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Here you guys go. You now have your very own spot to argue. It’s your spot and yours alone. Have it here so the rest of us can enjoy what baseops is supposed to be about. Lloyd

We can't get people to wear masks to stop a pandemic, but we're going to get them to dye their finger? The evidence so far from the Trump lawyers does not support your assessment that the win/loss margin was narrow enough that these results will be overturned. Getting 10K votes thrown out where Biden won by 150K is a fools errand. There are yet not enough documented accounts to support those claims. The Trump lawyer team has claimed there is, but hasn't produced the evidence.

I’m 90% certain Guardian is the latest PYB. How long until a full blown meltdown? Does he still drive his Eclipse? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

The "Let's mail ballots to every one on our DMV/voter rolls/residents" technique has not improved the confidence in the outcome. Perception is reality to some people so why not remove the perception of fraud by implementing a voting system that does exactly that. The argument, "Well, voter fraud exists but in such small numbers it doesn't matter" gets shaky when win/loss margins are very narrow and, once again, there are enough documented accounts of fraudulent voting or ballot irregularities to challenge the election results or stir up hate and discontent. Every LEGAL vote should count and every ILLEGAL vote should be discarded. As an aside, a friend worked with the National Park Service and did a couple 3 month gigs in a park in Kenya. Their Kenyan election system requires ID and each voter gets purple dye applied to a fingernail which is permanent until the nail grows out. There are no debates over legal or illegal voting there.

Fuck Alex Jones.

The evidence suggests that we have a pretty tight system. Should we strive to tighten it up more? Sure. But the idea that the system is compromised to the point that the results shouldn’t be trusted is just another one of Trumps dubious claims that is not remotely grounded in reality. Remember 2016 when he won and STILL insisted that there were millions of illegal votes (because his fragile ego couldn’t deal with the fact that he lost the popular vote)? There were investigations after that election and they found the same thing that every voter fraud investigation has: it simply doesn’t exist on a large enough scale to sway an election. Yet it’s a topic that Trump has pushed for years. If election security is such a problem, what has the administration done over the last four years to address it? Not much. You know why? Because it’s an easy trope to fall back on (especially when you lose) that plays well with the base.

We need a voting system that is reliable enough that it can't be used to dispute the outcome. If doubt or uncertainty enters the equation, either side will use it to justify outrage and call the election illegitimate. Right now, there is enough evidence of error to muddy the waters. Dead people HAVE voted. Improper signatures HAVE been accepted. Election rules regarding deadlines WERE changed. Ballots HAVE been found all over the place. Fix these and other issues and nobody gets to argue they won because the other side cheated. In the mean time, there is a legal process that is on the books. If Trump wants to work that process, let him. If he is wrong, he loses. If he is right, Biden loses. Simple other than the fact I don't think either side will accept it. The former will rant and rave and be his usual obnoxious self while that latter will return to his basement while his minions burn down more cities. American loses either way.

The F-35 and its JPO is a textbook example of why this is a horrible idea. It seems good on paper, but it doesn’t work in execution. I can’t wait for the day when the JPO burns to the ground, we tell everyone else to fuck off, and have an AF SPO. The next step is the AF buys the code and we don’t have to rely on Lockheed. I’ll never see it, but I hope the guys in the future do.

