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I've long since adopted the attitude of just not giving a shit about being forced to attend this type of training, which has done wonders for my stress levels. If they want to pay me $750 to spend a day sitting through this crap, and not working on my flying abilities, then so be it. However, they only get me four or five days/month, and they just burned one on some bullshit. Now I'm down to three or four days to get my six sorties. If I make RAP, cool, if not, well I just don't care...because clearly they don't.

You have just succinctly described the entire woke movement. Nice job.

Does anybody else feel like, at least in the AF, this is a solution in search of a problem?

They want to manipulate the outcome in pursuit of "equity," but doing so with differential scoring criteria is to highlight the very differences they claim don't exist. The demonization of test scores in academia is evidence of this. Affirmative action in University admissions has been around forever, and that's just a form of differential scoring. Not good enough. So now we get rid of grades, leaving group identity rather than performance as the metric for measuring worth. Ugly stuff. As soon as you realize that the whole philosophy is corrupt, and the leaders of the movement know it, understanding the policy gets a lot easier. There's a reason the thought-leaders on the left have all but completely stopped engaging in debates with their counterparts on the right. They're lying, and you don't promote a lie by giving your opposition a platform to call you out on it.

We will NEVER achieve MLK's dream in this country because far too many people on both sides (your Al Sharptons and David Dukes, et al) make a good living stirring up racial animus. And far too many listen to those fools.

I’m anxiously awaiting the headline that says “SECDEF orders Pentagon to focus on winning wars”. Isn’t the alphabet people issue solved already? This actually brings up a question for the masses. In our extremism training the other day I was asked what I would do if I knew a member of the squadron was a racist. Not a klan member or something overt, but just prejudiced. I said if he didn’t act on it but was good at his job, I wouldn’t care. I just wouldn’t be the guys friend. When asked why I felt that way, I said if his actions didn’t affect anyone else beyond feelings and he was good at his job of defending the country by the selective application of violence, that’s my priority. Am I a bad person?

Ok, but they *are* lesser or ineffective in certain combat roles. Those roles are quite specifically the ones requiring brute strength or extreme stamina. No test is needed, beyond common sense, but if you have doubts, I believe the Marine Infantry Officer Course was opened to women a few years ago with a predictable outcome. Fighter pilots? Cool. Navy SEALS? Nope. The story with the Army test is that they specifically attempted to create a test that would be gender neutral, yet still women are being overwhelmingly outperformed by men. And why was such a test constructed, with a goal of removing gender-based scoring metrics? I suspect because "gender-based" is a political hot potato when one half of our government is making a serious-yet-absurd argument that gender does not actually exist. Except most women aren't interested in fighting reality either, and they don't want lower PT scores on their evaluations because some SJW professor of reptilian rape culture considers it patriarchal to have different scoring criteria. We are allowing a very small number of very stupid people to create a tremendous amount of work and wasted effort in the well-intentioned desire to be inclusive. But there is such a thing as "too far."

Currently deployed and we spent maybe ten minutes tops talking about this to check the box. Anybody forcing people to spend a whole day on this should be fired for anti-extremism extremism.

That person deserves to wear blues everyday until they leave the AF.

If it’s that dangerous, but we aren’t flying any significant combat Ops....why are the crews there in the first place? It’s only a big deal when you find out every E-3 in finance or EEO has their own room, and this is your 12th 90 day trip there in the last 8 years. Not a big deal, but it gets old.

Make sure you get paid for calling in (UTA, AT, GFTP). Nothing is done for free to include calling in to a “mandatory” class! If it’s required, then you’re required to be on a status and get paid!!

Bigger question...why can a Russian national be a congressional intern? Wasn't Russia a big bad conspiracy election meddling douche in 2018? So a current Russian citizen (granted...a hot one) can apply to have immediate access to a sitting Federal official? Does that not SCREAM honey pot to anyone else?

