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Just a comment: The Main Stream Media trope that implies left-wing bias has been obsolete for several years. Fox has the leading news commentary shows in the country along with huge general viewership. Talk radio, which by any measure leans strongly right, has millions upon millions of listeners. OAN, Blaze, Newsmax, etc etc are growing. Even the Epoch Times is establishing a position. My point being that "Main Stream Media" is not a left-wing cabal. The right loves to play the victim here. There is fairly balanced representation on the whole. Thus, advocacy of Trump's policies, amplification of 'voter fraud' claims, dismissal of BLM concerns are widely broadcast, not suppressed. On a related note, one bright spot for me is the podcast world (Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Weinstein, etc). Some do lean slightly right but generally try to make fair assessments. I think that approach with long-form deep discussion is the way forward.

Just like anyone who thinks America is a racist country where innocent black people are being massacred by the cops is being gaslighted. That's the whole point, and the real tragedy. The Republicans now have their own false reality (election fraud) to live in. So both sides no longer know what's real. Great.

As easy as it to blame the media, I'm not sure they should take the full brunt of the hate. (News) Media in the US is largely made up of businesses; we don't have a massive, state run media machine, though you can argue public affairs offices in various government agencies publishing things online or social media is a media outlet. But I'd argue the latter doesn't generally spread information to the general public directly, but it's usually picked up by another news outlet and repeated on that platform. So since the news companies aren't fully supported by public funds, they need to make money. And the primarily model to make money on news is selling advertisements. The more viewers they can get, the more they can charge for ads, and the more money they make. However, this creates an incentive for them to pursue certain segments of the population. Fox doubled down on the right, while MSNBC doubled down on the left. So it's hard to blame them for doing what businesses do, it's their fiduciary duty to make money for their shareholders/owners. All the media did was can the flames on existing discontent out in the public faster, in return for making money. Sure, they probably had guidance from their senior executives on the direction based on the politics of those senior executives, who likely also have strong political connections. But our form of government requires an informed population, requiring some sort of mass news delivery. But we don't trust government sources of news, which leaves us to news companies who are pursuing their own interests, which may not align with the public's interests. At the same time, we've eroded the trust in our government, and transparency is a double edge sword. It allows the public to see what is going on. But it also makes it harder for politicians to compromise, since if they do, they'll be scorned as not a true believer in the political cause of the day and potentially be replaced by someone else in the next election. So it creates a perverse incentive to never compromise and double down on your position to retain power. Then you gerrymander districts to get the votes you need to increase your party's power. This leads to legislative gridlock, and the only way to make progress is to take a majority so you don't have to compromise. We did this to ourselves. But it's easier to place the blame on someone else- the media, the "other" political party, extremists within the party, foreigners, etc. We're seeing now just how fragile our system is, and how much it relies on our leaders to be honorable and act in the public's interests, and to in general "not be a a-hole" when governing. So now we're going to have more laws/rules defining what it means to be an a-hole, and then someone's going to find a loophole. And we're all going to suffer because of it.

Media absolutely holds blame in this, 100% agreed. I did not catch that that was the intent of your post at all, my bad. I might disagree on the reasons though. They gave him way too much airtime because they only care about ratings and he brings in the watchers. Many other reasons, but yes media holds blame. For Wednesday, nowhere near as much as Trump and his team of enablers. They caused Wednesday. People spouting the lies non-stop about the election being stolen. I think he got elected because people are sick of politicians. That's a good reason for him to have made the debate stage, not to have been elected. It was painfully obvious early on he was a sideshow, uninformed in US politics let alone world politics, and everyone on the right knew it. They didn't take him seriously because they're all vain and narcissistic, so they took down real, a few decent options, for president, leaving him to be the nominee... He rode a wave of voter disgust into the oval office, then failed to ever elevate the discussion to something worthy of the office. His biggest enemies became his most ardent supporters. Their blatant, disgusting hypocrisy on full display for the world to see. That stuff will, and should haunt people like Cruz and Graham the rest of their political lives. Clearly out for themselves and whatever will get them the votes, not what is good for the country.

With the Dems in charge, the repercussions of this idiotic event will be the thing to watch. I think this author (Glenn Greenwald) summed it up perfectly. "But as was true of the Cold War and the War on Terror and so many other crisis-spurred reactions, the other side of the ledger — the draconian state powers clearly being planned and urged and prepared in the name of stopping them — carries its own extremely formidable dangers. Refusing to consider those dangers for fear of standing accused of downplaying the threat is the most common tactic authoritarian advocates of state power use. Less than twenty-four hours after the Capitol breach, one sees this tactic being wielded with great flamboyance and potency, and it is sure to continue long after January 20." Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath

A play in three acts.