I hear you but still...Where was the DO? Perhaps another needless soapbox rant but honestly I have thought about this incident 100 times over the past few days and how many different people failed this young man. Yes we can blame the institution...the writing has been on the wall for some time and others have alluded to it in this thread but in a haste to plug the holes in the damn the system made a conscious decision to push as many people as possible through the system. At a very senior level he was failed when the decision was made to start pushing basic skills training from the RTU to the ops unit. When I read the Viper bros were pushing defensive BFM to the unit I thought it was a joke...how can this be? As much as people celebrated Fingers (I did not for personal reasons), he let it happen. He and Mobile bought that risk and risk is never pushed right at a 1:1 ratio, it has a modifier when it comes to basic skills. Should he have been able to land at night without incident...of course but I think everyone who has read the report and knows his flying history can feel the weight of crap that was on his shoulders that night. Senior USAF leadership failed this kid in an epic fashion. The problem is systemic...and the disconnect at senior levels is STAGGERING from my point of view. Probably reason #69 why I didn't make GO but I remember being in the room when a training and conversion plan was being briefed to the MAJCOM commander. The A3 and A1 folks were tag-teaming a brief on how they were going to convert AC-130W and AC-130U crew members into the AC-130J. The training folks were doing their best and their plan had every AC-130 pilot in the command by name and how they would flow through the system....come off the battlefield and start conversion training, PCS to new base, then immediately deploy in new airplane. I knew it was a house of cards and I couldn't hold my tongue, I blurted out "what retention rate did you use in your plan." Well sir we used the historic rate of 64%. "What was the Gunship retention rate last year?" (I already knew the answer) Well uh sirrrr....it was 34%...but we have mitigation strategies form the USAF that we think will help retention. I looked directly at the A1 and asked him if he knew about the 14 gunship pilots who were up for the bonus this year and what had just happened? He just stared at me...so I turned to the MAJCOM Commander and said sir there are currently 14 AC-130U pilots up for the bonus, only one has taken it. The MAJCOM commander was very celebrated in our community, honestly until his reply I worshiped the guy and would have done anything for him...that all ended when he opened his mouth and said in front of everyone....and I quote "They will stay because they are patriots, and if they don't I WILL JUST MAKE MORE." I knew at that moment...every bullshit comment he made about people and families was a lie...and that was it, his mitigation strategy was to let decades of combat experience just walk out there door and he would fix it by making more. I didn't even invite this dude to my retirement. I can point fingers at all the senior folks but for me I want to know...where the fuck was the DO. He/She was supposed to be the last line of common sense in the storm. I had a lot of interesting jobs in my career and made it to a fairly senior level as a Wing/CC down range in combat. Of all those jobs the toughest far and away was being a DO. Yes commanders work hard to take care of people but DOs are supposed to protect people and the mission. As a DO in the WIC it was a struggle...you think going through WIC is hard...trying being an IP there for 6 years. Sprinting a marathon becomes the norm. In fact, as a DO and CC I would remind each new graduate that they had to regulate expectations when they got back to the unit...as much as they wanted to change the world they would have to do so with some finesse or risk alienating the rank and file. You would think being a DO of a WIC squadron would be easy....all graduates, all top tier, all type A...but that presented a different problem in that they would run until they fell over dead. In order to protect them I often had to make tough calls to protect them from the system and from themselves. I didn't always get it right, but damn I tried. I remember one hellish period when we were flying multiple stages of the syllabus do to support asset availability. We typically ran a CAS phase then an Interdiction phase but for two weeks we were running both phases simultaneously. As most know WIC debreifs are purposely painful and on Thursday of the second week it was 0330 and we were doing data collect on the 6th sortie in 10 days. My ADO was leading the sortie and he said "Ok, we will see the WUGs back at 0700 for the formal brief." I looked around the room and all I saw was serious fatigue in both the WUGs but more importantly my instructors. I jumped up and said STOP! "WUGs and Instructors come back at noon for the formal debrief, everyone GO HOME." The ADO was pissed and he followed me back to my office...we had a very heated conversation in my office and he certainly spoke his mind as I always encouraged them to do. I listened then said, "messaged received, go home, I will see you at noon." For two weeks most of the WUGs had been grabbing a few hours of sleep in the squadron, not wanting to waste the time it took to drive home and then back in the morning. That week I noticed about half of my instructors had done the same thing and I knew I had to step in and protect them...from themselves. I might not have been the best DO but that is how I saw my job...PROTECT my people while accomplishing the mission. Where was his DO and how in the world the DO let this kid step that night is beyond me...simply beyond me.