Offensive squadron patches are a serious matter in the Peoples Non-Binary Trans-Unicorn Positive Affirmation Air Force. They are often contrary to the ultimate goal of creating the impossible utopia that we will use any means to attempt to achieve for the 690th time.

Everyone keeps saying this, as if Twitter was an actual issue and not incompetence.

So let's review this past week for this Administration: 13,000 kids in "not cages." Russia recalls its ambassador; Putin challenges Biden to a debate which is declined. China embarrasses the SecState in the first meeting with this Administration. And Biden busts his ass not once, not twice, but three times climbing AF1 stairs. On the same climb. Good think it wasn't a ramp like Trump's or there'd be calls for a health evaluation... But he has kept off Twitter so there's that win.

Well, you're already automatically assumed to be a sexual predator in waiting, what's another name to the list? CMSAF Wokeness: Hmmm, lots of people are not going along with our narrative. Exec: Ya, lots of people are countering our claims, maybe it's us? CMSAF Wokeness: LOL of course not...it's definitely not us. Time to double down!

You're not a bad person, and I'd say your view is a normal one. And to be fair, unless a co-worker did something fairly overt (or had a long pattern of questionable actions), I'd probably do the same as you, as I'm fairly non-confrontational on non-mission stuff and try to give people the benefit of doubt. The hardest part in all this is that your reaction is a normal reaction, yet some of the messaging from some groups is that you're a bad person, which doesn't help the problem because it puts otherwise good people on the defense, even if they would otherwise agree. The challenge is, what does leadership do? If that person with racist views had no subordinates, you could make a case that it doesn't matter. But if there's minorities in the sq that are uncomfortable/hurt by that person's racists views, it can deteriorate trust those minorites have in their sq mates. Maybe that racist coworker later becomes a supervisor, and while they might not do anything that clearly crosses the line, those racial biases can cause other indirect harm. Things like strats, submitting for awards, pushes for upgrades, opportunities (good or bad), etc, all of which can affect someone's career. And unless a minority subordinate is clearly and measurably better, it can be hard to prove that racial bias played a role in lower strats, missed opportunities/pushes, etc. So this creates a problem to our system, as it strives to be a meritocracy. If people aren't being advanced because of something that has nothing to do with their abilities (like race), then the system isn't advancing the best to positions of more responsibility. That's where I'll phase the problem another way: what do you do with a co-worker who can do their job, but is otherwise an ass or difficult/unpleasant to work with?

What was the facilitator’s reaction to your brazen belief that individuals are allowed to have their own beliefs and that if those beliefs do not affect the mission or unit that it is no one’s business? Like you I would just avoid said hypothetical bigot’s company Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree, in general, CRT and the like are inconsistent, self-contradictory, and destructive... so I wont waste enegry trying to steel-man them.

Isn't this, like, a textbook example of Soviet, er, Russian intelligence agencies using Kompromat to discredit those who oppose them?

There's not a cop car under it.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a35865601/f-36-kingsnake-air-force-next-fighter-jet-concept/

All this Air Force / DoD mid-level leadership virtue signaling bullshit is a gold mine for cheap shot jokes. I am seeing on FB now, O-6s I knew as O-3s spouting the political line to score higher in some apparatchiks list of approved officers for O-7. So this is how the end begins...

To Stephanopolous?

Wait .... are you suggesting there may be actual physiological differences between men and women. Weird

The “nothing to see here” argument may work if it were not for the cumulative amount of hypocrisy and deceit being displayed today by the media and in politics. It is everywhere and people either willingly ignore it, are part of it or are misinformed by those who willingly ignore it or are part of it. I believe it’s also why Biden doesn’t take questions. His handlers know he’s not up to the task of answering for any of it without exposing the blatant hypocrisy. Transparency and the truth will send this house of cards crashing down. And that will be good for the majority of American citizens regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on.

