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Sorry, too bored/not bothered to read through all these posts. I found all the rational thought I needed when Mike Rowe commented...

Let’s see if actual reported numbers support your claim. ROK has 51M people. According to this, there have been 200k cases and 2100 have died. Japan has 126M people and according to this, there have been 972k cases and 15,246 have died. The good ol USofA has 328M people, 35.2 Million cases and 615k have died. Now, do they wear masks? Yes. Do the masks slow the spread? Possibly. The data seems to support it. Have they been exposed to other coronaviruses that may have helped their immune system...kind of like how smallpox just lived amongst the Europeans but annihilated the indigenous North American people? Also a possibility. Do they count COVID deaths differently? Again, also a possibility. We’ve all heard the anecdotes of the guy in the US who fell off a ladder and died of COVID because they tested positive. Maybe the ROK has a different criteria. That number does seem low but even if you triple their death rate it pales in comparison to ours. Does the RoK government make non-SOFA personnel install a tracking app on their phone to make sure you quarantine on arrival? Yes...yes they do. I’m not saying masks are the end all be all answer. I can’t stand wearing mine and we all just went back to it in my little corner of the ANG. But, if you look at these easily accessible data points it helps. People should look at numbers more and headlines less. It may take the emotion out of it. That and maybe one of these...

Well if your choice is starving or getting the vaccine you aren't really free to make a choice are you?

USA Men’s Wrestling won 2 gold medals in crazy dramatic last second fashion. David Taylor and Gable Stevenson. Kyle Dake and Thomas Gilman won a bronze and Kyle Snyder is going for Gold Saturday. https://youtu.be/fSXPmihrX3c https://youtu.be/ADcFirJcob4 The women’s wrestling team is also bringing home serious hardware. Love to see it!

*If* your standard is 100% prevention of COVID, then yeah, you're right. Here is a study that quite convincingly demonstrates that masks diminish the amount and distance COVID will spread. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0015044 Will you get it hanging out in a room with a COVID+ person for a couple hours face-to-face? Probably. The point isn't that it's a silver bullet. The point is that it reduces the probability that you catch the bug. So in that sense, yes it slows the spread. *Also* there will never be any 100% definitive proof, because we don't have two separate universes that we're testing masks vs no masks in an open planet. You either believe the common sense argument that it reduces the energy of your breath thereby reducing how far COVID can go, or you don't. Which it does, because it's hard to breath through. Note: I'm in the camp that thinks masking up is ridiculous at this point. That said, I can still admit that masks have some positive effect. BL: Get the vaccine or don't. Take your own chances. Everyone at this point has had the opportunity to get it if they so choose. I'm vaxxed and am going back to normal now.

Why do people on the left/Democrat party think they have the market cornered on accusing people of being conspiracy theorists??? That’s ALL that went on leading up to Trump’s election, during his Presidency and even now. Russia, Russia, Russia!!!!!!!

Cannot agree more with FourFans130. Atlas 74 Perspective Cons up front: Lackluster contract (unable to vote on it) well behind Majors/Brown/Purple/SWA, etc., no pure soft pay per say, trip guarantee, DH Pay, international override, etc. Top issues: 17 Day lines, Pay, Retirement/Direct Contribution bottom line. 14 Days Vaca until 5th year 21 Days maximum. Standard gripes Union/Management like most airlines. Gateway travel although nice may cost you a day up front to preposition and a day after return to base which 19 days is plausible. 70-100 days initial training in MIA unless you live or enjoy MIA. *Inefficiencies throughout… Some Pros are biased which is undeniable… Pros: Gateway Travel and hotel accommodations provided; therefore, it’s never your fault or worry getting to work=live almost anywhere U.S. and many live overseas unlike anywhere else. 30 day and 60 day lines = ability to get schedule done and be off for longer periods or chop up the 17 day lines over 2 months with shorter times away and shorter times at home. Sick Leave at this time is a Big Boy program and Doctors note not required. Pay is decent and doing overtime can nab you significant gains using days off. MIA training folks and overtime hounds can pull near half a mil or more working diligently. MIA is super senior. 74 is a comfortable ride, uniform hung at cruise, no FAs, no pax shenanigans, no bathroom break requests. Casual flying around the globe on paid vacation having some good eats & beverages with friends at interesting venues/locations. Hopefully upcoming “Arbitrated” contract closes the gap to other airlines. Notice I didn’t say equals… 777 More solid scheduled runs predominantly international of course. 76 folks do more airline type schedules every other week or so. Some international but predominantly Amazon and NFL/MLB/AMC Pax charters. 73 side seems like a startup test, unsure what’s really going over there. If new contract nears $300 mark, has significantly better retirement and keeps some of the TA’d goodness most would stay. My doubts fall on retirement gains… *Inefficiencies have been a plus on most occasions based upon length of stay at great locations. A few not so great ones.

