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You missed this gem: "The point I’ve made through all of those experiences is that anti-Asian racism has the same source as anti-Black racism: white supremacy. So when a Black person attacks an Asian person, the encounter is fueled perhaps by racism, but very specifically by white supremacy. White supremacy does not require a white person to perpetuate it."

Historical sidebar, but your 3 examples are totally wrong. Lincoln- soldier/lawyer. Jefferson- plantation owner/ lawyer. Reagan- actor. None of the examples you gave were career politicians; all had successful careers before and outside politics. As Reagan said “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.”

Like Russian collusion?

Uhhhh.... Bidens history with racism, sex assault allegations with Tara Reade, the potential cover ups for his son (not just Ukraine but dozens of shady business dealings), his scetchy history on accepting graft from lobbyist, draft dodging (if trump draft dodged than so definitely did Biden), I mean, you can make a pretty good case he is a despicable human being. Edit: almost forgot plagiarizing through law school.

Far from a “follow the left, the world is all rainbows & unicorns”. To add some stance on some hot topics: I had zero ethical problems with building a border wall, just doubt it will work (they’ll just cut holes in it or tunnel under it). I don’t think anybody has the right to restrict a law abiding citizen from owning an AR-15. Tragic mass shooting deaths, are currently insignificant compared to the number of people getting taken out by drugs, alcohol, car accidents/texting & suicide. Are we gunna ban cellphones too? Yet it’s all CNN wants to talk about. And FOX news, with its “windmills kill birds, green energy is bad lets burn coal until we’re back in the stone ages”…please, GTFO of here. Whether its Fox or CNN I can smell horse sh*t 3 miles out. I am interested in understanding the divide more than anything else, especially on a forum where at least everybody is genuinely concerned about the country’s future. Does the disagreement really come down to just deciding between…do you take someone who is morally deficient but going to do good things policy wise (at least in w.e your respective opinion is) vs. someone who is a good dude at heart but may stumble policy wise? My logic: there is the system and there are policies the system makes. The policies change with the current political tide and can be undone just as easily as they can be done, depending on what the people want. But damage to the system itself is not easily undone. And as history shows, people who enjoy power…they usually want to grab more and more of it. Putin seems to be in love with it, as does Kim Jong-un. I don’t see Americans running to live in either of those places. Disregarding any policy, IMO when you objectively look at Trump…he exhibits the same attributes as somebody who would be at risk for abusing power. The glitz, the glamour, the ego, the compensating personality & bully persona. Hypothetically, you could have a King/dictator who is great at making policy. But as history shows, long term….rarely do those situations end well for the people in those places. If Trump isn’t that guy…he did a hell of a job making it look like he might be. Rile up the working class who are scraping by on groceries from Walmart while you gallivant around in a gold plated 757 = does not compute. So I stand to reason that Trump lost the election for himself. He either chose not to be professional, genuine, & presentable, or he is actually a D-bag and a threat to the system. And judging by how he reacted to his loss, it’s the latter. While any good competitor would be disappointed at a loss, successful & confident people don’t let losses slow them down in life and start whining. Those disappointed at his loss, should blame Trump himself for giving the election to a pretty weak democratic candidate (Biden, whose cheese may be sliding off his cracker). I for one think we should just starting throwing darts at a board of random people who graduate from idk the military academies, med schools,engineering schools or something, somewhere where people have proven they are intelligent, committed to helping others and are problem solvers. “Hey Tommy, real sorry man. The dart hit your name on the board. dean wants you in his office, your president for the next 4 years. Pack your shit”. “Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it”-Plato

Biden/Harris is one of the worst, if not the worst, presidential pairings we’ve had in a long time. And it has nothing to do with politics but the fact that it’s frankly a weak pairing of two incompetent people. Biden, a man losing his mental faculties (this is honestly sad for me to watch from a human perspective) who was also a mediocre senator that accomplished nearly nothing of note in his 50 years of service. Harris is actually even worse. She was not even remotely competitive in the Democrat primaries because she was such a terrible candidate; she couldn’t even produce a single coherent position on key issues in the primaries. Slept her way up the ranks in San Francisco to then get a chance to run for a senate seat (funny how this was barely mentioned, guess only Orange man can take part in affairs). But thanks to Obama connections she now has a non-zero chance of becoming President. The border crisis is case in point of complete ineffectual leadership. Biden appointed Harris to manage it. She hasn’t been to the border once, laughs at questions about the border, and hasn’t given any press conferences or updates on a plan of action. It doesn’t even matter if you think flooding the country with refugees is good for political reasons; there are still kids getting chucked over fences left to fend for themselves in the desert and then sitting in cages at risk of sexual assault, and our top two leaders can’t even lift their finger to do anything or even remotely provide a plan of action. Now Trump is no shining example of leadership, far from it in fact. Personally I considered voting 3rd party several times this past election. But when it came down to analyzing every candidate available, including the 3rd party ones, Trump was by far the most qualified to actually run the country, and it wasn’t even close.

That’s great news. What’s also interesting is while suicides fell 6%, gun sales increased 85%. Anti-gun crowd trying to explain how people only killed themselves because guns exist...