Yep. There are dems licking their chops over this because it's a perfect excuse to govern from an extreme position (never let a crisis go to waste). Look for a themes of "we have to repair the damage done," "we have to help those who were destroyed by Trump," and "the republican party is a danger to democracy" to be in play over the next two years (minimum). I don't admire Biden's position. I think he is (by far) inheriting the most difficult set of circumstances of any president since Vietnam. He's got a chance, though, because I do think he is an inherently good person.

I came here to write that Rep Adam Kinzinger is the first GOP House Member to call for invoking the 25th to remove Trump from office. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/533112-first-gop-lawmaker-calls-for-invoking-25th-amendment-to-remove-trump If you don’t remember that name, you should. I think he has an account here or you might know him as Lt Col Adam Kinzinger, KC-135 pilot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Except for the volumes of fact based data and evidence proving that there are significant problems with the way policing is handled for one color vs another. Latest example is the largely white people mob that violently stormed the Capitol (one cop even died from the blue lives matter crowd) and then were allowed to leave vs the way many of the protests from this summer were handled. But I guess that's also just the media spinning it. Where were the volumes of facts and data evidencing the election fraud? So cool, keep believing that... People in the know aren't saying America is racist or that innocent black people are always targeted. They're talking about systems that have problems needing fixes and the disparity in the way black suspects are handled vs white suspects. Extremists and ignorant people claim otherwise because of ignorance pushed by the media at times, but those driving the movement aren't claiming what you're saying. On the other hand, the President and all of his elected enablers were pushing his falsehoods and conspiracy theories. This is not an apples to apples comparison.

'A free press is an essential ingredient in a democracy and provides a vital role in informing citizens about public affairs and monitoring the actions of government at all levels.' (that's a combined plagiarism of the Brookings Institution and Koch institute - how's that for balance?) I agree with the comments by several here that the press is a profit-driven enterprise. However, that's the only way to be free of government interference and avoid devolving to propaganda. So its a conundrum. Hopefully there's enough integrity so that at least some news outlets try not to let their partisanship go non-linear. Interestingly the BBC might be one of the best sources of US news. My cynical side believes that the political parties and press have a vested interest in fitting us into a "R" or "D" box. Once they do, we are owned, either by Fox/talk radio/Blaze or MSNBC/current CNN/NPR. Then they have a nice stable support base and captive audiences for advertising. They do not want independents.

No gotcha attempt here. But there is such a massive presence of conservative media outlets that you can’t just lump everything together to be “the media.” It’s a lazy, tired take. Not saying you’re doing this. Just thinking out loud.

It's called critical thinking. It needs to be taught by parents and teachers. We need to realize it's impossible to mask our biases, but do our best to try. Even when I agree with a point my 18 year old is making I try to get him to examine it from all sides. Try to understand what makes the other side tick, why they think the way they do, and encourage him not to shut out the people he disagrees with when they can't find common ground. Teachers need to do a better job of this starting in high school and solidify those principles in college. It should be part of any good teacher certification program to encourage thought from all sides, and keep your own thoughts out of the discussion unless specifically required by the subject matter being taught. Good luck...

Bump! Anybody get out of AD, go into the reserves part time with a Traditional TSP? Looking at options to move it to a Roth IRA (or something roth) now, rather than later. 37 years old....recommendations on past experience with anybody? Seems a direct rollover to an account is possible, just wondering what people have done on here, aside from just reading articles on the truthful interwebs. I know it's talked about a bit a couple pages back, just wondering about experience in the last 5 years I guess.

Internet is certainly no saving grace. Quite the opposite. People growing up with an innate ability to sniff out the bullshit is what we need.

This is a fair point. I think it’s a huge problem that most media outlets these days feel they must represent one side or the other. To Homestar’s point, the fact that Fox and conservative talk radio have stepped in to fill the perceived void of conservative editorial voices has only made things worse. Of course, we get the media we deserve and who can blame Time Warner or Rupert Murdock when ratings ($$$) are so good? On a more optimistic note, it seems like the 50 plus crowd, who were conditioned to trust news anchors, seem to be the most susceptible to wholly swallowing (sts) overtly biased information. The younger crowd seems to be a bit more savvy in how they consume information, which is good, because that’s about the only thing that will break the cycle of echo chamber media.

