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I wish we we would shitcan almost all of both parties and take a libertarian approach. But, there is so much batshit crazy, anti-American bullshit from the left that I have to vote the other way just to stop them from tearing this country down and turning into a socialist wasteland. Unfortunately the people I consider “true Dems” (I don’t mean that term negatively) have had their party overrun by the far left. Honestly they should just break it up and all these far left people should become part of a different party. Bernie is an idiot, but I do respect the man for being honest about his stance on things and outwardly acknowledging he’s a socialist. Until the Dems can either dissolve into two parties, or shut down the radicals, there will be lots of Americans who aren’t huge Trump fans, but they’ll still vote for him/his party (or abstain from voting) because the other option is just ludicrously out to lunch. It’s a sad state of “lesser of two evils.”

Isolated in Enid and not up for studying 15 hours a day so why not update the timeline here: [Ex-AD, ANG Nav seeking Pilot slot with home unit. O-4, 37 with 12 years TFSC, needed ETP approved by NGB/A1 and AF/A1P. Have PPL.] Board: March 2018 <- canxed, pilots overmanned Board: April 2019 Hired, pending ETP approval: April 2019 FC1 Scheduled: May 2019 FC1: July 2019 (soonest available after finishing IN school) ETP submitted: July 2019 FC1 stamped, ETP updated: August 2019 ETP approved: 26 December 2019 Deployed: May-July 2020 (planned), heard no UPT slots for at least rest of FY2020 so didn't seem like an issue < Call from Cathy Rico while broke in NH enroute to the AOR, mid-May, asking if I can get to Vance for a June class. I'm optimistic enough to reply "let me see" rather than flat out "no". While I still have to deploy, a mad scramble ensues involving me, my deployed chain, my home station chain, AFCENT, AMC, NGB, NASA, CIA, MiB, etc to get me recalled and send a replacement. That effort succeeds just under a month later; happily my Sq/CC and the STUS civilian work it out where I can roll a couple of classes. I get a rotator back to CONUS, throw a few things in my car, sublet my apt, and set out for Oklahoma. > UPT (2.5!): 3 August 2020

Sounds suuuuuuper receptive to other ideas.

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.

Props to you man. "Hold on babe I have to finish the brownie in this meal before you give birth"

Where the fuck did you go wrong in your life?!

Concur. Now can we get back to when that Japanese kid down the street is going to pay me my owed reparations for Pearl Harbor? I’ve suffered long enough...

All good stuff, but the former Wg/CC also made some questionable civilian hiring decisions. Huggy, care to comment?

Congress, just like the rest of federal/state/local politics, is too busy with protecting their partisan tribalism than to do what's best for Americans.

I really am receptive, sorry for the last line. Legitimately would love to discuss issues.

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....

The BCU was replaced a few years back. There will be -10s up for sale/static display at a later date. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I mostly agree man, don’t get me wrong. I have a huge scar on my back that required a second surgery under anesthesia all stemming from a very straightforward dermatological procedure that the mil doc fucked up by the numbers. Then again I got LASIK for absolutely free (game-changer) and when we had a baby, it cost us exactly $6...they charged us for the meal that I ended up eating while my wife was in labor. So maybe I’m just an optimist haha but yea point taken, and all of my top 10 picks if I could magically have the US under a single new healthcare system have private care. But also like y’all are saying, I think Tricare Standard or Reserve Select are excellent models. Either no or manageable premiums, wide availability of docs that take it, very little paperwork, etc...I am unabashedly a fan of Tricare Standard and have found it to be vastly better than any of the options I’ve ever been offered from even sledge Fortune 500 civilian companies.

You've clearly had different experiences with military medicine than I have. If your bar for success is 30 day waits to see a PCM followed by denying specialist care, treating everything with Motrin, and pushing most of the intake care to people without medical/nursing degrees, then sure, it'll be cheaper for everyone involved.

