Leaderboard

In the AF there is a culture of pretending a SGT of any sorts is superior to an officer under the rank of O-6, and if they are an E-8/9 then maybe even more authority than an O-6. It’s perpetuated across career fields and weak officers let it happen. They even support it by telling young officers they need to shut up and listen to the Sgts. I’m sure you have already noticed, that compared to the Navy and USMC, authority is non existent in the Air Force below the wing commander level. A piece of paper stamped by an A1C holds more merit than the command authority granted to most “commanders.” The need for a squadron commander to ask “mother may I” through the group and wing CC, and in some cases to a star (like covid ETPs), is absurd.

You're asking him to look past the numbers and get to a reason. Good luck. To him, minorities are just more violent, and less educated by nature. "Those people" are this way now, and always have been. I've had the same discussion with people where they're like, "Why don't they just move out of those neighborhoods?! If they didn't like it they would leave." Zero desire to dig into the issue, really look at the blatantly racist housing issues that kept minorities that could leave in bad neighborhoods (red lines, racist lending practices, racist development [ex. 80 through Omaha], etc.). Then, the war on drugs and mass incarceration at a disproportionate rate for minorities over whites, which crippled the families of what were generally conservative households.

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

Pacific time...

Ungrateful peasants!

The challenge is that a lot of race issues are a local problem, and solutions require local communities figuring out what work for their community. Selective enforcement of the law and biases in sentencing are problems within the justice system. Great of the unfamiliar is also a problem for police: if you don't understand the culture or mannerisms of a particular group of people, it can be very easy to view unfamiliar behavior as threatening, which escalates the amount of force used. Also, the thin blue line movement is stupid. It creates this notion that people in the community are bad, and the police keep the order. This creates a mentality of separation of the police from the community it is supposed to be protecting. But these are issues that have to be fixed within a community at a local area. Increasing funding for police would have varying effects. It's built on the belief that they will spend the money to improve training, or hire more police. But I'd bet that many departments will buy better toys (cars, maybe outfit a SWAT team or two, or a helicopter) rather than invest in training. Sounds an awful lot like the DoD... That unfamiliarity in culture differences also can cause problems in other areas in life. Job interviews, housing, etc. That can also make it hard to escape your circumstances. And that's a local issue (there's already federal laws regarding hiring and housing protected classes). There's also a motion that if you work hard enough and have enough grit, you can escape and climb the social ladder. In some cases, it's true, but it also relies on good luck and timing, which aren't always acknowledged (many people are suckers for the great man theory). But often times, it seems to be parents making huge sacrifices in their life to give their kids a better life that breaks the chain. The formula for upward mobility has also changed. Used to be a college degree was enough to bring home a good job, and was a safe bet. Now even that is a significant gamble, with many people being saddled with heavy debt that can't be discharged in bankruptcy. This one's probably a national issue though-good intentions with bad unintended consequences. But it doesn't stop employers from requiring or preferring college degrees, even if the job in no way requires one. So there's a lot of systemic and cultural issues that contribute to the race problem (but it's really a culture problem). Here's an AF example: remember when everyone was complaining about having to complete SOS/ACSC and a master's in their off time in order to have a decent chance of promotion? And how that was taking away time with the family? And that commanders were using those factors also in determining strats (essentially dinging you twice for the same item)? And at least within AMC, special programs are also tired to those factors (WIC, Phoenix). The typical line was to show your commitment to the system, you know what the game is, and if you want to advance, you have to play the game. Sure, a very small percentage of people a year might be promoted without a master's or PME. The system wasn't going to change itself (the statistics show that advanced degrees and PME were positive indicators of future success...) But a systemic issue forced a lot of pain onto the population of officers, and it took CSAF unilateral action to change it (masking degrees). And even then it feels like there are commanders out there that still use master's degrees in their strat matrix. But if you look out in the civilian world, we expect people, largely who are poor or in the lower end of middle class, to pay out of pocket for night classes to get a degree or trained in a different career fields to improve their station in life, and no one blinks an eye. It's just expected, and to an extent, celebrated as American culture (busting your butt to live a comfortable life). But it ignores that there's risk involved for the individual, and even if you work hard, bad timing of luck means you can still fail. This is compounded by the survivorship bias, where is ready to pick out certain factors and point to that being the reason for success, while ignoring many other factors that contribute to that success. We're also a very individualistic society, so we tend to not recognize the support or help we get from the society that surrounds us. If you're not aware of that fact, when you look at people who are struggling from that perspective, it's very easy to lay 100% of the blame on the individual, even though there may be a societal issues to blame as well.