I can’t tell if you’re trying to provoke an answer or if this is a “Gotcha” attempt. Regardless, I’ll bite. The print/video media has a liberal bent. I feel like that’s obvious. To @Swamp Yankee’s point, yes Fox has a big viewer base. But they’re small fish in terms of sheer numbers. If you add up all of the major print and video media publications and then add together the WSJ and Fox, it’s not even a contest.

"The media." What is "the media"? Whenever anyone resorts to blaming "the media" I have to just kind of tune out to whatever else they are saying because that's like blaming "white people" for slavery. "The media" means nothing. You have a problem with the editorial content of CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, or whatever that's fine. But you're going to have to be more specific than "the media" because OANN and Fox News are part of "the media" too. Slow burn over a decade, then a gallon of gas and a match over the past two months. You tell me what caused the house to burn down.

Your memory is so biased and one sided it’s kind of hilarious. But, as has been said on here time and again, that’s politics. The fact that you (royal You, not individual you) are already done with your “disgust” from Wednesday’s events and have so readily moved on to comparisons about what happened this summer is predictable, and it’s already happening everywhere on the right. Everything that happened this summer was due to decades of unfair treatment, but so many on the right (often because life is pretty dang comfortable for them) never believed that POC weren’t being offered the same kind of leeway in the realm of crime and punishment that others were anyway. Anything that amounted to a riot/looting was wholly wrong! Period, dot! But yeah, I’ll say it, I understand where they’re coming from, where their frustration comes from, and why they may feel they are at a boiling point. Nothing appears like it will ever change, and those on the right, even moderates, are deaf to their cries. Doesn’t justify/excuse riots/looting, but it does make it somewhat understandable. Now, Wednesday. Come on, I dare you to say that those people felt the same way, and have been dealing with decades of the same treatment. Do it with a straight face. They’ve been fed a steady stream of lies from Trump and his enablers (we’ve heard it a TON from members of this forum) about election fraud and stealing the election since the 2020 election started to become a headline. Trump even tried to blame election fraud on his loss of the popular vote in 2016. So I’ll even say you could get away with saying they’ve been hearing this garbage for 4 years. Not decades of horrible, unfair mistreatment at the hands of policing institutions. We’re not going to start that debate here, none of you believe it even with the mountains of facts and data that have been provided. My point is comparing this week with the summer’s events outside of saying any type of riot/looting/violence is unacceptable is gross and a farce. Stop looking for ways (in general to the Right, not you KA) rationalize/compare what happened this week to what happened over the summer. They’re not the same. We have not been on this track for a while. Trump and his enablers actively fomented these loonies on the right. Trump wanted this to happen. He wanted to burn it all down. He’s never cared about anything other than Trump. The fact that some of you couldn’t see that earlier is laughable.

I generally agree with the above. The 5 points above would equally apply to Trump at the start of his term. In 2016, Trump won by the same electoral margin as Biden (and lost the popular vote, although officially that's not applicable) Thus, Trump should have followed the same principles. He didn't. Far from it.

Yesterday's events were clearly the fault/responsibility of the right-wing faction that strongly supports Trump. Not the democrats in this specific situation. Using the "unrelenting mission to get X out of office" as a justification is usually applied in a biased manner. By that logic, you should have no quarrel with the formation of BLM in 2013 as a reaction to the 'unrelenting mission to get Obama out of office'. After all, Mitch McConnell and fellow republicans clearly indicated their objective was to make Obama fail. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the right-wing mainstream media (yes, Fox and talk radio reach huge audiences and are indeed mainstream) also advocated for the downfall of Obama. Not that I am a strong Obama fan, but none of that justifies violence.

I like that one. I couldn't resist adding another.

Never get advice from people who aren’t in the U-2 program about the U-2 program. Just call up and talk to the recruiting shop.

Ive seen all of this garbage as well. The sad thing is, a lot of the people I’m seeing this crap from are generally people that at face value I would not consider to be extremists or non-rational individuals. Many of them I was good friends or co-workers with back in the day. It’s becoming very clear that the crazy is leaking down into much more normal levels of society these days, on both sides.

Looks like the far left propagandists of the media WANT this to be their Reichstag moment. They’re just as dangerous as the rioters from both fringes of the political spectrum who protest through violence. I sincerely hope there are enough moderates left, who don’t buy into the identity politics lie, to save us from continuing down the script of history. We are on a dark path. Edit to add: the propaganda I’m seeing out of the ‘conservative’ media is also idiotic and is furthering the identity politic divide.