Biden said 350 million people in the US got the vax. So I guess we’re done with that. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I've gotten quite salty, but there still isn't a single time where I'm raging low level, doing HAAR, or gunnery where I'm thinking "I shouldn't have done this." Even less so with a one month old infant on the hoist during a tropical storm. Or swooping in to grab a ground pounder who is having a really, really bad day. Yeah, there's a lot of other things which frustrate me to no end...but the flying and the relationships I've built with my fellow aircrew are ultimately worth it. For another six years anyway....

Well, over 90% of the UAL pilot group is already vaccinated after being offered a few hours of extra pay to get it. I suspect that population is much like the one here in that it has more than it’s fair share of vaccine skeptics. Apparently, a good chunk of the skeptics were willing to put their very strong feelings and concerns aside for a few extra bucks. I’m sure there will be some holdouts in the remaining 10% who refuse. I’m sure Transair or NAC would happily hire them after UAL lets them go. Also, I hear we are critically short of truck drivers. So, yeah, they have a choice.

This would all be solved if the vaccinated would wear their masks and quit spreading the virus to the unvaccinated.

Your hard on for Alex Jones doesn't inspire confidence in your ability to tell a credible news source from blatant propaganda.

If you wear a mask, you can't take opioid pills. Problem solved.

Nope. Wrong again: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/unsolicited-seeds-china-brushing/619417/ Long read but a somewhat fascinating story. Nothing close to “agrowarfare”.

Valid point, I appreciate the numbers associated with your point as well. It’s definitely not black and white.

I agree that masks slow the spread, but comparing death rates across these countries is fraught with difficulty. For starters, Japan's obesity rate is ~4%. In the US, not one state has less than 20% obesity. Stated differently, our skinniest folks are 5x fatter than Japan - some states approach or exceed 10x! So what amount of the difference is due to their mask adherence vs. them just being much, much healthier in general? I don't know, but I think I'd rather have a BMI < 30 and not wear a mask than rely on a cloth mask to save me. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html

You lose me with the "intentional bioweapon release" argument. It's clear that China is fucking us in the social media space and stealing our technology, but hanlon's razor clearly applies here. I know a decent number of scientists and they are invariably naive, idealistic people that would never envision a scenario where their work backfires and causes something like this. They made a mistake and now we're all paying for it. End of story. The idea this is an intentional bioweapon is just pure silliness. If you made a bioweapon to mess with the US why would the epicenter of the release be in your own country? Why would you choose an airborne, difficult to control, and not particularly deadly disease? Not to mention, we all know lockdowns and masking don't stop the problem, and China has many of the largest, most dense cities in the world which were "magically" not hit hard like every single other city in the world was. Now do we think this is because they beat covid? Or maybe they're lying about their numbers. Which do you think is easier for the government to pull off? Also Alex Jones absolutely is a national treasure. Great entertainer. Horrific source for information though. Much like the swooning over Nostradamus's vague and asinine predictions, if you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it will stick.

We're currently pushing it to the CAF...

And now we're all wearing them...because the unvaccinated were supposed to be wearing them, but didn't.

So did the unvaccinated as they weren’t required.

Sorry, I was too busy protesting the chemicals that turn frogs gay.

Just to be clear, you are calling people with three page vaccination sheets who do not want this particular experimental vaccine “anti-vaxxers?” And you are calling the huge number of Democrat voting minorities electing not to receive the COVID vaccine “Trump supporters?” Do you think those with natural immunity should be forced to vaccinate? Do you think it makes you sound smart to falsely label people? Or is name-calling just a sad outlet to vent frustration in lieu of cogent thought? I am vaccinated, still got COVID, and am 100% against forcing my kids to get this injection. There are idiosyncrasies here that should be considered rationally.

I suppose you’re right. I always thought that hardcore Trumpers were the best of the best at putting aside all rational and fact based thinking in order to blindly support the man and the cause. But the left these past 6-9 months has put on an absolute masterclass of the same thing.

Yeah, I guess life is simple when you believe the party opposed to you is only highlighting positive things while whitewashing anything that could be argued to be divisive. That must only be a conservative trait, liberals are too elite to engage in such shady messaging.

