across right now? Here's a hint:

I think we're arguing two different questions and kinda crossing the streams. Question 1: how was capitol police so bad that the building got overrun by maga buffalo hat retards Question 2: what do you do when you're a vastly outnumbered cop in a building overrun by maga buffalo hat retards question 1 is a valid concern and worth investigation and reform so the capitol doesn't have such limp dick security. question 2 is basically a distraction/red herring and what the Tucker videos are about.

I've reached that viewpoint based on the body of his coverage of Jan 6th which seeks to generally minimize and downplay the severity of the event. As a result, he latches onto anything, no matter how small, which feeds that narrative. This video is just the most recent example. Putting aside that this is a 5 minute compilation in a sea of violence and mayhem, there are plenty of non-conspiracy explanations for why the cops were nice to buffalo guy for 5 minutes. -the capitol is a large building and the cops in the video didn't know what was happening yet -this occurred early prior to violence breaking out -they were vastly outnumbered surrounded by thousands of rioters I find the third explanation particularly convincing. Put yourself in their shoes. You're a low rent cop in a building that's already been evacuated and now you're surrounded by 10,000 maga nutcases. Do you: a) be nice to them and prevent escalation b) start unloading with your service weapon, guaranteeing a panic, and probably get trampled/assaulted to death c) arrest buffalo guy and march out the front door.. and probably get trampled/assaulted to death If I was a betting man, Id say most of the cops left in the building by the time it was breached.. at least the smart ones.. went with option A. Pop quiz: what are the first two things they teach you in the hostage portion of SERE? -Do and say everything you can to avoid being killed immediately -build rapport

Good post. To steel man the other side for a second, I think the big concerns are that we'll get sucked in to another prolonged conflict without a clear goal or end state.. it's kinda what we do. And we're dumping money and weapons in when we have lots of problems that need fixing at home. Seems like we repeat the same interventionist cycle over and over. Steel man over. Bottom line here is we are tanking Russias hegemony, Putin's admin, and decimating their military without risking a single US military member's life. To me that is an objectively good trade off, and the fact that it deters China is a great bonus. And if you think the weapons bill is steep now.. try giving Ukraine to Putin, appeasing him for the next few years and see what the bill is like when he tries his luck on a FSU nato country next. What is it they say about an ounce of prevention..

Of course it's a waste of time and money. But if democrats incited a riot that happened in the capitol building of our country during an election certification vote, you and I both know the right would have a political theater conniption too. Dems are going to milk this for everything it's worth, and they'd be stupid not too. If you don't want useless committees and hearings calling your party evil insurrectionists, maybe don't give democrats the best ammunition ever. edit: final put.. I don't know about you but Jan 6th didn't feel like a run of the mill riot to me. There have been a lot of riots in this country in the time I've been alive, but I only remember one time when the riot was inside the literal capitol building.. in direct response to a vote currently in progress.. for the presidency.. egged on by the guy who lost the presidency. That feels pretty damn unique to me.

Definitely violent and definitely a riot. Some of the particularly low IQ people in attendance probably thought they were taking control of the government as well. But that doesn't make the whole thing an insurrection or mean the country was on the verge of collapse, or that it's worse than 9/11 or pearl harbor. That's left wing alarmist nonsense. And tuckers argument that there's nothing to see here is right wing minimizing, excuse making, equivocating garbage. So in conclusion, as per the usual arrangement, both sides of the legacy media are an abject dumpster fire.

There's thousands of hours of violent riot footage. The fact that Tucker can piece together 5 minutes of people milling around proves nothing.. other than the fact he's a political hack eager jump on the tiniest shred of video that confirms his biases. Get it together and do some critical thinking, dudes. This wasn't a near-insurrection but it sure f-ing wasn't a docile guided tour either. Some of the crap you guys post here looks like it came straight out a boomer spam email forwarding chain.

Emcon

@Danger41 The tactics examples you mentioned are all good stuff and the reason I get out of bed in the morning as well. Don't get me wrong I love my job. I love flying fast jets and I love trying to get better every day and improve how the CAF does things. Like you, I also have been involved in some meaningful changes on the tactics and instruction side. I also really really care about teaching the FNGs coming up the right way to do things. From an ops perspective I am 0% jaded. But there is a whole other side of my job, and that's the one I'm pissed about. I notice none of the innovations you cited have anything to do with queep reduction or admin. The administrivia side of the Air Force is kind to those who "play the game" so the only people who ever make rank high enough to change the game are the people who played it in the first place. You asked why I want specific directives from top level leaders. It's because I believe that's the only thing that will dismantle the queep empire that's been built. I don't need specifics from majcom/ccs about tactics or mission leadership or how to manage my flight. I want specifics because generic inspirational fluff does not make it down through the 69 layers of administrators to result in any change at squadron level. A perfect example of this: a few years ago when Debbie James was the secaf, they did an additional duties reduction initiative. Big email got sent out about it saying something generic about how we're going to get leaner and reduce add'l duties. Literally the next day I was appointed the squadron emergency management rep, and DTS AO. The secaf email and my new appointments email were sitting right next to each other in my inbox. The next one was some horseshit about looking for volunteers to run that year's CFC. I screenshotted it at the time because I couldn't believe the irony of these 3 emails sitting next to each other. But anyway, cheers. I'll keep trying to fight the good fight, get better in the jet, and the moment I can get chat gpt to automate the queep side of my job I will spread the gospel far and wide.