dream big
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Posts posted by dream big
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11 hours ago, Prozac said:
Apart from Covid? Really? Isn’t handling a crisis an important measure of presidential leadership? Maybe THE most important measure? I can’t think of one recent president that hasn’t had to handle a major crisis. A savvy president will use the opportunity to band Americans together and cement his support (think W after Sep 11). All Trump had to do was pretend to take this seriously and encourage all Americans to come together and beat the virus. He’d be a shoe in for re-election right now if he’d done that. But Trump’s biggest weakness and his biggest failure is that he only sees himself as President of his own supporters. Politics for him is a zero sum game that involves vanquishing your opponent into oblivion rather than acknowledging that the other side is here to stay and compromise is the only path to stability and prosperity in a democratic society. His “fuck blue America” attitude will be his downfall and unfortunately he’s infected the whole republican party with it. He’s transformed the entire GOP into a cynical, xenophobic, isolationist shell of its former self and all of America will be worse off for a generation due to the damage he’s done. He spent three years lining your wallet? Well I guess that’s good for you. Me? Well call me a naive idealist but I expect much more out of the leader of the free world.
You completely missed the point. Trump didn’t mishandle Covid. My point was that Covid is an international pandemic and blaming Trump for its’ effects is next level stupid. Further, besides Covid, the country has been doing extremely well during his tenure. So I fail to see why that should change besides your feelings.
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2 hours ago, jrizzell said:
Biden is a career politician, who’s showing obvious signs of mental decay. A vote for him, is a vote for Harris as POTUS. And if the far left gets into power, it will only be a matter of when, they decide that the “Imperialist” US military needs to have budgets slashed. I hate Trumps delivery, but he believes in the idea of having strong national defense; and that means funding it.
Anyone remember sequestration in 2013? Flying hours cut, mishaps skyrocketed down range. I 100% blame Obama for that. Yeah..I’ll take Trump any day of the year.
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1 hour ago, Pooter said:
Trump is a dumpster fire.
The democrat platform is a dumpster fire.
I will vote for whoever can be proven to be slightly less of a dumpster fire.
Go
Has your life worsened between 2016 and now? Apart from Covid, which is a global pandemic, how has Trump hurt your life? A lot of good changes between his election and now. Lower taxes, ISIS eliminated, strong economy. Not bad things at all.
Biden? He won’t make it more than a few months past the election. Which means Kamala Harris as your POTUS. A radical California politician who stands against everything American. Higher taxes, open borders, gun grabber...you name it.
Trump’s “dumpster fire” is much more palatable. Questions?
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On 8/20/2020 at 6:51 PM, Sim said:
Speaking of woke. Why are people running away from woke cities?
It used to be funny but now it’s not. Those same idiots running away bring their politics with them. Hence why there is a growing liberal enclave in Austin TX and Houston.
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So the real question; they are obviously trying to increase throughout on the input side (UPT). What the hell are they doing to decrease output and increase retention of your 12 year Majors? People will eventually chill out about Covid (most likely after the election,) and all indicators show that the airlines will recover. Is the Air Force doing anything to address retention?
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There will be more mishaps if they go this route. We will then get a fancy CSAF flight discipline video and the cycle will continue.
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4 hours ago, BR_MIST said:
Currently at UPT and starting to think about a dream sheet. Unfortunately ole' COVID has really hampered operational guys from stopping by so I can pick their brains. I'm AD and I came from a Viper guard unit (enlisted but I did interview). I enjoy flying but as much fun as fighters would be, I'm pretty sure I don't want to spend my days in a vault. Looking for advice on any of the following:
U-27 and 28s
CV-22
130 (SOCOM)
ISR 135s
U-2
B-52
T-38A (to my understanding this is considered a pre-22 assignment?)
I greatly appreciate any insight.
Tankers are your best bet if you don’t want to spend much time in the vault. Virtually every aircraft in the inventory requires time in the vault; that is if you want to operate the mission well.
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On 8/11/2020 at 4:31 PM, nsplayr said:
I know you meant this snidely, but Biden picked Harris. Good choice IMHO, she was my fav of the people Biden apparently had on his shortlist. Smart, tough debater, good campaigner, previously vetted, current holder of high office, the proper age to balance the ticket.
“Previously vetted.” You sure about that? By whom? What’s to say the Trump campaign doesn’t have a surprise skeleton to reveal about her come October? Sure would be karma after the Kavanaugh debacle.
