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Bias and racism are not synonyms. If you are a police officer and the overwhelming balance of interactions you have with criminals are of a certain skin color, as a human you are going to develop a bias. That does not make you racist. We know this because minority police are subject to the exact same bias. Remember how stupid we all thought it was when TSA was patting down elderly white women in wheelchairs? This is a problem to be solved, but any solution is immediately precluded by calling the participants evil, which racism very much is. I think well meaning liberals gravitate towards this narrative because it is a much easier solution. With racism, you just go after the racists. People and policy, find and destroy. But the real solution is probably going to involve the breakdown of the black family unit, and the incarceration of young black men for decades. Nothing about that is going to be quick or easy. Or cheap. Affirmative action in colleges is another example of this phenomenon. The easy answer was to just twist the numbers to get more black people in college. But in many ways black people have paid the price of that ill-conceived solution. The real answer was always to fix black education at the elementary school level, and work up from there. But the results from that endeavor would not be seen for decades, whereas changing college admissions only takes four years to yield hypothetical results. Perception is not reality, but it guides how we act. The more we scream about systemic racism, despite the hard evidence, the more people will believe it. Just like election fraud. I find it almost amusing how each side sees the riots of the other side as inconceivable. I don't. I think the riots were unjustified and certainly immoral based on evidence, but I'm not surprised that they happened. a bunch of well-meaning citizens made the foolish mistake of taking what their politicians and media figures said as truth. What would you do if you legitimately believed that our democratic election process was being stolen from us? I hope that you would have your guns ready and march on the capitol. Likewise if you believed that the police were intentionally killing scores of black people without cause, based only on the fact that they were black, I would hope that you would take to the streets. I would.

So the responses proffered were "go re-read this forum," a tangential "his lot in life depends on this belief so he won't understand," "go talk to a black person," and most recently, changing the subject to "black people were historically discriminated against in this country." Hmmm? And I'm the person not wanting to have a conversation about this? Pfffffft. Scoff. Each of those responses is a prototype for avoiding something that challenges a closely held belief. Note, I don't deny that blacks were historically discriminated against in this country and that those policies have effects to this day (today). But that wasn't what we were talking about. We were talking about rioting and policing being unfair in this country. I provided data that (to me) fully explains why policing appears disproportionate. That doesn't square with some dogma, but it can't be addressed directly because it doesn't fit into an acceptable narrative, so we get the four side-steps outlined above. Let me offer this: there is middle ground out there, but if you're going to find it, you have to accept what's real. We can agree that blacks have been treated horribly historically in this country and that something needs to be done to wrench this community (and others) out of the death spiral it seems to be in. You won't find middle ground with people "on the other side" whilst denying obvious realities and pinning the tail on whatever donkey you've been told is responsible. The cops aren't your scapegoat. The greatest irony in all this "BLM" nonsense from the summer was that the police are the greatest actual BLM organization out there - but of course they're the ones painted as the villains.

Catching up here. The reason for my Biden vote: If I exhibited 25% of Trump's behaviors I'd be fired, divorced, and on trial. And that's how it should be. Character matters. That's what any decent parent works hard to teach their kids. It certainly mattered to many conservatives when Clinton got a BJ in the White House and fibbed about it. Most of Trump's purported accomplishments aren't. I mentioned previously that the slopes of the major stock indices have been relatively consistent since 2011. Job creation the last three years of Obama was higher (8.1m) than the first three years of Trump (6.7m - and that's NOT including the pandemic, thus giving Trump the benefit of the doubt). Income growth was lower as well. GDP growth (again not including the pandemic) averaged 2.4% under Obama and 2.5% under Trump. Trump did not save us from the 'terrible Obama economy'. The numbers are clear, yet a significant portion of the right still believes Trump's rhetoric. Forbes, hardly a liberal publication, provided a nice summary: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/19/no-president-trump-obamas-economic-recovery-was-not-a-con-job/?sh=54dcc16b5e62 SCOTUS picks were not an accomplishment showcasing deft leadership. Openings occurred and were filled by candidates that reflected the administration's priorities. Same as it ever was. A linear regression shows that crime has been steadily decreasing for decades. There was not a surge under Obama nor an atypical improvement with Trump. Don't get me started on the "Jesus gave us Trump" shtick. I do acknowledge that African-American unemployment dropped to historic lows under Trump, and that is a good thing. However, I suggest speaking to members of that community regarding their overall opinions about the last four years. That said, I am by no means an enthusiastic Biden supporter. This election was a reset to politics as usual. Given the dumpster fire / shit show / shenangians / tomfoolery / fiasco / calamity / goat rope over the last four years, that is a good thing for now. We will get some relative stability. I'm confident that Biden supporters, even the extreme factions, will not attempt to stop government by force after being incited by lies. So there's that. I am still optimistic that a behaviorally-mature, patriotic, unifying non-career-politician candidate will rise to the occasion. Maybe someone under 60 with broad experience/education, military service and actual maturity who is not from the career political class. But we don't have that someone yet.