A correction to a news story has traditionally been along the lines of "We said that Bob had brown hair. In fact, he has blonde hair. We regret the error." This "correction" negates the entire story. It's a big deal. Along with the many media outlets that also said they independently verified the story. Every single one of those outlets used the same anonymous source. One source connected to an important player in the story. Basic integrity would seem to question the bias of that source and that other sources or facts need to be checked in order to have confidence in the original source. But "Orange Man bad" was enough validity. It directly corroborates the disbelief in journalism that exists. If they'd lie, my word/"correct," your word this, what else have they reported on previously, or will in the future, that relies on such a single source? Funny, the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed because it was fake news - despite on the record sources, documentation of the FBI seizing said laptop, etc, etc, etc. Yet this one anonymous source got front page/lead stories from the usual suspects and it's all good. I believe some truth teller has the mantra "Democracy dies in darkness" boldly attached to their frontpage. But nothing about truth. Ok, the rules are known now. And, Fatboy Slim aka "I coulda been Defense Minister" Vindmann wants to determine who can have access to information sources and decide for themselves: https://www.lawfareblog.com/can-litigation-help-deradicalize-right-wing-media Deciding what is good for people to know/have access to/make their own determination is a good gig if you can get it.

Don't let your bias cloud the facts. Urging them to scrutinize ballots in certain locations is not illegal...the optics of how those votes came is was odd to some but they were ultimately validated and true votes...the LIE was saying the Trump said to "FIND THE FRAUD"...which is far closer to a crime but a complete fabrication.

They didn't retract the story, it appears reading comprehension isn't strong among these commenters. They issued a correction which is substantially different. The story itself is materially the same: POTUS directly contacts a state elections official, urging them to scrutinize ballots in specific locations. Which is an absolutely mind blowing story by itself, and would only be acceptable in some banana republic. Now with the correction and the recovered recording, there's proof.

Mass is a principle of war the AF completely forgot in it's crazed technophelia. 100% agree with you.

Most will overlook the importance of what is happening here. The liberal press machine violated all ethical standards in order to weaponize itself against a President and control a negative narrative in order to remove him from power. I HATE defending Trump....he is a loud mouth narcissist but some of the things he did were very good...all that being said the machine which enjoys special protections under the Constitution ran off the rails. Trump said some shitty things that are on tape (comments on John McCain were horrific), and maybe that is enough to make you hate him...however, many of the "reported" things he said we completely fabricated but they were repeated over and over by the big hate networks as fact. What this retraction really shows is how far the press as an institution has fallen. In the past if there was a negative report the press had a DUTY to confirm the story and the source. It was part of their ethos. What is going on now and what happened here is the WASHPO had one source who passed along the comments. They did not bother to confirm...they other networks picked up the WASHPO story and they called the original source to confirm....and so on and so on and so on...The entire story was a fabrication from ONE person. The EXACT same thing happened with the story about Trump's comments on dead soldiers at Arlington. It was a fabrication from one source and when it was quietly retracted no one noticed and no one cared because the damage was done. Perhaps the biggest failure was the Steele Dossier...opposition research, paid for by Hillary's campaign, used not only politically but also criminally. The press ran with it and we had years of investigations. Years later we learned the FBI and Intel community went through the report line by line and found much of the report was a complete fabrication...damage was done. Again, maybe it doesn't make a difference with a President as divisive as Trump, but the bigger picture is the press which is supposed to the be 4th estate, neutral and in search of the truth, has been weaponized for one political party and that hasn't worked out very well in other countries.

Washington Post retracts story claiming Trump told Georgia Secretary of State official to "find fraud." https://triblive.com/news/politics-election/the-washington-post-publishes-correction-on-trump-call-with-georgia-investigator/ The single anonymous source was the campaign manager for GA SecState. Who made it up. Proven by the finding, in a "delete" file, the actual recording of Trump to the investigating official. Multiple other news organizations, who claimed to have also verified the now debunked story, relied on this same single source. This story was used as "evidence" in the second impeachment proceeding. But totally worth it. There are no more mean tweets going out. Sometimes, the end justifies the means...