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1 hour ago, FLEA said:
Had a non-aircrew friend who told me as a 2d Lt she firmly rejected the whole "listen to your SNCO's" advice because of shit like this. She realized at the end of the day she was the one in charge and SNCO's are notorious for holding grudges and also trying to exert command when they aren't commanders. Its not to say she didn't seek their advice but she was incredibly wise and taught me a few things about navigating the landscape of enlisted politics as an officer.
This! Ultimately the O is in charge. While a good O will listen to their senior enlisted, they are by no means obligated to take their recommendation. Take any toxic SNCO, specifically Chiefs..the buck stops with their commander. Toxic SNCOs? That is 100% the fault of the commander for allowing such buffoonery to go unchecked. Chiefs being chiefs and turning people away at a deployed DFAC for sweaty flight suits? Blame the Wing King. The buck stops with us.
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On 7/9/2020 at 11:11 PM, nsplayr said:
I remember running a gentlemen’s 12:30 and literally lapping more than half of my fellow test takers. ?!?! How??
Top 5 finishers out of a group of ~25...all ops. Like you said, big surprise.
Weird because the nonners are always taking off work at 1430 to go “PT.”
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2 hours ago, Prosuper said:
Just trying to get smarter here, how many guys on here know MX officers and have conversations with them about about the dismal morale that their troops have stateside. Been on Facebook reading a new group called roll call, did not realize on how much the mental anguish of serving in a MX sq is now. My day we worked hard, played hard, got caught, disciplined, but as long we got the job done our MX officers took care of us. What happened? In the 80's and 90's we never heard of guys committing suicide, do we not allow these guys to blow off steam? One mistake is a career ender? Towards the end of my career I tried to stay deployed so I wouldn't have to deal with my supervision stateside, not good for my family but great for my mental health and blood pressure. Do you guys notice it stepping to the jet or just say it's not my problem, Thank God?
I do. Some of my good friends are Mx Os. MX is a tough career field, and they tend to eat their own. At Yokota, multiple suicides in the AMXS that got MAJCOM level attention. Here at Dyess, the MX morale can’t be better nor can the OPS/MX relationship, but that may be a product of having a Wing with only OPS and MX.
I think part of the problem was separating MX from the flying squadrons into its own Group. When MX was part of the flying squadron, there was more of a sense of belonging and pride in the mission. Also, I can see a flying squadron commander applying the “debrief culture” to maintainers...ie, it’s okay to make mistakes. That is how we learn, instead of crushing a dude for a minor mistake which is a cultural issue in many MX groups.
Anyways, I always try to converse with my maintainers on locals and loop them into the mission, and I treat my flying crew chiefs as part of the crew. Most of the maintainers I know love their jobs. They love turning wrenches and get great pleasure out of seeing the mission happen. Seeing the 33 ship (largest C-130J formation) takeoff out of Dyess last month put a smile on every maintainer’s face. Totally worth the weeks of planning we put into it.
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15 hours ago, brawnie said:
I have quite a few. And I know that all it takes is for you to quote the one thing you disagree with for you to feel like I’m entirely wrong, but I encourage you to suppress that notion and respond in kind.
It’s given my friends the courage to unabashedly post QAnon videos without a second thought. It’s allowed for people I once respected to just say “do your own research” and “fake news” about things that are scientifically proven, such as vaccines, global warming, or even eugenics. It’s allowed my friends that I grew up with in the South to feel comfortable saying “Why shouldn’t I be able to tell a black person I’m proud of the fact that I’m white?” The culture of discourse over the last 3 years has markedly worsened. People don’t feel like they have to back up anything. “The president doesn’t, why should I?“
A byproduct of the Trump presidency is that anti-intellectualism and racism has been allowed to grow significantly and unabashedly in the last few years. And these are people I know. As one comedian said, “not all Trump supporters are racist, but all racists are Trump supporters.” On top of that, he’s not doing anything to try to calm down tensions. I have a gay brother in law that was assaulted for the first time while out with his partner. It makes me feel like I live in a less unified country.
On top of that, we have made no effort to improve our economy for the future, we have no significant effort to build infrastructure for me to live in in for the next 50 years, we’ve added more debt to the national debt and balance to the federal reserves than anyone, we’ve started an irrational trade war with China that we are going to lose based on poor planning - my family owns a soybean farm and have absolutely loved the last few years (sarcasm) - we pulled out support for the Kurds (after I spent 9 months of my life flying directly over them protecting them) in an irrational and unguided Middle East plan. Foreign policy is now just say “America First,” forget the “haters,” and disregard the last 30-40 years of geopolitics.