Being fairly new, I find it interesting how much attention is given to the CMSAF role and the person in it. In 19 years of the Navy, I couldn’t give you one name of a MCPON (Navy top enlisted). I guess my point, the CMSAF seems it’s more about the person and less about the job. At least that’s my perception.

Whats surprising to me is the stupid inconsistency in all of this. In North Carolina my brother's kids do remote school work but they still meet to do intramural sports/activities. Like WTF? The later, is definitely not essential and should be the first thing cancelled hands down.

Nope, haven't actually started UPT yet. Getting sponsored by a fighter squadron actually pushed my dates back to align me with a 38 slot. I just made whatever connections I could, put in an app anywhere that would accept one, cold called and emailed random squadrons, rushed everywhere I could, etc.. lots of time and effort, but the real work hasn't even started. Super stoked for everything to come! I do know some studs that have been on the unsponsored path and made it into a fighter mid T-6s though. For those dudes, it was mainly performance and persistence based.

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.

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

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.

I’m sorry man but there are more efficient ways to just say, “I don’t understand or believe in statistics.” You’re right though that selective dunking doesn’t help move the country forward in a positive way, but in this instance I have to beg forgiveness 🍻

I’ll raise you @AW91 $10 says no notification next week. Why? Because Air Force lol

I have a faint suspicion that CC's are going to find out next Friday at 5pm 😂

@URTHopeful2021 Not with that attitude! You right though.

This is absolutely true. Take for instance the current senate. Republicans know Democrats need 10 votes to pass things. They also know they have several seats of members in vulnerable swing states. It's actually good for republicans to help identify those individuals because they know they will be targets for negotiation. Those 10 senators then get the choice to push their own agenda or advocate the agenda of the Republican party. There is some real game theory to how this all happens but the most important take away is they work together to find something that works for most seats. With out the filibuster you get legislation that's good for 51% of Americans. With the filibuster you get legislation that's good for 60% of Americans. (Making a broad generalization that senate seats are representative of population which we know isn't true but you get the point. We get better legislation this way.)

Looking forward to this one. The fact that they brought back so many of the original actors (and multiple roles for Murphy and Hall) bodes well I hope.

My input, from someone whose never killed anyone but is still raising my hand for the job. It's important to differentiate between wanting to be GOOD at war and WANTING war. Philosophically I myself would rather live in a world free of war...but this is just not reality. People have been fighting for thousands of years, and you have to decide what it is you believe in. Yes, if everybody refused violence the world would be a better place. But this is Utopian/impossible: there will always be someone willing to stab you for 50 bucks in your wallet , rape your GF, kill you just for the sake of killing you....or to fly a 767 loaded with jet fuel into a skyscraper killing innocent people. Nobody wants to kill anybody until they are the victim, or until their freedoms are being taken away (ACTUAL freedoms (think Nazi Germany), not "wearing a mask is a violation of my rights BS"). So I personally believe that the people who appreciate life the most are most qualified to decide when it is necessary to start taking it. You may not want to kill, and I think that is a good thing. But you should want to be the best killer in a jet out there for if and when it becomes necessary, that is the serving your country part. America isn't perfect, and I do think we've made some rather large errors in certain conflicts (always easy to see looking in the rear view...not so easy to see for those looking out the windshield at the time). But compared to the other power players (Russia, China, etc.), she is still incredibly precious and vulnerable, more so now than ever, and politicians seem to be forgetting that more and more (i.e, lets work together to solve problems and find reasonable middle of the road solutions before it is too late). Hopefully some dudes who have actually sprayed some lead will chime in.

