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Mixed bag today on we of the many EAs Biden is proposed to sign. Some I like, others not so much. My big gripe is the reinforcement of executive power that tacitly happens when he does all this. Congress basically allows it to continue by never saying/doing anything. It's a problem. Checks and balances don't work when they checks only come in times of egregious actions on the part of the executive.

It sounds like it was an outlier due to the unique circumstances. I spoke with AFPC and nothing is official until they brief the AFPC commander and he or she signs it--which they iterated had not happened yet and won't until late Jan. They also said mid Feb is still likely the release window

The day before I got out Flight Med said I had to get a Yellow Fever shot. I told them I wasn't getting that shot and had no desire to visit anywhere where Yellow Fever was prevalent. The NCOIC said if I didn't get the shot, he'd tell the Med Group/CC, since it was reported to her for non-compliance. I told him that no one was giving me a shot and that at noon the next day when I was an official civilian, I'd personally tell her to fuck off. The next day I picked up my records and they said I didn't need the shot.

So...10 reactions out of 330,000 doses? I'll take those odds.

Coming in late to this topic. My experience is that persistence and persuasiveness can sometimes result in waivers that others tell you are impossible. 30+ years ago I got my color vision waivered for an AFROTC pilot slot. It took some doing, especially pre-interwebs. I discovered that the Navy was evaluating the then-new Farnsworth Lantern (aka FALANT) as a screening tool better tied to the real world than color plates. I called up the lab, asked alot of questions, and explained my situation. After a couple of calls, I was able to set up a visit. I took the test and "passed" according to the criteria at the time. I got to know the lead Navy researcher and it turned out that he had a colleague at Wright-Patt who was pushing for FALANT on the USAF side. I met and asked him to write a letter to Brooks. I also made sure I volunteered for every ROTC activity to get on the Detachment Commander's good side. He also wrote a letter of support. It took several months after graduation to get it sorted out. Anyways, I got the waiver, went to UPT @ Laughlin and never looked back. It was a great lesson for life in general.

SLACK. From what I understand it works normally. Save leave and use it as terminal. I believe for overseas you get 30 instead of 20 days for permissive TDY for job or house hunting. Also there is a program that you can spend your final six to 12 months (I think) prior to retiring as a paid (by the Air Force at your rank/grade and time in service) in a job as an intern. I forget the name of the program or if it’s open to officers. But if you aren’t about airlines and want something else this might be a really cool option to get on the job training on the AF dime and the company you go to work for doesn’t have to pay your salary for that time. Win for everyone.

Good point. To some extent, I think the right uses the 2nd Amendment and the left uses abortion as scare tactics. For example, the left used the newly right-leaning SCOTUS to scare their base that the Roe v Wade will be overturned. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett were nominated more for their pro-large business support than morality perspectives. Abortion is probably #19 on Gorsuch's priorities, after "lunch at Occidental". On the 2A, any democrat outside a big northeast or west coast city knows that it is a reality. In fact, I was even able to get a carry permit in (the people's republic of) Boston. I did have to interview with a city detective, shoot at the police range, and then wait four weeks. The latter was a PITA but the interview and shooting didn't bother me too much. In fact, the police were pretty cool about it - let me try a Glock and AR.

If far right conservatives want to have a social media outlet, maybe they should try harder and not just whine. Especially if they don't want government limiting their speech. And if there's demand for that service, it shouldn't be hard to get a business started around providing that service. I mean, if Pirate Bay (or any number of other questionable at best websites) can figure out a way to stay online when being actually persecuted by governments... https://www.vice.com/en/article/3an7pn/pirate-bay-founder-thinks-parlers-inability-to-stay-online-is-embarrassing

I should have been more clear. I was referring to the fact that their inaction in their primary legislative roles allows it to continue unabated. For a president to feel like they're accomplishing anything, they have to take action through EOs. All Congress manages to do is fight each other. Only time they pass anything consequential is if one party has a majority. Otherwise, it's bipartisanship is because it's some Mickey mouse policy that doesn't really matter.

Rogan had a great discussion with Ira Glasser, former Exec Director of the ACLU, on this very topic. My synopsis of Glasser's commentary: - Double standards are of course problematic. - However, there are existing legitimate restrictions on free speech (the proverbial yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater, or openly inciting violence). Upon request, the government adjudicates these via the legal system. FWIW, Glasser's thinks Trump did incite the Jan 6th events, but that would need to be decided via the impeachment process. - The key point: Other restrictions resulting from less cut-and-dried issues (e.g. political rhetoric) are probably best handled by private companies. Not perfect, but way better than the government, who has a poor record in that regard. Do you really want people like Trump, Schumer, Pelosi, McConnell having legal means to compel who can say what on private platforms? If so, is the government (particularly conservatives) willing to subsidize these private companies since they are restricting their ability to manage their businesses? - Specifically regarding Trump: Unlike most of us, he can step up to a podium and immediately say whatever he wants to the world. So to claim that no Twitter access affects his ability to communicate is disingenuous. Interested in learning other perspectives from those who listened to the podcast.

Correct. TERA program of fy 14 and 15. Lot of eligible folks took the 15 year retirement and hit the airlines at a great time. It was high cotton for a couple years. And you're also correct on the reprisal accusation wrt the signature strike extrajudicial killing of a us citizen, he prevailed on that one. The one that got him more notoriety was the uvalde exchanges with the CBP during his days at DLF, complete with the accompanying youtube fame. Argument could be made he was the first baseops influencer before it became fashionable to have "I love me" channels lol.