America has slashed long term plans when it comes to Global Warming, which is a thing. In the last week we saw sea temps that were 10 degrees F above baseline near the poles. There is no plan to deal with rising wealth inequality in America - and that directly affects everyone. Tax cuts haven’t enabled me or my friends to create significant wealth, instead enabling us to earn pennies less when productivity has increased orders of magnitude. Our economy is almost entirely services based and only getting worse, and Trumps best publicized bet at fixing it is bring back coal mining. Ygbsm. Good luck with our airline jobs when they get automated. My nieces and nephews have no ability to actually earn money or move out of their house when they graduate college anymore due to lack of job prospects. I think I recently read a statistic that more people 18-34 are living with their parents than with a partner for the first time in history. America is trying isolationism in 2020, which sounds cool on paper - only care about yourself - but doesn’t work when China and Russia are laying seeds for productive alliances in Africa, Asia, and South America over the next 100 years. Our foreign policy vision is terrible, and it will affect the future of America if we try to maintain this course. We need fundamental national strategy change if we want to maintain our statuses as a superpower.
In 2008-2016 we did make some progress as society and in the world, in my opinion. Only about 2 people here have actually talked about what they liked in this presidency, whereas everyone else (I’m pretty sure you included) just says that I’m wrong and won’t answer my initial question. I still don’t understand what policies the majority of Republicans push for that have been enacted in the last few years, and I’d love to hear them.
I tried reading your post with an open mind... but you lost me at “all racists are Trump supporters.” Most ignorant and naive comment for the month goes to you. (Albeit it was your “friend” who said it but you clearly support such a notion.) Congratulations.
As a brown/south Asian guy, I went to HS post 9/11. I faced my fair share of racism. I don’t hate them, they were ignorant teenagers. But when I look back at many of them, they turned out to be some of the most staunch/vocal SJW democrats. So I know your “all racists are Trump supporters” is utter BS.
Trump is a polarizing figure, but it is dudes like you that create more Trump supporters. I didn’t like the guy at the beginning of his campaign but it is pompous folks like you that actually drew me too him. So keep it up!!
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On 7/29/2020 at 4:12 PM, brawnie said:
That’s one way to look at it. I’m sure both sides see it that way to a large extent. I’m sure it’s been that way for many many elections.
It’s one of the large problems with the two party “lesser of two evils” election system we have. Now you don’t have to backup what policies you stand for - you can just say what you don’t want and hope it turns out okay.
How has a Trump presidency hurt you or anyone you know? How has your life changed from 2008-2016? I ask these questions to most Trump haters and I usually get something alone the lines or “He said mean things.”
This is a President who has been attacked for crazy talk such as pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan (STS.). I thought liberals were anti war? Or was that only a fad to make Bush look bad in the 2000s?
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12 hours ago, nsplayr said:
Anyone else skeptical of this all actually taking place if we get a new SECDEF and POTUS potentially in 6 months?
I’m also just blown away that so many of y’all are willing to throw NATO in the trash. We benefit greatly by a relatively peaceful and united Europe and part of the price of that is NATO and our encouragement of broader European integration, e.g. the EU.
Not that institutions can’t or shouldn’t grow, change and evolve, but I for one am not willing to abandon a project that has been extremely fruitful for the last 70+ years.
Tell that to the various member states (ie Germany) that pay ZERO for the treaty, all while our tax payers foot the bill for our allies to ride on.
No one is advocating for abolishing NATO, just asking a little more of our allies.
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1 hour ago, brickhistory said:
Trial balloon being floated about is that Biden shouldn't "dignify" Trump with a debate since Trump will simply be lying the entire time.
Which to a sane person, seems like a great opportunity to club the baby orange seal and show the fast ball is still there (mixed metaphors acknowledged).
Let's see how high this one floats...
Democrats are acknowledging that Biden will get destroyed in a one to one debate with Trump?
Regardless, it would be a huge mistake for the democratic nominee to not engage in one of the most basic election traditions and customs. As it is, most democrats aren’t excited about Biden. Pussying away from a debate won’t be a good look.
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11 hours ago, di1630 said:
Imagine if you will, a place where the Air Force could groom top quality pilot candidates, educate them on flight maybe in their late teens/early 20’s....get America’s best by offering a free 4 yr education. We could call it, maybe an “Academy” or something.
Seriously, I’ve railed on this before. Why isn’t our academy and flight screening getting us people who can kick ass?
I’ve had academy grads (and ROTC) teaching at UPT I’d gladly trade for the high school educated quarterback at my B-8 football school because that guy working at the local grain elevator had more leadership and pilot potential than the band-geek-chess-club Academy grad.