You have to be the biggest condescending asshole on here dude. For fucks sake, please stop.

You guys realize that roughly 30% of the population is greater than 1 standard deviation (about 15) from the mean on IQ right? So about 15% of a 330M population is below an IQ of 85. Since you could probably justifiably say that about 8M of those people are actually mentally handicapped (2x standard devs), the other ~40M are just good old fashioned dumb.

I envy you for the excellent food you must’ve had growing up! I will agree with you that there was no case for riots or violence on either side. Some people are just after anarchy. Hell, in Seattle we just had some of the same folks that were looting last summer out doing an anti Biden public destruction event. Fuck them. However, I absolutely believe there are structural issues with the way the black community interacts with the American system. Police brutality and policing in general is something that needs to be addressed, and it effects black people disproportionately. I fully support the peaceful protests that were unfortunately upstaged by deranged rioters. I do not support the conspiracy fueled election protests, peaceful or otherwise. Even if someone didn’t storm the Capitol, if they’re waiving the Q flag, I have no time for them.

Chief Wright was also terrible.

Teachers are beginning to see increasing pressure to get back to work from policy makers on both sides of the aisle. The city of San Francisco today sued the teacher’s union there in an attempt to spur them back to classrooms. Teachers say they need more effective safety measures, from social distancing rules, to full up HVAC replacements. That’s all well and good, but they aren’t finding much sympathy from the general population, much of whom have been working with less than ideal COVID safety protocols in place for months. Police, fire, postal service, transportation workers, grocery workers, construction, military, and a plethora of other industries have been back to work with less than perfect safety measures in place. Time for teachers to join the real world, roll up their sleeves, and get back on the job. Our kids can’t afford to fall further behind. What’s more, In many, many ways, economic recovery is linked to a return to a regular school week.

My data is a little aged but I'm a rated guy. We were PCS'd to the training base and then did MEPS, IFT, SERE (after undergrad) etc tdy from there. Coming into this one, I'd expect to do any pre-UFT action tdy from where you currently are and then PCS to your UFT base. Except the RPA bros of course... They're a bit hosed with the all TDY, all the time plan.

Congrats @WannaBeAPilot442 You made the 100th reply for this thread! For this reason, you are going to be awarded with 7-10 more days of anxious waiting! congrats!

As far as the weighting of importance goes, what I have heard from the rumor mill is that PCSM, PPL, and Hours are the majority of the consideration. The remainder of the AF215 then is next in importance. The recommendation letter comes after that, then the personal letter is used when it comes to really close tie breakers. In boards like these the members usually have around 2 minutes per package so it's not like they're reading everything, so that's why the actual rated info and the remainder of the AF215 are the most important.

Oh good, another down day, that will make a difference... I guess we'll just throw this in the "do something visible," column.

Oh for ’s sake, it is “toe the line.”

Holy shit. Get to the ER, you've had a stroke.

2. Biden was an opportunity to get from dumpster fire to "Bad within normal parameters," to paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke. We now have a guy who isn't the center of a personality cult. We can build on that.

