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Just rounding this out:

People laugh but I would love to see a split ticket as the third party in the next POTUS election. Tulsi (D) with Crenshaw (R) or Haley (R) for example. Completely bi-partisan and able to pull the more independent and centrist votes away from the two major parties.

AKA trolling

my question is when are all you fear based thinkers going to come out of your shell? what's your end game? zero covid? cases per day? etc etc at some point life goes on and a lot of rational people have been moving on now for months

megabits are rarely used to indicate storage size, and that would also be a tiny PDF file if it was only 8 megabits. I know it's important to look out for this stuff and be professional, but come on guys...

Depending on what data you look at, as an American you are between 8 and 50+ times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist. We spend trillions of $ on defense which is obviously needed but perhaps we should focus a bit more on the internal. I am in no way saying all the blame lays with police officers (my brother is a cop), but maybe we can help the entire system with a bit more understanding and new approaches. As a small segway, the following is a list of other things that are more likely to kill you than a terrorist: Brain-Eating Parasites, Texting While Driving, Accident caused by a Toddler, Lightning, A Deer, Falling Out of Bed, Food Poisoning, Choking On Food, Bathtub Accident, Financial Crash, Being crushed to death, Medical Errors and my personal favorite...Autoerotic Asphyxiation.

Point 1: The only way it would be relevant is if his intoxication level directly impacted his ability to comprehend what the officer was telling him. Which is possible, but as yet not what I'm seeing here or elsewhere. Otherwise, it's a non-sequitur. Point 2/3: The threat to officers is something like 150-200ish killed in the line of duty a year, right? So in the millions of officer interactions that happen in this country.....just like the threat of civilians getting killed by errant cops, the various sides of this argument overstate the severity of what is going on. I agree the media malfeasance is gross. That said, the overall crime rate has gone down a lot in the past couple decades, but the number of civilian deaths from officer involved altercations has not matched the decline. So something is out of whack. I'm not saying they're running around maliciously murdering people. The entire framing of the discussion (cops vs criminals, "sacrifice safety in the name of propping up criminals" or "I don't care if it's an 11 year old, I'm going home tonight!" ) guarantees problems. I don't think completely eliminating qualified immunity is a good idea. However departments get away with terrible policy and practices, reference the SWAT raid that fucked up an infant when an officer lobbed a flash bang (which landed in the crib) instead of rolling it along the floor. Officer acquitted. Maybe that officer should have been acquitted if he was following his training. But that technique is negligent, and that isn't news to people who actually know what they're doing. I do appreciate that policing in the country has come a long way since the days of the stake out squad. That doesn't mean there isn't room to improve. And yes, I do expect police officers to assume risk on behalf of the civilians they are sworn to serve.

I think a lot of people are realizing that our public education system really sucks and the quality they were lead to believe just isn't there. I get it, we need a school system with both parents being required to work in a lot of situations. After meeting some teachers where we live and seeing the result of a lot of our friends kids in the K-5 school where our kids would be going is pretty discouraging. We made the decision to home school and make sacrifices so my wife can stay home. Our 4 yr old is better off than most 2nd graders we know. The way the teachers union has handled this in a lot of areas is sad. It makes a strong case to do away with the unions. Our school district is now more focused on making sure nobody is offended and the kids dont call anyone he/she anymore.

schools should be open

That picture is from 2014 in Sweden, when the company Alpine Helicopters was testing de-icing windmill blades during an ice storm with boiling water. I get the irony, but it's a false narrative using that picture for the current events.

Some people DGAF about 0-60 or 1/4 mile. A Tesla on anything other than the drag strip is boring. No rumble. No shifting. Nothing...it’s a really fast vibrator with tires. It doesn’t excel in the corners either. I would rather buy two C8’s than a single Tesla. One for the track and one as a DD. But thank God this is America and you can spend your money on whatever you want...even if it is the wrong way. 🍺

You guys will be fine. It’s MB.