We can agree to disagree. Personally, I believe that our current form of government is most definitely not optimal and should be updated. Many of you will say that is not the case. Some of you will say that’s not the case because it was designed this way from the beginning. Malarkey. I have read the federalist and anti federalist papers, and I’m not convinced they have as much foresight as you think. I personally believe that - hot take - the founding fathers couldn’t actually predict everything that would happen in a complex modern society. And I believe their glorification is actually counterproductive to discussions about how to change things to work better in a society that no longer resembles 1770s New England. I mean, the original government of the US only had to represent the ideals of a couple million homogenous white American males who all lived in the same place and did the same thing for a living. It’s more akin to the governance of Delaware, New Hampshire, or Vermont than a multicultural, 4000 mile wide nation with vastly varying interests, beliefs, and economic factors. And we are feeling the cultural issues with non-homogeneity and have been ever since our country expanded. A few obvious mistakes: the original constitution still enabled the oppression and non-representation of women and slaves. The founding fathers knew that a two party system would be a terrible thing for government, yet they couldn’t do anything or have any foresight to stop its formation. Additionally, I must say that our government since the early 1900s has taken sharp turns away from the original founding with both formal laws and amendments and informal changes, whether it comes to how/how many electors are appointed, how senators are chosen, tactics to stonewall legitimate legislation and appointment of officials, or powers of the executive/legislative branch. “We the people” used to mean a lot more when they had proportional representation, yet it was casually changed just so it was easier to deal with. And my point is that the changes that have led to the current American government are not necessarily a good thing. You could call me pro-reform. Pragmatically, we don’t stand a chance of uniting and making valid national change to strategy without a new boogeyman. The World Wars and Cold War were the only thing that brought Americans together over the last century, and without them, we resort to infighting. For many Republicans, their only policy is that they want to “own the libs.” Beyond that, they’re stumped. Many Democrats just want to expel “fascist Republicans” and sing Kumbayah. And now we on this forum are fighting about whether or not it is a valid tactic to read a cookbook for 16 hours because the majority of people don’t agree with your point. YGBSM. Maybe the actual governmental system is f*cked if people have to do that as a “balance of power.”

I was enlisted for 5 years and I only knew the CMSAF that I was required to memorize during basic training. After that, I never knew (nor did I care) who the CMSAF was...still don't. For that matter, I honestly couldn't care less who is the current CSAF. Everyone has high hopes/they talk a big game...then nothing really changes. I take that back, there have been plenty of changes, mostly requiring I do more and more work that others should be doing.

So much disagree with this post... I wish more people would read the Federalist Papers and the reasoning and logic behind what the framers built in the Constitution. They had a longer view of government based on history and study of the great philosophers like Locke, Plato and Socrates. They understood the extremes and challenges as presented by Machiavelli. They were great thinkers and did not resolve every concept to a 30 second sound bite. One thing is certain, the framers in an attempt to build a "more perfect union" wanted their to be debate, discussion, consensus. They did not want rapid change or Crazy Ivan's that reacted to public opinion. Time as a function of legislation served to let tempers cool and logic persist. The filibuster serves that purpose along with many others. Going to a simply majority in the name of timely legislation is a gross misunderstanding of what our system is supposed to be. Again, SLOW change, build on logic and consensus. That was the intent of America.

While I certainly agree that there are historic reasons for these problems...how long can you blame those historic reasons? How much separation from those events do you need before you need to take some responsibility for improving your own lot in life? Is anyone TODAY, in 2021, being prevented from renting an apartment, buying a house, getting a job, etc based solely on race? And if so...what do we do about it? We already have a plethora of government agencies that work to eliminate this kind of racism in hiring, housing, health care, banking, education...Is the solution MORE government programs? And what kind of government programs will be successful where our current programs have failed?

I'll say it--I bet we don't hear about an official date this week.

So my question, what the hell were those contractors and FBI investigators we are paying doing? And why does it take them years to do it. What the F seriously, we have forms and methods to find out about people’s dirty past. If you’ve been to SERE school or ever signed a consent to be monitored you have a pretty good idea at just how simply accessed so called “secure social media” information is. So what the F are these people doing if not finding the links to the dude hanging out with the skinheads in high school or talking to ISIS on Reddit. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mainly because the officer corps abdicated that authority. Get rid of the E-9 parking spots (I'll give a pass here for the E-club). Want a parking spot? Commission and make O-6. ETA: Want any DV treatment? Commission and make O-6

Do you now, or have you ever, owned a MAGA hat?