You imply that there were options that weren't disgusting.

So why wasn’t Trump impeached for “Russian collusion”?

There's also enough flyers you can cycle different people through. The number of officers per squadron is quite high amongst rated fields. For SF, MX and other squadrons though that ratio is much much much lower.

Did you think the last election was for Prom King? WTF dude. To be fair, most Americans do make decisions based upon emotion as opposed to logic, so I shouldn't be surprised. Regular guy? The dude who has been in politics since 1972? That'll be 50 years, next year. That seems "regular" to you?

Which ever one allows you to live in base. DAL was only about half way through the contract when the ronas started. So far it had some nice little add-ons here and there (pay above guarantee for unused SC, etc...), but they really hadn't gotten to the meat of the contract. I'd guess you'll see more stuff happening later this year or early next. Possibly early if it's something that will help the recovery efforts. Honestly, I'm hoping it will be mostly work rule related (more than pay rates), which will be mostly boring from outsiders looking in.

I see nothing wrong with being so disgusted by another human being that you want nothing to do with them regardless of whether you may agree with them on a few issues here and there. I find it far more problematic to be disgusted by someone, but to throw one’s support behind them if it may further one’s own agenda in some small way.

That sounds like a good sign for me. Admin is currently fighting for reimbursement and I just recently got my Citi GTC Travel Card. Appears as though I should be fine.

Something good happened. Nearly last minute for office workers, I got orders for the flight physical and the order document addresses travel reimbursement up to a certain amount of money, what is authorized for reimbursement, and how to get reimbursed (submit two forms) along with all receipts.

Ironic coming from a guy who got his startup in politics by running on a platform of maintaining Jim Crow/racial segregation.

There were a bunch of policy things I really didn’t like. There were also some things I did. But I do believe that character matters and his was utterly disgusting to me (YMMV and that’s ok). I wouldn’t have voted for him even if I agreed with all of his policy goals. I am curious though as to how candidates who would have defined the party 15 or even 5 years ago have somehow become RINOs? If anyone’s a RINO, in my mind it’s Trump. He spent most of his life taking positions on many issues that would’ve made (and did make) many traditional Republicans very uncomfortable. He is the epitome of a flip flopper. He very obviously changed many of his previous views for blatant political gain (reference his newfound reverence for Christianity). And yet somehow the guy who literally shits on gold toilets becomes the symbol of the middle class American working man? Sorry, but Trump’s Republican Party is nowhere near the much vaunted “party of Reagan”. I wonder what Ronald Reagan would have to say about Donald Trump the politician if he were alive today?

I stopped watching all sports a few years ago; maybe a game a year. Turns out there’s tons of stuff to do with my time that is infinitely better than sitting on the couch supporting these bullshit organizations. Life without football and baseball is phenomenal...never would have said that a few years ago.

To get a little bit back on track here, I finally decided to read the Georgia voter law from the actual government of Georgia website. Holy smokes the media, politicians, and even our sitting President have completely fabricated the outrage over this law. It’s frankly unbelievable the lies they’ve been able to spread on it. About the only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the increased powers of the state over what are usually county run election procedures. But beyond that, every single measure in there is perfectly reasonable to helping ensure legal voters are able to vote. The whole thing about the ID requirement is massively blown out of proportion. If someone doesn’t have an ID, they can can use last 4 of social, a utility bill, or several other items in order to validate themselves as a legal Georgia voter. And yes, grandma can still get water at the polls, it just can’t be handed out by someone who also says “here’s some water, but why don’t you vote for _____ today”. The worst part is that our own President got up there and called it worse than Jim Crow and wasn’t even remotely checked on that absolutely ludicrous statement.

Everything above is true. My last board, I was hired along with 2 civilian applicants. 3 current members interviewed but I could tell they did not take it “seriously” (mediocre scores, not prepping for the interview, etc.) The point I want to make is that if everyone had the equal scores, killed the interview equally, same great attitude, but the only difference was enlisted vs not enlisted? The enlisted will get picked up.

Exactly. I've had current unit members come in to interview with the "expectation" that the slot is guranteed. Wrong answer

As a longtime Guard pilot who has run many of our pilot boards over the years, I can assure you that, yes, applications are through the roof. I can also say it is heavily due to the lack of civilian options as a result of COVID. As far as Maverick and a YouTube channel are concerned I cannot say, but personally I haven’t heard of this being any of our applicants inspiration. The bottom line is that it is more competitive now than ever and if you really want an advantage - Enlist in the unit. Granted it’s no guarantee, but it’s the closest thing you’re going to get to one. All our hires in recent history have been enlisted in the unit - and it makes perfect sense, we know them, we’ve deployed with them, if we like them, we make them pilots. Again it’s not foolproof, or the only avenue, you could spend the next 3 years shotgunning apps, trying to attend a meet-and-greet, paying for flight time, and get noticed. Or you could enlist, prove your dedication to the unit, talk to the pilots on a monthly basis (at least) and most units guarantee unit members an interview.

You mean Martin Luther King’s actual dream? It honestly an embarrassment to his legacy where we are as a country right now with this whole social justice quest.