Part of the problem is we aren’t getting America’s best through our commissioning sources.
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appTwo reasons:
1- The academy has prioritized social justice initiatives such as racial/gender diversity, feelings and wokeness over actually building intellectual warriors capable of leading this Air Force. Any grad knows exactly what I’m talking about. Heck, you’re not even allowed to make a freshman do more than 6-9 pushups and recognition is a thing of the past.
2- Not properly pushing the value of being a Pilot. Now I believe they have realized their mistake but a few years ago; they did everything that they could to prop up the RPA and cyber career fields. I heard permanent party would actively discount being a Pilot and as a result, they have had trouble even filling every pilot slot.
The academy has so much potential but it has been ridden with shoe clerks and social justice warriors. Now, imagine if the academy used the full potential of its flying programs. You could essentially have more effective UPT students in PTN/2.5 whatever they are calling it as some of the airmanship required of an Air Force Pilot could already be instilled.
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7 hours ago, nsplayr said:
It’s not a bet. My assessment is that the GOP is lowering the floor dangerously low on their opponent and that in general that’s not a great strategy. The Dems fell prey to this in 2016.
Look, Biden and Trump are both slowed by age, just listen to each of them speaking in the 80s or 90s compared to today. I would greatly prefer younger candidates and office holders. IMHO there should be a maximum age for federal officer holders just like there is a minimum age. If I were king for a day I’d set the minimum age at 18 and the max age at probably 70.
My point was Biden participated in 11 debates and numerous other public events and speeches during the primary and was judged to be adequate. He even won convincingly! So to say that this guy literally can’t put together two sentences is more than a stretch, it’s a gift to Biden when he gets in TV and does an acceptable job. No one expects soaring oratory from Joe Biden anyways, and now IMHO the right is setting the expectations so low that they become easy to exceed.
Call it the “soft bigotry of low expectations” to quote an famous phrase from a man who also benefited from his competitors saying that he was an complete idiot.
Dude Biden ‘won’ because he was the last man standing in a field of some of the worst candidates in history. Even many democrats I know were shocked and disappointed. Got it, Trump is abrasive, but there is zero comparison to Biden who I think there is something seriously wrong with. Whether it is dementia, sniffing women, or making actual racist remarks. The guy has been around politics for 30+ years. We don’t need more of the same.
Most of my democrat friends (albeit I don’t have a lot of them) are actually terrified and see the writing on the wall. -
For the love of god, PLEASE keep touting the ‘polls’ that have Biden ‘ahead.’ Please make the same mistake you did in 2016 to include insulting Trump voters; gosh you Dems never learn!
Also please pick Harris as your VP, the hag who slept with the mayor of SFO to get ahead, not women privilege at all. Now, trump is no saint, but between Biden who can’t put a sentence together and Harris, you no longer get to bash Trump for being ‘unpresidential.’
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20 hours ago, FLEA said:
Well, I made my opinion on this clear in another thread. But my thoughts are "bye Felicia" (to Germany).
Of all the countries we partner with and I've worked with I've felt the Germans are the most abusive to our generosity. Here is an example:
Close tie between the Germans and the aholes in Qatar.
We should move assets to Poland. Poles have a strong love for Americans and would let us do whatever we want so long as we are protecting them.
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2 hours ago, FLEA said:
Sorry, I probably should have also mentioned Songtan Sally moved to Camp Humphreys and will no longer seduce you into a sewer with a red balloon.
She has been around since Nam I’m sure
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51 minutes ago, brawnie said:
Since this is an anonymous forum where people share anonymous thoughts, I'd like to hear why you all are planning on voting red this year? Specifically, what policies are actually making you interested in the republican platform? Because I can't find many convincing ones? I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and McCain in 2008, but since ~2009, I feel republican views have shifted out of line with my own.
Important issues for me where I think dems have a better plan than reps:1) Infrastructure development/maintenance - a large pointed investment in the Army Corps of Engineers plus an actual plan for future technologies (battery tech at the DoE, renewable energy) seems like a better plan than just saying "We'll put $1T towards infrastructure" and not having a detailed vision
2) Finding a way to deal with the inevitable dystopia as machines displace workers who can't easily retrain (truck drivers, factory workers, manual laborers, single parents with kids, etc) - you have to have strong job retraining programs and a social safety net like never before seen or else society will not handle this transition. This is a legitimately insane thing happening right now with no plan to fix it - even to your jobs (commercial pilots likely won't exist in 50-100 years), and the republican plan is to let the unbridled free market sort this out.