It's going to take longer than that, I expect there will be more OSI/CID/NCIS directed involvement to root out this sort of thing. It reminds me of stories my Dad would tell about local gang issues he had while he was running the comm workcenters while on the ship. Just more largely organized, which is worse. //break break// You guys thinking @slackline is a troll because he disagrees with you and won't back down is hilarious.

There are a couple of good things about the filibuster I'm not sure you've thought of that generally protect rights. 1.) It forces bipartisan cooperation. A majority congress can't throw a bill before congress that is too left or right wing because they will require between at least 1-10 votes from the other party to make it work. 2.) It protects large minorities. Because even if only 41% of people believe a certain way, that is a LOT of people to just discount and trounce on. 3.) It actually improves government efficiency over a long term period because it prevents either party from putting forward bills that would just be turned over the next time they lost the simple majority. 4.) I'm going to assume you know this, but for anyone that's confused, filibuster rarely refers to reading from a dictionary or text book anymore. Since 1970 its largely a procedural rule that just means you need 60 votes to pass legislation besides budgetary bills, confirmations or certain national security priorities. I mean if you want to argue the threshold of 60 votes is too high, that might be valid, but I would be hesitant to throw it out all together. For one, as soon as the party that throws it out loses the majority again, they are going to get hosed. All bets are off at that point.

Also was unsponsored with no high up connections; I will be heading to fighters. It's not common, but with good timing, luck, and a lot of hard work it is possible.

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

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

How many 5000+ page bills did the founding fathers have < 24 hrs to read, evaluate, consider, and sign? Oh. Right. If it was me, I'd just bring a book I wanted to read anyway. Shit, I'd stop by the library on my way. Probably grab a few magazines, maybe some penthouse letters, definitely one of those astronaut piddle-packs that lets you drive maniacally across the country without stopping once... Don't miss the point of the filibuster because it seems ridiculous to you. It's point is to protect the minority in this country - and increasingly, all of us from a supposed majority.

You make some pretty good points in here, but I think you still easily dismiss the hard evidence that goes counter to your narrative. Affirmative action, I don’t have a good answer for you there. I think we’re on similar ground on that one. I think where I take issue is that you’ve narrowed it down to “fixing their problem”, basically putting it 100% on them. “Well, if they’d stop stepping out on their women and maintain a nuclear family, they wouldn’t be in this mess...” That ignores the massive amounts of policies that have existed in the US to make it more difficult for them to take out loans, buy houses, biases (since you guys all have a fear of the word racism) that prevented them from getting jobs, treated as hostile suspects, I could go on, and it’s all been laid out here a million times. Even Trump didn’t hide it back when he was heavy into the apartment game. Trump instructed them to label applications from black people so they knew who to deny. I’ll even give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was due more to bias than racist beliefs. Socioeconomic factors that have been created by decades of wrongheaded policies based off fear and/or ignorance have created the situation we’re in today. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I can’t control the family I was born into, just like I couldn’t control the country I was born into. I lucked out on both accounts! Very greatful for it. Does that mean that if I see something we could fix I shouldn’t say anything? I should just sit there with my mouth shut to make others feel more comfortable? Acknowledging that something like having priviledges others don’t have simply because of the skin color I happened to be born with doesn’t mean anyone is racist. It means we still have work to do to overcome decades of overtly racist beliefs that led to covert ways to keep others in check, given different names or justifications to make those around them feel comfortable. I realize, I’m not convincing any of you with anything I say. I‘m not saying it for you. I don’t think you’re racist either. Just so easily offended by the notion that there are still problems in the system that benefit one skin color more than another. I’m opening myself up to the dreaded criticism from the internet for those that are just lurking, maybe aren’t sure one way or another, and actually consider reasoned, logical arguments. What a bunch of people on an internet forum say about my online profile won’t keep me up at night...

There you go throwing your White Privilege around again...

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.

Oh for ’s sake, it is “toe the line.”

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

I like to think about how dumb the average American is, and then I immediately think about how half of the rest are dumber than that...

The amount of demographic and social evidence that has been presented just here over the last year that you conveniently ignore when you present your "nothing is wrong here" picture is laughable. But if you keep ignoring it, you can feel comfortable.