Just putting my timeline in for reference to the Guard process... AFOQT: Sep 2017 Pilot: 92 PCSM: 77 (41 flight hours) Hired: Nov 2018 MEPS: Apr 2019 Enlistment: Jul 2019 FC1: Oct 2019 OTS: Aug 2020 SERE: Mar 2021 UPT: May 2021 In regards to current COVID ops, they have been postponing some guard UPT slots that were already assigned. At my unit, there were 3 of us going through the process together and the other 2 got postponed until potentially spring 2022. Keep checking on your packet and your next training orders throughout the entire process.

I believe you are correct, I think @Bean may be referring to the fact that you can only apply once more if you declined something previously (i.e. wanted pilot but got CSO and declined CSO). Technically, I think you can apply as much as you want if you aren't selected for anything. However, it does raise an interesting point that it may be better to be selected for nothing than selected for something you don't want if you have a certain goal.

For someone like Tulsi that may be okay. Likely no future in the way left turning democrat party and if she wants to keep the D by her name (sts) she wouldn’t be able to go through the Republican primaries to get nominated.

Ya, I guess I never understood the status symbols culture. Ya probably. I'm not a car guy...still driving my 2Lt car from 2006. 1.8L of fucking muscle!

Just curious - is that something new? Are you only allowed to apply twice? I believe it used to be you could apply as many times as you wanted until you reached the max age or max total commissioned service time?

According to Pawnman, that's not good enough. He should've gone straight to jail.

And speaking of "same level of accountability" when's the last time a pilot or crew faced criminal charges (in the US) for a Class A mishap that was pilot error?

Your definition of accountability seems to be punishing people even when the use of force is justified and they're cleared of wrongdoing. Tamir Rice was a horrible situation. Someone called 911 reporting a person with a gun waving it around in the park. They did say it's "probably fake" but it would be unreasonable for law enforcement to assume that (and if it's probably fake, why call 911?). The officers made some serious tactical errors in their approach (pulling up right in front with no cover at all). When Rice reached into his waistband to pull out the gun, they shot him. How were they supposed to know it was a toy? The city of Cleveland settled a $6M lawsuit and the officer was fired. A grand jury declined to indict them. What else do you want? Take the emotion out of it. Do you want them to go to jail "just because"? The Kelly Thomas case went to trial and they were found not guilty. Not by a "thin blue line" but a jury of their peers. Take that up with the courts. Finally, Freddie Gray. He was arrested after fleeing on foot in an area of known criminal activity for a switchblade knife that was illegal in Baltimore. While in custody, he broke his neck in the van and hit his head. Six officers were suspended. All were acquitted or charges dropped. The Obama DOJ (under Lynch) investigated and eventually declined to pursue it. Again, what would you like? Execute them in the streets to assuage your FEELINGS? No one is saying these deaths were justified or right, but to say there was no accountability is wrong. Each example you cited involved criminal charges and trials for the officers.