3) A plan to deal with the increasing economic bullshit that we have now seen twice where losses are socialized and gains are privatized. CEOs and stockholders say they take all the risk, but have you ever seen a billionaire go bankrupt when their company didn't save any money and then were hit with a period of economic stability? Oh, all of the airlines and many other companies that just did stock buybacks over the last decade as opposed to having any reserves? Oh, okay. If we keep the system we currently have, we are keeping a system, which has proven to be catastrophic to the average person now twice in the last 12 years. Increase marginal tax rates of the upper echelons, a wealth tax on money over a huge amount of dollars is not that insane, increase worker protections, and let businesses fail.4) Global warming action - the current Admin's plan to just let free with coal and fossil fuels is a short-sighted terrible one. But I guess that's what happens when you don't believe 99% of scientists and can just say "fake news" to everything that you don't like. It's real, sorry homies.
5) BLM/police brutality/social issues/gay rights/etc - Republican strat is just to not care, democrat strat is to at least talk about the issues. Whether you like it or not, a large part of bringing stability back to the nation is mediating between groups that feel marginalized. It's not effective to just say "suck it up, buttercup"
Others: universal healthcare, budget deficit (both sides have no plan here, long gone are the days where republicans were the "deficit hawks"), military action (we don't need to be in Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan/Israel/Saudi, we need to come home and focus on developing future weapons to maintain parity with China), and a bunch more.
So go ahead, convince me as to your issues and why the republican party will deliver better results.Tax policy, foreign policy, America first, military revitalization, freedom, smaller government, less EPA like regulations
But if nothing else, just listen to Joe Biden attempt to talk for 6-9 seconds....
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11 hours ago, SurelySerious said:
So back to the point of we provide nearly all the medical innovation. It’s a bit like NATO. We do all the spending to provide the blanket of defense, incur the wear and tear on equipment, and spend lots on people. The other member countries spend a lot less and probably look like their military models are way better because it doesn’t take as much money, but they get the same level of relative security.
If you go to a system that disincentivizes medical innovation, what then?
Edit: our life expectancies are also lower because a lot of Americans choose to make unhealthy life decisions like being overweight. Medical systems can only work so many miracles.
The cherry on top is when the SJWs in these countries criticize our military spending. Like, really?
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12 hours ago, Breckey said:
If universal health care saves more people through access to medical services in those 10 - 25 years then would have died from cancer is it worth it then? If universal health care decreases health costs because people aren't waiting until they're really sick to seek health care and instead focus on preventative medical services would it be worth it?
Medical costs in this country are out of control. If people stop using the ED as a easy button for having a cough or other non-urgent health care need because they have access to other services it would decrease the burden on the currently insured. I agree that there needs to be a period where the pharmaceutical companies but at some point, just like other patents, it needs to go into the public domain. This is especially true for companies that use Federal grant dollars to fund their research.
We can all agree medical costs are high, and that’s a problem. Part of the reason is that innovation and new medicines / technology (90% of which comes from the US) requires money. Another reason is that pharma is anything but capitalist. Heavy subsidies, large monopolies. If we were a true free market then they would compete for a more competitive price. Our healthcare issues aren’t due to capitalism, and no one who advocates for universal healthcare addresses the heavy costs transferred to the tax payer.
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On 7/9/2020 at 9:32 AM, SocialD said:
LOL, comments are turn off for the youtube video, but the comments on the article are great. One poster instantly jumps to the "she was pregnant because she was raped," card. You know, because the only way girls in the military get pregnant is through rape...
Total hit job, and she's not wrong. She's right that it's just a small portion of people, but it's not just women. A Chief friend is deployed right now and, just in the last week, has had 7 people fall out of their deployments. One girl has already been extended almost 3 months as the 4th replacement just fell off for one reason or another. We had a NCO that has been in for nearly 20 years and has NEVER deployed. She finally gets told she has to deploy and turns into a total train wreck because, "she can't be away from her kids that long." Guess who didn't deploy due to a sudden onset of migraines about a month before deployment... I'm continually amazed at the number of unplanned pregnancies and new found ailments that miraculously pop up just prior to a deployment.
Edit: Just chatted with my Chief buddy. He said one of his sections only has 19 people and in that section alone (just in the last week), 5 people fell out of their deployment.
It truly is amazing, lots of people join the military who would be fired from McDonalds. You can be a sack of shit and still get above minimum wage.
UPT Next
in General Discussion
Posted
As they should be, that’s the worst idea ever. Who is going to train these T-1 wonders at the FTUs and ops squadrons? When Rona dies the mass exodus of IPs will continue.