Just stating a fact. A sizable sample doesn’t mean it’s a good sample. It could be skewed just by the type of people that agree to answer. While everyone here seems to be a stats expert with black and white results, population statistics are actually super grey and hard to get right. Just consider that when looking at the results, that’s all.

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 would say that is true if you have not had COVID. I had a nasty case over Christmas and have been told by multiple doctors that I may still get the vaccine, but I have solid antibodies for at least 90 days (a recent study found antibodies after 11 months). The CDC and other are still studying reinfection which will likely take a while to resolve with certainty and while the recommend you still adhere to protective measures (masks, hand washing...etc.), they also state this on their website - there here have been a few recorded cases of coronavirus reinfection, but they remain rare. Given these facts I think I am safe to wait another 60 days and allow others who are more vulnerable to get the vaccine, I also think there is a very low probability that I could pass it on to someone else.

Your comment made me think of this tribalism cartoon from way back. Which applies to basically all facets of life.

Makes me think of Chapelle’s bit about why the hell people care what celebrities think. “Somebody get Ja Rule on the phone so he can make sense of all this!” But, in reality, seeing the sheer number of people talking about this makes me think more of one of my favorite books: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay. It’s a nearly 200 year old book that talks about Tulip Mania, the South Seas Company, and the Mississippi Company and how average folks get swept up in get rich quick/can’t lose investments, as well as the aftermaths. Because the book was written in the 1840s, it doesn’t include the 1920s, the dot com, the housing bubble, and whatever we’re gonna call this next one, but it sure as hell seems to rhyme. It’s a good and quick read, for those that are interested. There’s a famous (if possibly made up) story of Joe Kennedy getting stock tips from the shoe shine boy on his way to work in 1929 and knowing the markets were toast. But, it does kinda hold true. When people you’d never consider talking about investments with are proffering investment advice, shit might be getting outta hand. Gamestop/AMC/Blackberry business models, financial pictures, and/or operating environments didn’t drastically change in the last month, so the absolutely astounding increases aren’t based on anything fundamental. Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride or make money, but it’s not much more than going to Vegas and gambling. There will be losers. Just be careful out there. Caveat emptor.

Yes, although it would be a bit like a horse carriage company transitioning to automobiles.....in 1965.

There are many great truths to be extracted from the original "Star Wars". One of those truths is that the orange flight suit will return in its full glory.

No I have seen multiple friends of mine who were regional pilots get hired by heavies and fighters. Just stay humble through the process even if you go into a interview with 1000’s of flight hours. The unit just wants to see that your A. A good due that meshes with the squad and B. That you can pass training/Are trainable

It looks like no one here went to Nellis Airshow. However we got to bring in our A-37B (S/N 87921) after a 20 year restoration. It was the first public display of the aircraft, and it was a big hit. 1st photo is from the Nellis ramp this weekend. Two Vietnamese AF pilots that flew it stopped by and said hi... very interesting since the jet was delivered in '69 directly to the South Vietnamese AF. They flew it for 6 years and about 2200 hours of combat time. It has the 7.62 patches as a reminder. When Saigon fell 29 April 1975, it was captured by the North. We have pics of the NV crews with the jet 2-4 days after Saigon fell, and it actually flew combat missions against the South. The 2nd photo is of 87921 in NV hands. This is the only A-37B currently flying in North America. I think it is one of only 3 flying in the world. We are discussing having me fly an aerobatic routine in 2020 with it. However it will only be at a few select airshows on the West Coast. With full wing and tip tanks and 2 pilots, it weighs 9,000 lbs. The J-85's are putting out ~2750 lbs thrust each. Needless to say, for those of you that flew the T-37, there is no comparison. The acceleration is spectacular. The owner has done a fantastic job, and the cockpit is like new. The only additions are an Aspen unit and a new ADS-B and transponder. The ejection seats are cold. Side note: the Combined Arms Demo that the 57th Wing flew was unbelievable. ACC must have waived everything they've had in the AFI because for once I was blown away by an AF "display". The jets were puking flares like it was going out of style. Loud, fast, low. Nice job to Maj "Stranger" Davenport and the Nellis folks for a jaw-dropping display.