My best guess is tanker units stopped shopping for things with sequestration...fly shorter sorties closer to home (see either 7BAx2 or 777 only). Then OSTs forgot they’re supposed to be managing training for the wing (forecasting training needs). Now, OSTs and OSOs have lost the corporate knowledge to seek out the training we need and units either get scraps or you see “hookups” begged for on Facebook. Funny thing is our training requirements haven’t increased...we just forgot how to do what we used to do.

Basically just a VA refi https://www.va.gov/housing-assistance/home-loans/loan-types/interest-rate-reduction-loan/

Here’s the truth. I don’t want to watch an hour long video on something when it’s not something that has been shown to be very likely a factor. Give me something that’s easier to digest, or something that points to a need to watch this. I 100% believe there was election fraud. There are probably many cases of it. But there are cases of election fraud every year on both sides. Right now, I believe that the order of magnitude of the fraud is the same as it always is - so small that it doesn’t matter. Put the numbers in context, at least. Don’t just say there’s examples of fraud - I know there will be on both sides. One of the examples that really falls on deaf ears is when someone claims that there are dozens of examples of election fraud in a state... and then it’s literally 25 single people who registered incorrectly. It comes across clickbaity, probably wouldn’t ever come close to affecting anything, and makes me less likely to care the next time. When I hear that there is provable fraud that has X impact that actually could affect the election results, I will be interested. Otherwise, it’s noise or propaganda.

Yeah, I know generally A5/A8 are the folks that set requirements. For the purposes of this discussion, that makes them an integral part of acquisitions, as the acquisition process starts by saying “I need something.” If you’re concerned I’m saying that DT/OT are the ones coming up with the next force structure, I’m not. And if we’d like to really dig into it, I think that a lot of the blame for what has happened the last 20 years falls on A5/A8/A9 being run by untrained or unqualified folks that DON’T understand their impact or importance in the acquisitions process. In fact, bump that out to J5/J8/J9.

The funny thing is it’s 2020 and the navy and AF still can’t even agree on which J-series message to use for some things. Hopefully MESH pans out for the DOD sooner rather than later.

I actually think it’s the best CBT we have. Very good review of info. I also went to AIS and for legal purposes do not support my previous statement on 1522 dishonesty.

I mean, that’s acquisitions role. And they could do a better job than not trying at all. I guess my point is that requirements - the first step in the dumb way we do acquisitions - can be done better. Get a more realistic and actually integration focused group from all of the DoD together to come up with how to do this stuff. I’m not hopeless that we couldn’t get close.

I've been out of the media space for books and film for awhile (school/AF/family), generally getting only what's popular. I liked the new sci fi blockbusters that have come out "recently" like Gravity and Interstellar. But I don't have much beyond that. Though it is time for me to read Dune again. It's legit something I was looking forward to in retirement. Only correction for @Prozac is it's on Prime. Otherwise his take is spot on. They really get "the little things" right, like what happens if you have an injury in zero G.

We do too bud, we do too.

Yeah. That was cringe worthy! Regardless of which side your on. Made me laugh in a pitiful way. I missed your post. I wish I didn’t post ever 5 seconds because then I might be able to find it. If it’s not to much trouble I’m open to pm if you don’t want to repost. Very open to the discussion and thought exercise. As for my wife going to Harvard.....what wife? No way son. No thanks.

Speaking of good sci-fi... Reading the book for the first time now & finding it very well written and deep. Looking forward to Denis Villeneuve’s (Sicario, Blade Runner 2049) film adaptation.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/q7qNyXIENac/ No censorship here (bitchute). Enjoy. IMHO, it was very good entertainment.

Especially where we just read an AIB in which a dude morted and one of the contributing factors was a poorly flown ILS approach.