I thought we're supposed to be believing ALL women now?

10 out of 21,800 doses from a single facility. Still decent odds but it helps to read the article.

This is quite literally a big part of Biden’s immigration plan in a nutshell. As I’ve said a bit before, I’m even more of an immigration maximalist than your typical Democrat. If I were King for a day I’d sign into law the “Mas Trabajo Por Los Todos Act of 2021” and get some smart folks to translate that into Chinese, Vietnamese, French, et al so everyone knows that the USA is open for business and ready for many new workers and eventually citizens. But I’m perfect willing to take steps in the right direction. Expanded refugee entries, expanded guest worker program, pathway to citizenship, vigorous enforcement of E-Verify and better & smarter border security all sound great...just like they did back when W got pretty close to passing the exact same stuff back in 2007.

I got the first Moderna shot a week ago. Zero side effects.

The internet is weird. And it’s only going to get weirder as we get older. Imagine responding directly to one of Robin Olds’ forum posts bitching about finance.

UPT studs right now were 5-6 years old when this thread was started. Damn we are old.

It's not the same job though. They are taking paid vacation from one job, while working their second job. The fact that it's the same employer means nothing, since that employer hired that person to do 2 separate jobs. For example, if a TR takes mil leave at the same time they take PTO from their GS Treasury dept job to maximize their vacation, no one blinks an eye at them getting paid twice to do the same thing by the same employer. What makes it all stupid (and gives an incorrect outside *appearance* of potential F/W/A) is the unfair rules piling up on ARTs over the years that blur the line between their civilian and military status. The biggest of which is tying an ART's civilian GS job to their part time TR status. They can't quit being a TR and just be a GS employee, nor can they typically quit (at will, like any other GS job that's not an ART) the GS job and stay a TR (without repercussions). The GS portion should be decoupled from the TR portion, but they won't do that because they know either no one will take the job (especially if there's a requirement to have military aviation experience in the unit's MWS), or they can't retain full time experience for cheap anymore. Part of the problem is following the AD model of using squadron pilots to fill jobs: a scheduler doesn't need to know how to fly the jet, just the scheduling and crew rest rules. Training shop just needs to understand how to read the training tables (if the A1C in SARM/HARM can do it, why do you need a GS-12+ to do it as an ART?) But all of those can be done by someone without wings for much less money. And if it's something that needs a pilot's inputs, they can get that one weekend a month from a TR assigned to the shop, or anytime from an AGR. Much less important, but related, is forcing ARTs to wear a military uniform while in civilian status, which completely blurs the line between what status they are working in, and creates the appearance of doing *military* work when they are in fact doing *civilian* work. This appearance can lead to thinking they are paid twice for the same work: once for their military leave for their part time TR job (military job), and again for being in the office working in a military uniform they are forced to wear off duty (civilian job). The government is utilizing them like full time AD, without paying them full time AD pay and benefits. This also gives DoD a lot more flexibility in manning, since civilians don't count against end strength, making the positions easier to create/eliminate (maybe not at the unit level) as needed, so long as funding is available. And yes, AD is the better comparison than AGR, as AGRs have limits on how they are utilized.

I love self checkout. Super useful if you're just going in for 1-2 things. If you have a cart, definitely go through a cashier. Alternatively we can go to the German system where checkout becomes the most stressful 6.9 minutes of your week. I wish self checkout would catch on there.

I actual have a personal jihad against self checkout at stores, especially grocery stores when I always seem to have a ton of items in the cart. I do not work at the grocery store, nor do I want to! Self checkout in grocery stores is more convenient for the store, not for me. FFS, I do not want to self checkout at a tiny kiosk when I have a week's worth of family groceries, but usually all but 1 of the "normal" lanes will be closed. I want to see the Grocery Store Clerks Full Employment Act (GSCFEA) of 2021 passed post-haste!

I love how these rumors are born and bred. For one, Rick actually *won* his case where he objected to what he found to be an unconstitutional order to kill an American citizen, and was reprised against by his local chain of command for that objection. Second, he just retired....not any "retirement in lieu of" or any of those shenanigans, but a regular ol' retirement. IIRC it might have been a couple years less than 20, when they were offering early retirements 5-ish years ago. Dude had/has his issues, but wasn't kicked out.

One thing that would help is to eliminate the cliffs in our current system. There are several areas in the current way government assistance works where getting a job/getting a raise results in less total money coming in. If we can smooth those transitions so that someone can work their way out of poverty without ending up worse off at any point, we can create an incentive to work and get raises and eventually get off government assistance. We saw this in Seattle when they went to $15/hr minimum wage. A bunch of people no longer qualified for government benefits as full-time workers and asked to have hours slashed because they were losing money by having their wages increased. If we can introduce intermediate steps that reduce, but not eliminate, government assistance in those cases, there's less disincentive to get a better job or work longer hours.

Go fuck yourself. I have no underlying health concerns and it nearly KILLED me and I can assure you prior I was not already prone to dying. Idiots like you make me want to vomit...truly a clueless fuckwit. Two of my immediate family members were thankfully released from the hospital yesterday after receiving all possible therapeutics and one being given last rites. I am all for keeping things open and using mitigation measures to protect those at great risk but saying this is a nuisance is fucking ignorant. There is a lot we simply don't understand especially as it related to certain blood types.

They might be busy this week...

Airline hiring can’t come back quick enough....

Last time I ran from a burning jet I ran away at a medium pace for 1.5 miles straight off base. Then I did 80 pushups to impress the locals.