I know it's a bit early, and hopefully most of this will be forgotten by October; but if anyone is looking for a Halloween costume...

Here's my process (based on a movie theater style popper that can cook 1/2 cup of kernels per batch): - Heat about 3 tbsp oil for one minute in the popper. If you're eyeballing it, err on the side of slightly too much - Dry 6-9 sliced, pickled jalapenos on a paper towel, then add to the popper (reduces oil splatter, gets them crisper, and makes the popcorn less soggy) - Cook the jalapenos for about 1 minute in the oil. This helps ensure the jalapenos are crisp, and let's the oil temperature come back up before you add the corn so it isn't soggy at the end. It also removes the weak and unworthy from the room. - Add 1/2 cup popcorn kernels to the popper, allow to pop - After the corn has popped and you've dumped it out, add Lawry's seasoning salt to taste - Enjoy!

Yes, that's my typical oil I use. https://www.orville.com/kernel-popcorn-and-oil/popping-topping-oil It's butter flavored, not too expensive (for home use, or if you're squadron only makes corn occasionally), and easily found at the commissary or grocery store. But if you've got peanut oil or another high smoke point oil, it'll work similarly enough. Just gotta melt butter and add it afterwards. Vegetable/canola oil kinda works, but leaves a lot of gunk behind that's hard to clean and can smoke up pretty quick if you're frying up thicker jalapeno slices. On a different note, if you don't want to invest in a movie theater style popper for home use, this works well (I had an older version of this machine when many years ago in pilot training out at navy-land). https://westbend.com/collections/stir-crazy/products/stir-crazy-deluxe-1 Relatively cheap and effective if you're looking to make jalapeno corn for 1-3 people, and the popper lid is the bowl, so it makes cleaning easy. But I really like my popcorn (Saturday popcorn was a family tradition growing up), and as a single C-17 pilot back in the day, I had money to burn so I upgraded ($200-300 gets you a decent machine for home use, and about an extra $100 gets you either the cart/stand or a mini fridge for drinks to put the machine on). ETA: looks like I've come full circle from 14 years ago when I started this thread-gotta pay the knowledge learned forward!

The real reason behind storming the Capital...

Gents, are you still hiring? U-2's been at the top of my aviation pipe dream list since way before I joined the AF, and I think I'm finally at a point in my career that I should give it a shot (C-130J IP, 1.5 years into my second assignment). I've talked to my Sq/CC about it and he told me that he'd support me applying but the last he heard there was some kind of long backup so my timing is not good... I'm deployed right now but if there's any chance then I'd like to go for it when I get back this summer!

I wasn't a fan of peanut oil, though it works well enough that I'd use it if I ran out of my usual popping oil (especially over canola oil). I suppose avocado oil would work based on smoke point, but not sure how it'd affect the flavor, and is more expensive anyways. But you are 100% correct on the seasonings (Lawry's seasoning salt is my go-to seasoning, but I also have Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning available with my popcorn supplies for when I'm in the mood for something different) I guess I'll fly my nerd flag: did a project during an experimental design class to determine the "best" jalapeno corn, as defined by popped volume, crispiness, and heat. Conducted a screening experiment looking at several variables: compared peanut oil vs the orville redenbacher popcorn oil, small amount of oil vs more oil, small amount of jalapenos (1-3) vs a more generous amount (6-9), and cheap popcorn (generic cheap kernels from the commissary) vs expensive (orville redenbacher) popcorn. Long story short, after a ridiculous number of batches of popcorn (70ish), the expensive kernels, more oil (3-4 tbsp oil to 1/2 cup kernels), and 6-9 jalapeno slices (literally, and cooked off for about a min before adding the corn, mt olive brand for reference) had the best success. The orville oil was a slightly more consistent with producing the results and flavor I wanted, though wasn't statistically different from peanut oil in producing the volume, crispiness, and heat I was looking for. Wish I could find the paper, but it's lost to blackboard online and I can't find my copy on my laptop. Outside the experiment, too many jalapenos adds too much moisture and makes for soggy popcorn, and is brand dependent, so I'd recommend sticking with one brand of jalapenos for consistency. I like mt olive jalapenos since they are sliced thin and crisp up consistently without being too hot (which means more crispy jalapenos per batch of corn). The Whole Foods bulk mixed popcorn kernels also works very well, and holds onto the jalapeno heat and flavor very well, maybe too well, and is great when I want a very spicy corn. Coconut oil makes for very crispy popcorn, but you've got to add melted butter after the fact, or use flavacol, otherwise it's a bit bland. If I want spicy corn but I'm out of jalapenos, about a tablespoon of sriracha sauce right after adding the corn works, though you lose out on the delicious crispy bites of jalapeno. And the infidel corn earlier in the thread is great, though the extra cleanup due to bacon grease makes it a once in a blue moon treat because I'm lazy. ETA: this is based on my experience in my home popcorn machine