Dude, Seadogs, you made bail after the riot?! That was crazy man, crazy... In what way does anything I’m saying hinge on my skin color? If I’m black it’s legit, if I’m not I should stop talking?

Just tried the PCSM site number no answer, tried the total force service center as well but they don't have any information newer than the original PSDM. I'll try again tomorrow, any updates will be here soon as I get them.

Actually, they are both bullshit, that's exactly what I'm saying. You have a neat way of selectively picking which talking points "represent" a particular side, while conveniently ignoring the others. The fact of the matter is that overwhelmingly what was claimed during the race riots was bullshit. It's not even worth the time to pull up the nearly endless list of prominent leftists making claims as to the fatal nature of black people interacting with the police. But never numbers. When your cause can't be quantified in any way without discrediting the cause then the problem is the cause itself. These riots weren't about getting pulled over more, or getting side eye from a convenience store owner, or gang violence, hell they weren't even about the very real issues of incarceration impacting the ability of black communities to dig out of a very deep hole. Overwhelmingly they were about police brutality towards black people. And the most prominent cases, used as evidence of a systemic attack on black bodies, were misrepresented in ways that discredit the entire argument. And it was merely a continuation of the same lie, with different names and different cases fed into the narrative. Michael brown, trayvon martin, and now George Floyd. The bad old days of overt American racism are over. They have been for a while. The Civil Rights movement never required the mental gymnastics we see today to justify their protests, and yes, riots. It was plain to see for everyone, and because of such they were triumphant. The difficulties with race in 2021, and specifically within the black community, are much more difficult to address. There is no boogeyman, no villain to unify against. Not whiteness, not the police, not the system. But if I were to apply your logic to it then in fact the capital riots weren't about Trump or election theft, they were very legitimate protests against widespread yet nearly impossible to document election fraud, and just because a few crazies went a little too far, that shouldn't get in the way of the very legitimate and well-documented cause that they are supporting. There is no mortal threat to the black population in the United States from any element of the government, least of all the police. Minimize that claim all you like, but the rest of us don't need to be moralized over taking an argument at face value. One that was made over and over and over for a few years now. There was also no stolen election. Trump lost because Trump is a fucking moron, that's it. Yeah there are plenty of videos unequivocally proving voter fraud, but they are hundreds of votes out of over a hundred million. Neither statistic justifies the response, thus making the riots, on both sides, bullshit. It's completely chicken shit to tell everybody who disagrees with your narrative that they're just defending whiteness. I'm a fucking cuban jew, for Christ's sakes. You think I have a lot of cred in the white supremacist community? You can call out a lie for what it is without having an affinity for your own skin color.

Sorry guys but this isn't really up for debate. Trump will go down as one of if not the worst president in US history. The longer you deny that or make mealy-mouthed statements about how his SC picks were pretty good or how he didn't actively start a new war, the longer you will look like an ignorant fool. Send me your address and I'll ship you 15 more punisher/Molon labe stickers for the back window of your sweet truck. The best parts of trumps presidency were when he stuck perfectly to a script or when he did absolutely nothing. Anything he actively involved himself in went to shit almost immediately.. including but not limited to: the border wall, immigration in general, covid, saudis murdering a journalist, not being a sexual predator and hanging out with them, the election, Iran, literally anything having to do with the climate, literally anything having to do with race, his own family business, nepotism, any public speaking event ever, his own taxes, public health guidance, respecting people in the military, being tethered to reality etc.. etc.. etc... He got three Supreme Court picks.. wow amazing. Now tell me, is that more luck and timing and having a Congress that green-lit them for you or is that just trumps brilliance? I bet it was the former because his own SC picks didn't seem to think he was too brilliant when he brought them nonsensical election fraud allegations. I would never argue with you over the fact that most politicians are phony and will lie to get ahead. But there's only one politician in my life and in my parents life and in my grandparents life who denied fair election results right up until the moment his followers invaded the capitol, killed people, and endangered our elected officials who were actively working to certify that election. It literally took the entire world standing still, looking at America, and wondering, "are they about to implode in a civil war" for this damaged egomaniac to back down. I'm 1000000% with @Homestar on this one. Trump was bad on a different level. If one good thing came out of his presidency, it's that his treasonous antics separated the principled conservatives from the droves of bandwagoning celeb-obsessed trash, and maybe that will allow a healthier conservative movement to happen in the future.