Agreed. My time under Tricare prime is 180 out (in a total abortion kind of way) from standard/remote. Seeing civ docs with freedom of choice (assuming they take Tricare) is so much better. Tricare prime is “great” for cost, but you get a dog shit product...good luck if you’re anything but strong and healthy.

Do you think there’s a reason it worked for your family and many other mostly young, healthy families? If you think back with a critical eye, did it really work good for you? I honestly don’t have too many complaints myself, but I think there is some truth to the old joke: ”What do you call the Med school student who graduated first in his class?” ”Doctor” ”What do you call the Med school student who graduated last in his class?” ”Captain” Maybe I’m just mean though

APKWS is where it’s at.

the dirty dale

There is absolutely no way to prove or disprove the idea that achieving universal healthcare coverage in the United States would mean a certain delay in a cure for cancer. It's not even worth debating about because it's an unprovable hypothetical. My prefered healthcare systems for the US if I could waive a magic wand are maybe the Netherlands or Canada, which have different approaches but both work very well overall. I'm not a proponent of a UK-style system of public payer, public provider, although that's exactly the kind of healthcare that I had while on active duty and overall it worked great for me and my family. And discounting the long-term findings comparing healthcare systems published in a peer-reviewed journal (JAMA) with a Forbes article written by two guys is...insufficient. They even seem to hand-waive things that drag down American healthcare outcomes like obesity, suicides, teen pregnancies, etc. that are absolutely issues that can be addressed with more effective healthcare systems. The big problem with American healthcare is average outcome, not, "Do we provide great care for the wealthy?" because on that measure then yea, we're great. If I have the money or the right coverage I'm flying my ass to the Mayo or Cleveland clinics no matter where I live in the world. Unfortunately we don't have one system where everyone has that option, we have a mishmash of several systems and on average we spend more and get worse outcomes than most other developed nations. We could choose literally any other system to model off of and likely would be able to spend less, have better average outcomes, or both.

I have both. The Massif is fairly hefty, I don't wear that one too much unless I'm going to be outside for a while and it's pretty cold/windy. I'm in between a L/L and a M/L on that one but sized up for layering underneath it. Sizing chart they have is pretty accurate. The ECWCS is a decent jacket for a USGI item. It's pretty thin but does a decent job blocking wind. Breathes better than the waterproof ECWCS jacket and was what I wore for most of the past winter in northern VA. Packs down fairly small so it's easy to keep in a bag.

Oh man, this reminds of some ridiculous shit wrt medals. I once got an MSM as a Capt because our (loaned to us from the staff) OG was passed over for O-6 the first time. He found out through his "bro network" that part of the reason was because he didn't have an MSM, because apparently every O-5 should have X-medals (WTF?!). So anywho...viola, a few months later, nearly the entire squadron gets an MSM, because "he doesn't want that happening to us in the future." Funny enough the next WG/CC (loaned to us from active duty) shows up and freaks out because I'm now a Major with 2 MSMs and no AF commendation medal. Guess who got to write his own AFCM...SO DIRTY! Silly me, I thought medals were meant to be for people who stood out and did good shit, not just another checkbox for promotions. The bull shit we worry about...

So, you're saying that it might be a little too early to blame UPT 2.5 for this?

Yea damn I really wish we had that 🤔

Grindr profile pics

9RW/CC Change of Command today. Two back-to-back U-2 pilots as the Wing Commander??!! Am I taking crazy pills?? Col Clark arrived in 2018... the first U-2 pilot to command the Wing since 1985. He got a LOT done. Great job, Andy. And now Col Fox is the Commander. Top-shelf choice. No doubt, the tradition of excellence will continue. Congrats to Hf on taking command. Thinking of applying to the U-2? They hired someone yesterday. Not for everyone... but how about you?

No worries mate, the GOP deficit hawks will be spreading their wings once again on exactly January 20th, 2021. *And I am not a deficit hawk regardless of the party in charge, just making a prediction that if we go Red to Blue at 1600 Penn they’ll be many who do change their tune right away