But what is the real requirement(s)? This platform or that platform is a good discussion but to get the Bobs to cut the check they have to believe in the requirement and then (ideally) that a manned platform owned/operated by the USAF is the right solution. I see it as two requirements - Conventional and SOF LASSO (light attack, surveillance, support and observation). - Conventional is a manned (potentially capable of unmanned operations) attack platform designed to deliver PGM fires and medium persistence ISR into low-med threat environments without an extensive logistical footprint or air refueling on a typical mission; organic self-defense from guided SAFIRES and defensive retrograde/defensive fire from/to A2A threats with supersonic and/or BVR capabilities. Highly connected and capable of connecting ground/air/naval players and inexpensive enough to operate repetitively for months/years on end in COIN, LIC or Hybrid conflicts that will require tailored use of the military IOP to achieve a desired/acceptable/inevitable end state. Alternate role in conventional conflict is as a Fusillade Platform for forward LO assets to provide fires from a stand-off platform and not reveal their presence or expend their ordinance in initial volleys. Shameless plug #69 and great example of this would be a more developed version of the Scorpion Jet with AR capabilities and additional systems (ECM provisions, BLOS, unmanned modes, etc...) tested and validated. - SOF is a manned attack platform designed to deliver unguided, direct and PGM fires along with medium persistence ISR into low threat environments without an extensive logistical footprint. It is designed to operate in support of SOF or Indigenous Forces from semi-prepared forward bases with a light logistical footprint, low total cost of operation and feasible for lesser economically capable Partner Nations to acquire, train and maintain. One of the main roles of this aircraft is to be an American supported platform to encourage PNs to buy and fly their own, to fight their own fights with and enable us to support/mentor their militaries in conflicts we see engagement as in America's interest. The repurposed Ag Applicator aircraft are probably better for that and not to be callous, the e-seat may be too expensive to for some PNs to afford and realistically maintain well. This applies to some PGMs as well, a corollary to the Light Attack saga needs to be less expensive PGMs with at least Hellfire range and low on the shelf maintenance requirements.

I thought the Nikoli truck looked pretty sick vs the Tesla, but that turned bad for GMC. I have a F150 and love it. Has a 36 gallon tank I can go 600+ miles on it, the truck is pretty quick for a truck and has a ton of room for kids and dogs. Its hard not to have a truck after owning one.

If you've got the money, you can afford better toys. Or to buy things as status symbols. A g-shock or timex watch is accurate and costs less than $100, yet many pilots will still spend several thousand dollars for a watch that is much less accurate. You could even get a smart/gps watch for $500-700 that's accurate with way more functions than just time/date/stopwatch.

We're in one of the top districts in CO. PPL are willing to be stupid house poor to send their kids here. More and more parents are doing home school near us. The virtual learning is a joke and the kids are getting fat. If I were a well respected teacher I would highly consider quitting and getting paid cash to teach a small "POD". But I've met teachers here and the few Ive met thought I was the devil for working in Oil and Gas. One just started bitching at me at a block party how I was killing the earth. She drove her Honda there BTW. But these are the people teaching our kids. They're also the first to duck and cover from COVID and let the kids suffer. If I get the green light to work more remote were out of this state.

Infinitely superior to both A-29 and AT-6 for the intended role... Ignored completely in our attempts to sell it for AVFID because it’s “just a crop duster with guns,” and not “fully aerobatic.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bad MO FO Insane load outs with unreal station time.

First, he failed to comply. So, you're right, whether it was because he was high or not is irrelevant. He reached down despite being told not to. What IS relevant is that he was illegally carrying a firearm, which throws the whole "he was a good guy with a concealed carry permit exercising his rights" argument out the window. He was not legally exercising his 2A rights. He was also endangering a child in the process. This is a bit of a fallacy. There are even fewer aviation crashes per year as a percentage of flight hours, should we therefore not have boldface and emergency procedures because the risk is small? Of course not. Every officer should approach every interaction as if it could become a lethal encounter, because it absolutely can. Complacency kills. On the other side, the "gross overstatement" is the "systemic racism" myth. With few exceptions, in nearly every case the media has latched onto, if the "victim" had A) been a law abiding citizen and/or B) complied with officer instructions and not resisted, that person would be alive today. This myth that police are going around indiscriminately killing minorities is what's getting good cops killed. Hesitation kills just as much as complacency. You are correct in that law enforcement assumes a higher level of risk. They should be paid more and given more training. They should also not be expected to be the world's mental health counselors and social workers, but that's another story altogether. Like any other profession (including/especially the military), law enforcement involves a huge cross section of individuals. Some are shitbags. The shitbags usually get run out, but sometimes they end up in leadership just like in the military. I agree that the bad make us all look bad, but the answer is not to make the job harder and run off more good people by removing protections that allow cops to do their jobs. And the answer is certainly not vilifying police with false narratives about racism and "he was a good boy who didn't do anything wrong" lies. In my experience, the majority of people who put on the badge (just like the military who put on the uniform) are good, honest, hardworking people who want to make a difference in their communities and accept the fact that they're doing it for shit pay and a growing sentiment that they're somehow the enemy. As I mentioned earlier, I recommend you see for yourself. Do a ride along. Take a citizens' academy. Or even join your local reserve division. It's easy to throw stones from the cheap seats, but unless you've done it, you're not really speaking from a knowledgeable position.