Thinking someone is a POS is a lot different than being a criminal. I think the evidence supports that Biden and his family are indeed a crime family. But he seems like a really nice guy that I would have a beer with unless you trigger himself his mentally reduced state. Then he gets scary. Edited for lack of mastery of the English language.

Not sure why he would need pardoning.

Or via pencil-whipped 1522.

Part of the problem is that it's difficult to know what will work 50 years from now. Do you think engineers in the 70s had any inkling how dependent we would be on GPS, internet, VOIP phones, email, and Link-16? How do you expect to write a Mil-STD that will still work in 2070?

I think it has been mentioned here before, but The Expanse is excellent SciFi.

As a fighter pilot I find it hard to say this, but more funding for the Navy's subsurface fleet would probably be the best spent money for our taxpayers. Regarding fighters, I truly think something along the idea of the modern Century series would be worthwhile. Make an aircraft that is good at one or two things and give it connectivity. A large platform with great loiter ability and large internal payload capacity could enable greater standoff and thus less requirement for stealth and tanker capability with an Advanced LRAAM. TPT through other means. Perhaps even the missiles could have loiter capability? Who knows, let Skunk Works figure out the details. I'm just a Marine with a social science degree from Florida State.

You haven't given any evidence as to why 72 million Americans and myself shouldn't believe that the system is broken. Riots with no punishment. Mass mail in ballots (ie. switching the rules at the last minute) Kung flu lockdowns without supporting evidence Critical race theory Orange man bad You think this shit 24/7 for 4 straight years was a good thing for our country? This is how one half feels. You can't completely ignore that and only go off of "orange man bad and evil".

SocialD and Prozac, I'm going to have to disagree. Yes, the failure of chopping syllabi, lack of parts, poor senior leadership, et al. is clearly at the root. Coming at this from a macro level and isolating the failure well above the squadron or wing is just not an accurate assessment, IMO. That fails to put the micro level responsibility exactly where it should be - at the feet of the flight, squadron and wing leadership. The fighter squadron has always had to insulate itself from the general dumbfuckery of the USAF leadership and when required unfuck the results caused by the same. There was always a final sanity filter at the operator level. Lt Schmitz was clearly challenged by the basics on this particular night. No senior level general officer directed this particular Lt complete this particular mission in the manner attempted. There was a grass roots failure to consider the current limits of his capability and over-task him. How and why he arrived at that diminished level of capability isn't relevant to that local level decision. No one can say for sure what the outcome would have been with different choices. We can "what-if" this all the way back to his B-course and the Mx decision process regarding the seat. But, given his actual state of qualification when he stepped, he should have been walking out to a D-model with an IP. If that happened, it's almost guaranteed we'd be plus one F-16 and pilot. Failing that, having a proactive SOF that actually got the tech support necessary to make his recommendation would have at least bought this kid an extra 2000 feet to save his own life in the seat with a manual chute deployment.

Ruh roh. Not a flattering look for the ACES seat. No way even the most experienced driver is going to have the presence of mind and the in-the-blind dexterity to pull the manual override in a ground level ejection attempt, at night no less. Manual seat sep from a ground pull is just not a realistic expectation under any circumstances. Surprised this hasn't got more public scrutiny in the community. The TUL ANG ejection cited even allocuted to the fact that dude had the benefit of daylight and a looong freefall to gather his thoughts and remind himself of the manual seat-sep option. This kid (he was a student of mine at DLF) didn't get that chance. The most contentious and soul-searching weeks of my AF career by far, were the weeks immediately following the 38 crash in our AD associate squadron, due to the NAF level leadership's unwillingness to speak immediately as to the SIB-relevant facts pertaining to the condition of the seats following the fatality. That soured a lot of people, and created a climate of open dissent, and led to a couple of firings. Ugly stuff all around, even for DLF (which was just coming out of Mollygate and the T-6 MX firings, and is a football bat of a place on a good day). Then there was that big boo boo in Midland with the Bone, and the eventual inspection revealing NONE of the seats would have fired. I could go on. These are fundamentally confidence-eroding trends, and big blue better get their @ss around it or it's gonna lead to chaos. The pointy jet/non-deadstickable business doesn't have the off roading option like I used to joke about during my T-6 IP days. On this side of the street you need confidence in your seat or things get insubordinate real quick. As to the decision not to controlled eject, I'm not gonna second guess the element lead and SOF. That's a tough one though. Even by the AIB's own stipulation, the kid would have still faced the hardship of having to have the presence of mind to manually seat-sep a faulty seat during a controlled bailout attempt... At night, not knowing he had a bad seat. Eff those odds. I don't know the Viper's landable gear combos, but in the 38 one main up one main down is a no-go. Difficult to ascertain the weight bearing capacity of a damaged MLG on this accident, especially given the indications of brace damage as described by the chase ship. The kid did the best he could given the information presented at the time. That seat betrayed him period dot. That pull was textbook in the envelope, should have led to a canopy. I'm at a loss.