Ehh. All this discussion of a coup attempt is gross overreaction, fear mongering, and ultimately, politicking. And yes, I do mean gross. Are people on this board seriously concerned that that small bunch represented an actual threat to the rule of this country? If so, how close did they come? If so, how close did you come to falling into lock step with your new rulers wearing MAGA hats and overalls? What New Yorker was going to wake up to the Times and just go "hmm, ok, well I guess this is what we got." Any real coup has an authentic chance of co-opting large swaths of a previous government. Today was not that. Sorry, but it just wasn't. What it is, is an opportunity for political money-making. Wake me up on the 20th if he doesn't leave office and there are armed government employees refusing to depart the White House. Until then/that happens, this is just more ugly game-playing.

Oh, they don't fit your definition of conservative, so you don't own them. Some. Of those people were radicals, and a lot of them were normal conservatives whipped up they their commander, a man they saw as their ruler, not President. A man who's been lying to them since before the election, setting the scene for what happened today! Pathetic! People on here are rightly calling it. Furious at protests/riots this summer, but begrudgingly admitting that what happened today is bad. This is deeply disappointing. Also, not just a small group in DC. State capitol buildings experienced the same things. That sounds like a coup. How some of you still aren't willing to admit this was a horrible attack on democracy is beyond me. https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22217736/state-capitol-stop-the-steal-protests-rallies

I think things haven't been good in a country for a while, but it's all just been simmering on the back burner until recently, and now it's all boiling over. There seems to be underlying problems in our society that we have not been addressing (or willing to acknowledge), and we as a society/country are starting to pay that price and see these issues boil over into dramatic events. We've had a significant recession, fairly stagnate wages despite increased productivity, race tensions, and increasing (personal) debts and costs to name a few. I'm not looking to point fingers, but we as a country need to figure out how to address these issues moving forward. People aren't happy, they're stressed, and they perceive (rightly or wrongly) that they are being persecuted. That's on both sides. And this is leading to protests, riots, and violence. And this feeling isn't just limited to the left or right, Republicans or Democrats. The two biggest examples being the BLM protests, and now the far-right riots/storming the Capitol. Fundamentally, those two very different events have the same underlying issue-people aren't happy with their situation. Happy/content people likely won't turn to violence to effect change, especially if they feel they have a good situation. But if they feel like they are in a bad situation, or a coming change might change their situation for the worse, they may put up with it for a while, but if they can't improve their situation, they may turn to more extreme measures. Then again, there are also people who just want to see the world burn. Unfortunately, it seems Trump has taken advantage of the far-right (though maybe they aren't as far right as people say) and their fears, and have encouraged actions that seems to just fed his ego and personal aims (inflict pain on those who disagree with him). Maybe that's acceptable/tolerated in the business world, but it's not in government. And disappointingly, he also send to be someone who doesn't mind sitting back and watching the world burn.

You mean the Trumper’s here who were irate over sport players kneeling for the national anthem, but are now downplaying storming the U.S. Capitol, that costed a USAF veteran her life? Or currently trying to play the whataboutism game? Cult.

R’s should’ve taken the opportunity to impeach Trump and take their party back when they had the chance. Fuck anyone who continued to go along with his seditious post-election charade. Not saying the Dems are without their own problems, but the R’s will be paying for this little four year tryst for a long time. I rarely make predictions but here’s one: Lindsay Graham lasts one more term before inevitable demographic changes in his state take him out of the senate. Had he had the balls to stand by his 2016 pre-election assessment of Trump he might have a chance. But he chose to fall in lockstep with the new Trump style “conservatism”. He, and many other Republicans will eventually pay for this mistake. Too bad too. The country needs a strong Conservative party to act as a check on the Dems. Trump has been a disaster for this country, conservatives included.

I’ll tell you what, I feel like we are really at a good spot to start to worry about this. I mean, there is really nothing else going on right now, we should drop everything and really dig into this one.