I can at least say UPT is not a TDY, it's a PCS. Source: was a UPT stud already but left for medical. Trying for the lucky two-fer.

AFPC addressed this question in their last officer retirements webinar. It’ll be high 36 for pay, major printed on your ID card, and Lt Col printed on your dd214. If you’ve done at least two years as a Lt Col, you can apply for a secaf waiver to have it printed on your ID card.

Bias and racism are synonyms, at least according to this reference: https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/racist More precisely, racism (per contemporary usage) is on the extreme right side of a specific type of bias ("racial bias") "Right" in this context is based on conventional data presentation, not politics. There can be and are racists on the political left. Improving policing definitely requires multivariate analysis. Nevertheless, racism (or behavior/actions along the racial bias spectrum) is a significant factor that must be addressed. Having friends and family in law enforcement, I am sympathetic to the many hats they must wear over the course of a shift and throughout a career. That and their overall lack of ongoing training. Think of the training prior to a deployment. Or the typical ratio of flight planning to time in the air. Police get nowhere near enough of that. They need more funding, not less. However (and its a big however) regardless of that police have to behave in a way that earns and keeps the public's trust. If you have one police officer who is violent due to racial bias and 99 others who keep quiet about it, you've got 100 bad cops in the eyes of the targeted minority community (or 20 who harass, 60 who remain silent, etc. etc.) I spent some time as a youth in NYC and observed such violence first hand with family who is much darker complexioned than me but engaging in the same mischievous behavior. Unfortunately, I couldn't record it at the time since I didn't have a shoulder-mounted VHS camera. Calling out racism a la BLM does not mean you are ignoring other variables or automatically painting a given group as evil. There is a concern about and attention paid to black crime (Stop the Violence and Parishoners on Patrol). As a side note, I don't endorse the bizarre BLM positions on their website regarding socialism and nuclear families. Affirmative Action is a completely different animal which I agree has been poorly implemented and resulted in massive backlash. True equality of opportunity (as opposed to forcing an easily measured statistical outcome) is difficult to achieve because it is complex and results can only be determined over a long time scale; i.e. longer than the typical political term or attention span. No one I'm aware of is suggesting a poof! magic wand solution to police racial bias.

No big deal, because those NY teachers aren't in class anyway and are fighting tooth and nail not to go back.

There are systemic issues holding the black community back. However most of them are driven by the same party that says “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.” Look at the dominant political party in each city that had massive unrest this summer. Democrat policy has by and large owned the black vote by developing social programs that keep the black community dependent on government assistance. Most of this “assistance” is then paired to the narrative of the hopeless black man still being held down by the American legacy of slavery. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy that has engrained itself into black culture and is self defeating. And the “solutions” coming forward on this are just more of the same. ViperMan mentioned the death spiral of these communities. Corey Booker wants to implement “baby bonds” where every child born in America gets a $1,000 savings account with money added to it each year until they turn 18, with the the poorest families getting the most money deposited (up to $2,000 I believe). Anyone with a brain sees that a policy like this merely encourages further poverty and govt dependence. Why would you work to improve your standing in life if your kids can get nearly $40,000 handed to them by remaining in poverty. The proposal for this program also specifically mentions aiding those in minority communities, so it’s no doubt who this vote getting scheme is meant to target. The death spiral continues... Republicans do share the blame in that none of them have the stones to actually address this issue, probably for fear of being called racist, so instead they sit silently on the sidelines and try and pretend the problem doesn’t exist. All that being said, this whole narrative of a racist fabric within America that holds minorities and blacks back or a racist army of cops executing black men in the street is such a freaking cop out. It’s a convenient distraction for a political party that shares a large part of the blame for the plight of African Americans in this country yet counts on their vote every 2 and 4 years. Unfortunately it’s seemed to work. There are real solutions to this but they take actual hard work and will also likely take decades to see results. If we want to see something succeed it will take people that recognize that the very real problem of decades of mistreatment and discrimination of blacks was not helped by a policy of government dependence that has actually pushed the community into further despair.