But it's not acquisition determining what we need. It's the staffs determining needs and requirements through JCIDS. And those staffs need good majors/lt col as action officers who are much less removed from ops to make recommendations. Have bad AOs (or if they are stretched too thin), and you get poorly thought out COAs. Sure, JCIDS overlaps the acquisitions cycle, and the budget process as well. As frustrating as it can be, a core belief of our government is that Congress has the power of the purse to keep the executive branch in check.

One can argue we won WWII because we had a vast quantity of decent quality. The Panther and Tiger tanks were better than the Sherman or T34 in many respects...but not when facing 10 or 20:1 odds... We seem to have forgotten that lesson. 187...

Definitely your second scenario. Quite a few finance and A1 types from HAF piped in to clarify it on a FB group I followed for a bit. There is rumors that they will extend a second SLA for next year but they are waiting to see what happens this year. Personally, most of Europe still can't take leave outside their immediate local area. So they really need a second SLA or they are going to watch a lot of leave get burnt this summer as people hoard it in hopes that travel opens.

There’s 690K people in the AF/working directly for the AF. Yes there’s going to be some of every fill-in-the-blank group that is undesirable, but it’s disingenuous and misleading bullshit to say this stuff is a large enough problem that it requires anything to be done above the wing level. Most cases should be able to be dealt with by SQ/CC or GP/CC level (potentially with interactions with JA, OSI, etc.) The AF is not racist, white supremicist, etc...those things exist in statistically irrelevant amounts, so society/big Gov/DOD should stop acting like they are anything but “one offs” (obviously still address those one offs at the local level).

Training unfortunately isn't free, and it takes a lot of support to get that jet up in the air and keep it flying, much of which a pilot flying the line never sees. And everyone is doing more with less (while getting paid less than pilots, except for some in the med group). So the question becomes "what is good enough?" We've cut people to pay for jets, and then never really got those people back, or pushed them into operational AFSCs without backfilling support AFSCs (and putting the burden on ops to provide their own support). And remember, CSAF is/has been a pilot, so they are the one who made that trade, not someone from support. Congress has said we can't divest A-10, which drives an additional cost which has to be paid for (engineering to extend the life of the jet, pilots and maintainers, the logistic tail of parts and suppliers for an old jet). Not going to stop the AF from buying F-35s to replace the A-10, so that money is going to come from elsewhere in the AF budget. That turns into delayed upgrades for other airframes, reduced flying hour programs, etc. With fixed manpower and essentially fixed budgets, trades have to be made to meet requirements. It's an fact of life for the big AF. And unfortunately, this turns into a debate on what is good enough (training, equipment, airframes, weapons/munitions, etc) to meet strategic/operational/tactical objectives. And productivity becomes a measurable data point in that decision making, even though it may not be the best number to quantify what goes on in a flying squadron.

No Fear Thanks fellas. Fear is really all over politics and its corrosive. Im at total peace. Put the above video out yesterday on Fear to begin that convo on what is driving our politics and what is the next generation learning, besides be crazy=get famous.

In my estimation, that's how you know the report *isn't* fake news, hehe.

Long live Midnight Hot. How that was some of the highlights of being up late over there.

I guess Midnight Hot means nothing to you?

Correct, the "find the fraud" statement was verified not to have been said. Again though, the story wasn't retracted (as has been incorrectly and repeatedly stated in many posts above this one). Because the substance of the story is largely unchanged! Even if it's a minority of Americans, how have this many of us been conditioned to be ok with POTUS contacting elections officials? The best of us are rightly horrified by this, as we would be if Hillary, Romney, McCain, Gore, or any other loser of the general election were to do the same. Nevermind that it was POTUS. Sources can be wrong and/or mislead. Newspapers print corrections as needed. This correction here isn't some shocking indictment on print journalism.