I find it hard to believe that the units who are receiving 150-200 applications have had 150-200 visitors in preparation of the board. The unit that hired me didn't look at apps under PCSM of 80 and STRONGLY recommended a visit. So that has to eliminate a huge chunk right off the bat. Then remove all those apps over an 80 PCSM for folks who didn't visit unless they have some sort of crazy life experience and had a 4.0 GPA in mechanical engineering at MIT (or something) or are prior service. There was only 1 or 2 guys on my board who interviewed out of 20 that didn't visit prior to the board and one of them was a prior enlisted that worked at Edward's in flight test in some capacity. Pair all of that with the fact that probably 6% to 9% of the apps are folks who love the idea of becoming a military pilot and haven't even started the process or don't have a degree or have no life experience. Go visit. Make connections. Fix your short comings. It took me 3 years to get hired by the unit of my dreams. I visited 4 times over 2 years and they were located across the county for me. I spent thousands of dollars of dollars i DIDNT have so i could know the pilots at my unit. I changed my life to make this happen - if you want it bad enough you can too. The ones who don't get hired are the ones who quit - and if they quit applying for a slot they probably would have probably quit UPT too. Cheers guys and best of luck! I hope this helps.

There is zero evidence!!!!! Just shut up and accept it and don’t employ our constitution. Isn’t that a form of an ism? Accept what I say you should accept and don’t investigate. https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/opinion-columns/victor-joecks/victor-joecks-clark-county-election-officials-accepted-my-signature-on-8-ballot-envelopes-2182390/amp/

Whatever the outcome, Trump will go peacefully, but he isn’t disappearing. He is still a powerful voice in politics on the right with almost half the country who loves him (let us not kid ourselves in thinking this election was not extremely close.) Two outcomes if Biden does indeed win: 1. Rumor has it Trump starts his own news company to rival Fox News. If successful, he will make the Democrat’s lives and jobs a living hell. They’ll miss when he was President and could be somewhat restrained. Now..precedent was that you don’t bash your successor but thanks to Bush Obama and Clinton all railing against Trump for four years, I’d say that Trump couldn’t care less about that precedent. 2. Trump runs in 2024, 100% legal. Who knows, he might win. Joe Biden can’t put a sentence together and Kamala received less than 4% of the vote in her primary. Kamala herself will inspire a red wave in 2022 and 2024..she is just not likable and her policies are pretty unpopular as indicated by the other elections we just had. This outcome would be entertaining if only to see the utter meltdown on the left. I think many of them are also delusional in thinking Biden will actually be the President if he wins and don’t see the giant elephant in the room that are Biden’s faculties and mental health. I think his eventual ousting under the 25th amendment will upset a lot of moderate democrats...heck I don’t even think Biden sees the snake in the room. Final point, I think the left will miss Trump as President. He was their scapegoat, their punching bag, what will they do now? One thing is for sure, the polling industry is dead.