I took advantage of this last week. I didn't know it was 25% until I saw to total bill drop dramatically. Personally I like their workout t-shirts; pricey but nice.

https://info.lululemon.com/help/military-military-spouses-and-first-responders Lululemon offers a 25% discount in person. I personally am a fan of their shorts and the lifetime warranty for repairs. A friend of mine has gotten his running shorts repaired twice over the years for free. They offered to give him new shorts but he’s trying to prove a point since we have given him a hard time for spending so much on running shorts. I know many of you have significant others who have a pair of yoga pants from this store. Don’t let them spend that $100 on them anymore, go get that sweet discount. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Filibuster didn’t seem to be a problem all that long ago. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/26/democrats-have-vigorously-used-filibuster-its-pathetic-they-now-wont-pledge-protect-it/

“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"

I guess I'll hold my opinion until I see the execution. 60 down days...what does that mean? No flying, no deployments, no training? Are we going to actually do a re-scrub of the background investigations looking for extremists, or are we going to sit in a sharing circle talking about why extremism is bad? What's going to count as extremism? Is anyone who has ever called AOC dumb or mocked Biden's inability to put a sentence together on the chopping block? Or are we going to actually look at people's connections to extremist groups? Are we looking for extreme leftists (like that West Point kid who wrote "Communism Wins" inside his wheel cap) or only QAnon supporters? I fully support the idea of rooting extremists out of the ranks. But I have a lot of fears about how this will actually be implemented.

It is not the same. It's ~$50 less per month or ~$600 less per year, but yes it's similar. As for the rank question if you are recalled from Retirement: Commentary from the Rand Corp: 10 U.S. Code § 689: Officers are ordered to active duty in their retired grade.... ...Officers who served in a grade higher than their retired grade may be ordered to active duty in that higher grade.... They are treated as if they were promoted to that higher grade while on that tour of duty, and may retire at that higher grade if they satisfactorily serve a total of 36 months. Officers who are promoted to a higher grade while ordered to active duty may retire in that higher grade if they satisfactorily serve for at least six months in that grade.

IMO it's because he tells the truth. And people fucking hate the truth.

Oh, we're back to normal?!? Sweet, I hadn't heard!

Expelling an elected congressman for things said /believed before their election (aka known to voters) would be counter productive, anti-democratic, and just plain creepy. Dumb fuck or not, she was elected. Just like the open socialists, pandering assholes, and the rest.

counter point: we have OPEN socialists in the US congress we should expel them.

For the Reserve Retiree: hypothetical. Assumptions: reached age 60 in Dec 2020 (so using pay charts from 2018-2020 to calculate high-36). Served age 23 to age 43 and transferred to grey area in 2003. Had 20 good years and 5000 points. Note that since grey area time counts for pay chart purposes, the years will be 37, 36, and 35 or put simply the max pay on the chart) $8088: high36 for Maj (didn't serve 3 yrs TIG to make O-5 stick). $2808 per mo retired pay $9539: high36 for LtCol (served at least 3 yrs TIG so takes O-5 into the retired rsv). $3312 per mo retired pay So the difference in retired pay isn't as huge as I had thought, but if you're close you might as well try to get that 3 yrs TIG before your transfer to retired reserve.

No idea. Not being enlisted I have spent my career ignoring the position. My comment is based on personal interaction.

To act like the riots over the exact same thing have happened over and over and over as well. Are we acting like "those people" just like to riot for no reason? I don't know. Dead dude because of a cops knee on his throat vs. QAnon, and the Pres "going down to the Capitol with them" or his lawyer wanting "trial by combat." So no, we don't agree.