Same here. My son has also been sent home twice and quarantined three times (the last time because he got COVID from his Grandmother.) We have a family friend and her son has been sent home and quarantined six times so far this school year. One of the local high schools had to send home 43 students from one class the first day because the teacher didn't build a manual seating chart to document where everyone was sitting (CDC requirement). One of the kids in the class had a family member with COVID so they sent the entire chorus class home for 14 days. We have a family friend that teaches at my son's school and at one point just before Christmas she told us 40% of the students at our son's middle school were out on out quarantine. She also told us the kids were remarkably disciplined about wearing masks and washing hands (shocking with a bunch of 13 year olds), and that most of the students caught back up and recovered on school work and syllabus. When out on quarantine they don't go to full virtual learning but the teachers post all class and homework so if they have a positive influence at home they can stay on course. We've been lucky, even with my son out three times he maintained 5 A's and one B. All of that being said, we don't have a single documented case of student to student or student to teacher transmission. IMHO Florida got it right opening school back up so soon.

Just not the same thing as knowing there are cylinders and valves and camshafts all whirring in reaction to little explosions and making a lovely sound while they’re at it. While electric is looking more and more like the future, and my daily will likely be all electric sooner rather than later, there will always be a spot in my garage for something with three pedals and a gas tank. The automobile didn’t kill the horse. It just turned it into a plaything (for the most part—-depends on where you live and what you do). The same will be true of the fossil fuel-electric transformation.

Interesting to read about how the other side is doing it (sts): Initial Fighter Pilot Training in the PLA Air Force

My kids have been in school since 3 August. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Nice, glad to see they are releasing us

13M- Airfield Ops

Having some air sense and basic skills will help. If you get stuck in old habits, it will hurt.

URT Select! 41 PCSM with zero hours 88 pilot AFOQT

Here's my perspective as someone who entered UPT with few hundred GA hours (CPL w/instrument rating) and currently a T-6 IP. For starters, ground ops (walking out to the jet, the preflight, getting the aircraft started and taxied) sound benign but in reality, the AF wants them done quickly and accurately. You won't have time to sit under the canopy in the heat or cold and go through the checklist item by item, especially when you're in a formation and you have a VHF check-in time. You'll need to create flows to make sure everything is in order and it helps to do things the same time, every time, so something will hopefully seem off to you if it's forgotten. The struggle between speed and accuracy is what some students struggle with, to include those with previous flying experience. One large difference in UPT is the vastly different traffic pattern. In the GA world, you're used to a single rectangular box pattern. In UPT, you have several different patterns (overhead, straight-in, low pattern, high pattern, breakout/reentry, etc.) controlled by the RSU within the Class-D and things happen fast. You'll have close to a dozen other T-6s moving at 200 knots at its busiest, and you have to listen on the radios for every little detail while precisely maneuvering the aircraft. It's not uncommon to routinely pull several Gs in the pattern to follow the precise ground tracks. It takes several flights to build your SA bubble enough to be comfortable to solo... this is something you can't really prepare for in the GA world. It's also a blast once used to it. The formation phase is obviously entirely new to most. As someone who occasionally flew formation with buddies in the GA world before UPT, it was nothing like military formation. For most with prior hours I'd say, this is where the playing field is generally leveled. I was a strong student in contact and instruments, but perfectly average in the formation phase and it was similar to learning to fly all over again in some ways. How so? Like in the pattern, things happen fast and you're maneuvering in relation to someone else while keeping up with precise, timely, and correct comms. As lead, you need to make the appropriate decisions for the formation and you're constantly under pressure to do so. But again, it's also a blast once used to it. Also, unlike on a GA training flight where you just fill the fuel tanks and typically don't have to worry about fuel, you will always have a set amount of time/fuel to accomplish each sortie in UPT. You simply won't have the time/gas to mess around. You need to be quick to accomplish your profile within these constraints, whether single ship or for the formation. It's added pressure. Those are just a few specific examples and I'm sure others will chime in with more. What helped me the most in UPT was having good stick and rudder skills from GA flying and my instrument rating. This allowed me to fly/trim the aircraft so I could focus more on what was going on outside and build an SA bubble. Previous flight time will set a foundation in terms of some basic general knowledge and hopefully some stick/rudder skills, but you will have to much to learn in terms of AF procedures and applying them while inverted/under moderate G/potentially being yelled at by the IP. Did I mention that it's a blast?