The more I approach this forum as a real time sociology exhibit, the more I feel at peace. I don’t know how you guys function believing everything is a conspiracy, from vaccines to immigrants to cabals. But I’ll join - Down with the Illuminati! Down with Gates! Down with Antifa who are personally driving drug cartels into America!

And the taxpayers are forced to pay for it at the end of the gun

Dude, you’re wasting your time. Your view may be based on the facts but those facts are counter to the political narrative of the current administration, and more disappointingly the counter-American service members on this forum. You’ll never get them to admit they’re perfectly fine admitting illegals to the country en masse because it will ensure their party has a better chance at maintaining power. The illegals are simply a tool to facilitate the agenda, any consequence of their leeching off of the country can easily be rectified with higher taxes.

Politics today. A governor getting recalled, another one about to get legitimately impeached, state legislators on the run, a shell president who is losing his mental capacities, trillions and trillions of dollars being spent, inflation at a 13 year high, open borders, unnecessary lockdowns, people getting paid more to stay home, etc. I’d say things are going really well!

No shit arrests are at a high; an unprecedented amount of illegals are streaming across the border daily, many simply choosing to turn themselves in to the Border Patrol (this counts as apprehension) because they know they'll get a notice to appear with no date and a bus ticket to anywhere they want in the country. Maybe you should ask those government employees dealing with these migrants on a daily basis how they feel about the current administration. ‘U.S. Welcome Patrol’: how some border agents are struggling with Biden’s policy shift | Reuters And yes, this admin has literally done nothing to stop the nearly unprecedented amount of people flooding our border. I'm sorry but Kamala Harris saying "Do not cum", while a funny meme, is not actual policy. And throwing the poor Border Patrol and CBP agents to the wolves and then patting ourselves on the back saying "well at least arrests are up" is as dumb as listing off the body count of dead Viet Cong as evidence that we won the Vietnam War.

US-Mexico border arrests in June are highest in at least a decade - CNNPolitics After Border Patrol release, asylum-seekers test positive for Covid in Brownsville, Texas (nbcnews.com) The border remains an absolute shit show and I honestly think its the hot button item that pisses me off the most about this administration. Open borders and shipping COVID positive illegals around the country meanwhile lecturing the rest of the American public about how we need to keep up the fight against COVID. If you cared so much about COVID maybe you wouldn't let hundreds of thousands of people stream across our border in less than 6 months. It's become quite obvious that the border is being purposely left open as there has literally been zero action to stop this. And it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to realize that its likely a democrat plan to use demographic change to ensure votes. Actually pretty disgusting when you really think about it and its really infuriating that it seems this administration cares more about non-citizens than actual Americans.

Thats not true. The vast majority of people with covid either dont know they ever had it or have mild symptoms. Some people get flu like symptoms that kick their ass for a few days, but the # of people hospitalized vs + cases does not support your statement.

Fuck yeah. I think there are incredibly few people who flew mil aircraft and truly regretted it. Sure you may punch at 10 because it became “not worth it” anymore, but even if that happens, you got your ticket to the airlines paid for (if that’s your longterm goal) and you’ll still have awesome experiences and memories that no civilian will ever have. Im sitting equal with guys who threw bags, flew night freight, then slung gear in the regionals for peanuts for a decade…there’s not a bad day in the AF that could make me wish I had that guy’s path instead of mine. To each their own.

I've spent a fair amount of time around the airshow circuit, with pilots that perform with what many of us would consider "reduced margins". When things don't seem right... when you're not "on your game"... when you don't feel you have the ability to safely perform a demanding routine and the consequences are significant... you step back and say "today, I will stand down.". I've done it myself in the airshow industry... and I (and many of us here) have done it in our day-to-day operations with extremely expensive tax-payer-bought gov't aircraft. If someone at Red Flag exceeds RM tolerances and says "not today, folks", are they ridiculed? I really don't know much about Biles, gymnastics, Olympics sports... and I really don't care. But having watched the stuff she does, it is highly dangerous/risky. If she isn't on her game, she would be foolish to continue and risk a serious injury. Most of us here have impressed on our kids that they must "complete what they start". They don't want to play soccer one weekend when they would prefer to go to the zoo... well, you made a commitment. Instilling in them a sense of responsibility to the team is a far cry from insisting that they push through something extreme/dangerous when they KNOW they cannot succeed. If Ms Biles says she isn't up to performing the crazy shit she does... that less than 100 people out of 7,000,000,000 on the Earth can do... then, she should walk. And give the middle finger to anyone who objects.

Women's beach volleyball has been phenomenal as well!!!