Never really understood the “we need to elect someone who’ll burn the system down” sentiment that got Trump elected and seems to be driving the Republican Party into oblivion. By all accounts we live in the best time it’s ever been to be a human being. War, disease (even considering the current situation), famine, and poverty are at their lowest points in human history. We each literally have access to most of the data ever collected in the world in the palm of our hands. More of the world is experiencing freedom than ever before. Overall, our lives have been getting progressively better. But somehow the system is suddenly broken beyond fixing? Armed insurrection is the only way forward? Treasonous, conspiracy driven politicians like Trump and Taylor Greene are somehow on the same plane as “traditional” players like Biden, Obama, or Bush? Sorry, no. I’ll give you that politics is often messy and sometimes dirty. That doesn’t mean it’s not working. Enjoy a nice vacation in the last five years? Own a home? Kids get to go to school every day? Fire department shows up when there’s a fire? The insurrectionist wing of the Republican Party wants to throw all that out with the bath water. Sorry, but I’ll take “traditional” politics, flawed as it is, every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The disconnect here arises from the notion that a statement/post must either defend or attack a position. Sometimes it’s just a fact, sometimes an opinion, which by nature doesn’t need to always advance or retreat to have value. The fact that a seemingly large majority of people believe that it does, is part of the problem with political discourse. We were, in my opinion, a little sideways before...now, oh my, we’re riding down the track backwards. Exciting anyways... ~Bendy Sent from my iPad using Baseops Network mobile app

I’m no republican if that is your measuring stick. I’ve clearly stated here that my vote for Biden was a protest vote against Trump, who was a non-serious clown president.

How? Am I the only person who saw politicians for the duplicitous villains they always have been? The problem I have with your argument, and the Never Trumpers in general, is that it really sounds like "I can look my kids in the eye and support someone as long as they aren't so obvious about their immorality." It would be one thing to disown Trump and only support moral, consistent politicians. But Biden, Harris, Bernie, and the others are anything but. If a conservative voted for a liberal because of Trump, I'm not sure they were really conservative. If they didn't vote at all, that is a completely understandable and consistent position. This is why nothing is real and everything is a riot. Because the masses, unwashed as we are, are very good at spotting an inconsistency. Everything that was said of Trump was completely and totally true of his supposed betters. He's enriching himself in office? Lol. He's kicking positions to family and friends? That's new... He's a liar? He cheats on his wife? His kids are a mess? He plays too much golf? And before Trump, good, decent, honest people were immolated with bullshit. Romney and Kavanaugh are just two obvious examples. So hating Trump for the odious pig he is, gotcha. But don't moralize if your solution is to support a more-polished turd. Trump was just politics without the makeup. If you (not Homestar specifically) didn't realize that until now, I have a bridge to sell you. We agree on Crenshaw. *If* he can keep his head on straight, and doesn't wait too long to run, he would make an incredible president. We need term limits and age limits. I've never heard anyone say they wished they had an 80 year old involved in their project, yet somehow they are running the country.

When I was being court martialed for a crime I never committed, I had people turn their shoulder to me. I had people talk shit about me to friends, family, even some people on here on other online forums. Thankfully, I was found not guilty of the serious stuff, but found guilty of the typical malicious overcharging that the JAG Corps likes to do. During the sentencing phase of my court martial the best squadron commander I ever had, now O-6, wrote a letter to the panel saying: ”People are not the sum of their mistakes.” After my discharge board, and being separated less than four years from retirement, I was the lowest of the low. I had senior Enlisted, Officers, JAGs tell me that I would never amount to anything. No one would ever give me a job due to a court martial conviction, etc. I even had a FGO that told me I should just kill myself now instead of making my family go through pain of watching me to turn into a homeless drug addict statistic. I thought about it, and almost did it. But I remembered that saying my former commander said. I decided I wasn’t going to let my mistakes define me. This May I’m graduating from Georgetown with my Masters in Cybersecurity. I just was accepted into an aviation and space doctoral program at Oklahoma State. All paid for by the VA’s Voc Rehab program. I make way more money now than I did as a MSgt working in the KC-46 program as a contractor. I even have a security clearance. What I learned along the way was not just resilience, but I was humbled. I learned a hard lesson that your life can be taken away from you, either by the judicial system, or by those who doubt you so much that you start to doubt yourself. But in the end, you are not the sum of your mistakes, regardless of whom you are. I’m not religious, though I grew up Catholic, but to add onto that quote from my former commander is: 2 Timothy 4:7 ”I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith." To those of you who had the honor of being a commander, and allowed people to rebound from their mistakes, thank you. You’re appreciated more than you’ll ever know.