Here is a spot where our opinions diverge. There are several reasons why I think schools should be priority one when it comes to “reopening” the country: 1. Our kids are suffering. I can tell you first hand that the level of education being provided by online learning is nowhere near what kids are getting in school. Older/more mature kids might be doing a bit better, but my 10 year old was getting almost nothing from zoom school. It’s nearly impossible for a teacher to vie for a child’s attention through a computer screen. Aside from the academic deficit, kids are mission out on all of the social and interpersonal development that is arguably even more important than the academic part of school. All of this has taken a terrible toll on kids, as evidenced in the worst possible outcome: a huge increase in suicides. 2. Our society is dependent on the school day. The “one parent doesn’t work and plays homemaker” model is no longer the norm. A majority of families either have both parents working, or are single parent households. Don’t want to get into a morality argument. That’s just the way it is. Most parents depend on school for a majority of the year to make this work. Online school and limited in person school time places a tremendous logistical strain on families trying to make ends meet. In many families, both parents work out of necessity and things are tight. Now they are in the position where they have to either pay for child care that they can’t afford or may not even be available due to demand, leave young children at home unsupervised, or have one parent quit their job and risk not making rent/bills. Sorry, but the economy will not fully reopen until schools do. 3. The vast majority of studies indicate schools can reopen safely with relatively simple mitigation measures in place. We don’t need to wait for all teachers to be vaccinated (although that option is rapidly becoming available to them). We don’t need to rip out and replace the HVAC systems in every school. We simply need to make sure the kids are masked (hand them out at the entrance if they show up without one), and put a little extra space between them (I understand this particular requirement will be difficult in many districts). Bringing kids back into classrooms will never be perfectly safe and I understand teachers’ concerns. However, many of us have been going into work on a daily basis in industries arguably less critical than primary education. We have all been dealing with less than perfect safety measures. If the guy in the Amazon warehouse making sure people get their sex toys on time is considered critical, surely are teachers are too. It’s time for them to get back to work so the American economy can make its comeback and so our kids don’t fall even further behind.

There’s not really a sound to it; ICE supercars have that passion thing that electric cars absolutely lack. Formula E cars might be really quick...but it doesn’t stir a lot of emotion.

The only "data" reported is "the share of children with MIS-C requiring intensive care has jumped over the months from 50% to as many as 90%." What percent and total number of children have MIS-C? 1,000,000 is different than 50 or 500. So you're proposing what? Allow the teacher's unions to keep schools closed and further stunt our nation's childrens ability to develop?