Amen brother. As a commander I tried to stay old school, there is no substitute for a good old fashion ass chewing...yell, throw in some profanity to get the point across. Perhaps not professional but I saw no need to electrocute every Airman for a simple mistake....a mistake I probably made at one point and was lucky not to get caught doing. If we truly believe people are our greatest asset, then invest in them, not only when they do good, but also when they do bad.

When you see people blame "the cancer in AF leadership" for the retention debacle, this is one of the cornerstones of that cancer. At some point in the last 20 years, it became fashionable for commanders to be as "tough" on mistakes made by their subordinates as possible, in a combination of showing they're "no tolerance" or whatever and in an attempt to never allow themselves to be questioned by their superiors about a decision they made. CYA, essentially. Which, obviously, is a 180-degree turn from where AF leaders once were, mentoring and protecting their subordinates and being screens for them. I laugh at the fact that on DD175s, we used to put "on file" in that personnel part of the flight plan, partly in an attempt to protect our own AF pilots against adverse FAA action should they make a mistake. Today, I'm sure Commanders are practically eager to facilitate their pilots getting FAA violations so they never get accused of trying to cover something up under their command.

A couple of my AF Facebook friends really like her as evidenced by their constant praising on her official Facebook. Personally she lost me at the “Bass or Bass” joke that she lost her mind on. In my not so humble badass opinion, she is a complete joke and completely under-qualified for this job. She is a consistent embarrassment to the Air Force. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Welcome to the party Brother. Last year my wife said, you are grumpy since you retired, just go buy your damn airplane. Yes Ma'am! I almost bought a Lancair 4P, had a deal in place, but during pre-inspection found out the airplane spent a few years of "unexplained" and unlogged time in Mexico, the maintenance log books were shit. I am 69% certain that plane was flying drugs into the U.S. and had no idea what shape the wing spars were in. Additionally, the insurance on some of the Lanceairs is outrageous because of their accident rate. I was very enamored with the performance of the Lancairs, especially the 4P, they tend to be sleek machines, fast and economical but most models have a high wing loading requiring some extra attention in the pattern. The insurance on the 4P was triple some of the other airplanes I was looking at and ultimately a big deciding factor. I ended up buying a Piper Saratoga TC II. I wanted to fly but also wanted a travel machine for the family. The guy that owned it before me dumped about $120K worth of glass into the airplane (see below). I flew steam gauges most of my career and was shocked by the SA the Garmin offers especially when it is integrated with the autopilot. I put about 180 hours on it in the last year. Four trips to DC (In-Laws live there), A few to Miami (my parents live there), and a lot of shorter trips in between. Once at altitude I typically I can lean for 13-16 GPH and see around 145-155 TAS. I started off using my IPad Pro, but found it too big for the cockpit. There was no place to put it so I kept it between the seats and pulled it out to review. I ended up buying an IPad Air with cell service which is still big but I can mount it with a suction cup. The cockpit of the Saratoga is a bit odd around the windshield/Dash and ideally the IPad Air would be more friendly for space, but we have decided to upgrade to a new airplane and it will accommodate the IPad Air. On trips I can do all mission planning on the IPad and I use it in the airplane with Foreflight running as a back up. As folks have stated above the Bose A2s are great, pricey but they fit is great and the ANR is superb. I tried a few in-ear options, forget the brand name, but didn't like them. My wife's college sorority was having a big get together in the Fall so I flew her to Tallahassee. She is a nervous flyer and at one point said, "it would be a lot better if you had a plane with two engines"...Again Yes Ma'am so I started an upgrade search. I looked at a bunch of options and I am signing a contract for a new SR-22 this week. Yes I know single engine but with the CAPS system I think it hits her "safety button" STS. I'll share my thoughts on the upgrade search and what lead me to the SR-22. We want to travel and we have another couple that usually goes with us. Useful load and range were driving factors. I was going to buy a Baron G-58. Great airplane, fast, and a fully integrated G1000 system. It also has better takeoff performance than the Cessna's. My home base airfield is only 3700' and while I could safely operate a 310 or some of the other Cessna options, the margin would be much smaller. I knew the cost factor would be higher for maintenance and fuel, but again it was insurance that was double that of the SR-22. It has a great useful load until you start accounting for all the extra gas you have to take. It was also the fastest option, although at double the fuel burn. I really wanted the Diamond DA-62, in fact, it wins hands down on all the performance, fuel burn, and operating cost factors. Single engine climb is well over 600 FPM, Cruise speed is superb, great useful load, tons of room inside and it sips 11.8 GPH of Jet-A at altitude. It has one major drawback that for me was a show-stopper, it has a HUGE fucking footprint. With a 49'3" wingspan there is only one hangar on my field that it will fit in and that hangar has been rented by a company for 12 years. They are building a bunch of new hangars on my field, but they are all too narrow...I will not leave an airplane that expensive outside. Finding a suitable hangar was going to create an hour plus drive at about triple the hangar rate I pay now. Previous to this I was not a big Cirrus fan to start with. A great friend and UPT classmate was their chief test pilot and was killed in one. They have come a long way and as I started to look the SR-22 met all of my performance wants. It is FAST for a fixed gear airplane...170 TAS at between 16-17GPH. Faster by far then my Saratoga with a minimal increase in fuel burn. Reasonable insurance (as long as you do the training). Also, depending on configuration, it has the best useful load of any of the other options I looked at. I am getting a new normally aspirated SR-22 G6. Flying in the south I don't need the turbo or icing system (which is very high maintenance by the way). I will still have oxygen if I want to jump up to 16K and grab a tail wind. Dropping the turbo and FIKI icing system bumps my useful load to 1269 pounds. I will be able to easily take my wife and our friends, all their bags and almost a full bag of gas which lets us range Charleston, Key West, Charlotte, DC, Nashville, Dallas non-stop. One other thought in my long rambling post, airplane prices are high right now because of USERRA. If you purchased an airplane by the end of 2020 you could use it as part of a business and go back five years of offset profit on your taxes. Baron Prices are very high, same with the SR-22. I was looking at a 2018 SR-22 G6 and when compared to a new one I can get a new SR-22 for about $60K more, but it will be in my color scheme, have zero time and Cirrus is throwing in a five year tip to tip warranty. Good luck brother and hope to see you out there.

Patton gave zero fucks. I’m not saying some AETC general is like Patton, or that the pilot shortage is WWII. We pay our generals to win wars full stop. I don’t want some candy-ass general who cares about my feels. I want a killer with zero fucks to give when the shit hits the fan. Also, I want a $75k/year bonus.

Go spend some time in Mexico, South America, the Middle East (I'm assuming you have), Africa, or East Asia and tell me America isn't a meritocracy. I'm sure you're being somewhat hyperbolic, but the difference between the Western meritocracy and real nepotism, which most Americans have not experienced, is vast and shocking. Ivanka Trump was an advisor, not the Secretary of State. Hunter Biden was just milking some spare change from his Dad's name, he wasn't the Secretary of Commerce. We are not nepotistic country.

Ruh Roh...looks like the start of a git down purse fight....no bricks in purses...pub bags acceptable...(does that date me?)