That's like saying "otherwise legally driving" when your BAC is above the limit. It is a very important point. Castille's actions led to his own death. Had he been carrying legally, not endangering his child, and complied with officer instructions, he would be alive today. I can show you hundreds of examples of officers in this situation who hesitated and wound up dead or bleeding on the side of the road. Officer safety is a big deal. They have a right to go home after the end of the shift, and asking cops to sacrifice safety in the name of propping up criminals is ludicrous. There are millions of police interactions that happen daily that you never hear about because they are uneventful and usually positive. The 0.01% make the news (in the most slanted way possible for ratings and a narrative that NEVER gets corrected when the facts come out) and you want to make it even more dangerous for law enforcement as a result (i.e. - removing qualified immunity, which is idiotic). It's the same flawed logic as the "bAn AsSaULT rIfLeS" crowd after a psychopath shoots up a school with a handgun.

How could Trump have allowed an Ebola outbreak?! Impeach!

Sure, power companies could be hesitant to fire up excessive capacity to keep the profit margins up (wind is kinda free, vs coal or nuclear have a cost associated with increasing output). But ignoring that, you can only transmit so much power along a line. Try to pull too much power, and then stuff starts breaking and making the problem worse (hence the outages when demand looks like it's going to exceed capacity). So then it becomes a jigsaw puzzle to figure out how to route power from backup sources to where it's needed, and ensuring that at every point along the way you aren't exceeding capacity. While operating on aging infrastructure. Keeping the windmills going keeps more capacity on line, and reduces load across the system since more sources of power are available to feed the system. Put those two issues together, and without government forcing power companies to make improvements, or provide certain levels of power, it can be easy (and financially advantages) to make no improvements. Without regulations, there's no repercussions for failure. You also have to reduce demand. But people stuck inside are likely to use their electronic devices and entertainment centers to stay entertained, maybe run electric heaters and lights (who has candles these days?), and maybe continue to telework and live normally until power is shut off. So how do you get people to turn off their TV so people a few neighborhoods down don't get cut off from power? (COVID and the response to wearing masks makes me think this is pretty much impossible) And that also ignores improvements to infrastructure for protect against EMP or solar flares/CMEs. The Carrington event (1859) is an interesting example of what could happen to electronics with a major solar flare (in that event, it was mainly telegraph lines and equipment affected), and we had a near miss back in 2012. Basically, any long wire is an antenna, and strong magnetic fields (like from extreme solar flares) can induce large currents into anything connected to that wire, potentially damaging or destroying it. https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/08/carrington-event-warning/

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.

Any thoughts on the ANG? i know of a RPA unit looking for a already commissioned person to fill an RPA pilot slot.

For what it's worth, I agree with your analysis. Our sense of individualism is both a great strength, but can also be a great weakness. Unfortunately, there are many people that refuse to acknowledge our system and way of life has disadvantages, and isn't all sunshine and rainbows. But there's still no other country I would want to live in/be a citizen of.

They’re still broke due to hydro at Ramstein. Original ETIC was parts plus 45 years.

Assuming he's white, he likely won't. In every one of these cases de-escalation techniques might have prevented the need for force altogether, which I think we all agree is the desired goal.

I’m in a rated field and a non-select I thought that would be the case for me but nope. I emailed Chris this morning and I was simply not selected. Just outside the cut he said. Which is mind boggling judging by the amount of non-rated people chosen. It just doesn’t make sense they’d take someone with 0 airmanship and military flight time over someone that’s already proven & capable. I just don’t get it. My stats are E-3 FTU I-Nav, 1K+ hours, 96P/91PCSM, PPL, 3 deployments and they chose a non rate over me. 🥴

Swell. You're actually making my point. As pilots (maybe you're a fucking nav, in which case, disregard. No one cares about your opinion anyway), we know not to speculate on mishaps until the facts come out and an SIB has time to do an investigation. That helicopter crash may not have been pilot error, but the media will still run with their first speculative headlines and "perception becomes reality" despite the facts. You can do better than quoting comedians to try to prove your point.

Well looks like I’m a non-select. FWIW I’m a current E-3 FTU Nav 1,000+ hours, 96 pilot, 91 PCSM w/ppl #2 WG strat. AD can get bent. Time to start rushing Reserve/Guard units.