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There’s a whole lot of people out there who evangelize about the life decisions they made, which often seems to be rooted in insecurity about said decisions. The “Bro why would anybody want to be in the Air Force,” guys are almost as bad as the blue Kool Aid drinkers that scoffed at the guys who constantly deployed and got no strats. The most opinionated on both sides just seem to be fishing for reinforcement from the crowd. It never comes across as understanding of a different guy’s perspective, and it certainly isn’t humble. At the end of your life, the amount of money you have doesn’t really matter as long as your family is safe and secure, just as your personal list of military accomplishments will seem pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

This is the relevant point. There were only a few select justifications for mandates (masks, school closures, vaccination, boosting). 1. Stop the spread. That's dead. None of the mandated actions *meaningfully* stop the spread. Alpha didn't look like it was responding, Delta killed that idea for sure, and omicron is just making a mockery of it. The vaccine turned out to be the fever-dream of libertarians. Instead of working like the measles vax, which absolutely stops the spread of measles, this vaccine only protects the individual who takes it. Fascinating. Sure, we didn't know that a year ago, but we know it for sure now yet some at the highest levels of government are still clinging to mandates. And if you think these people are up there begging to save the lives of their political opposition, you have a much more optimistic view of politics than I do. This is a case study in our ability to cling to a decision as humans despite changes around us. 2. Don't overwhelm the hospitals. This one was fascinating, because the average person had no idea how overwhelmed most hospitals are on any normal day. Do you really think nurses started using cocaine to get through the day because of the coronavirus? They are businesses, and like any other well-run business, operating near capacity is usually the most profitable path. But this was also confused with "don't burden the hospitals." There's a big difference between overwhelming and burdening. As the last few posts point out, we allow all manner of personal decision making that burdens hospitals. It's just another cost of freedom that is grossly outweighed by the cost of authoritarianism. You think the hospitals are filled now... Go check out the authoritative states. 3. Save the children. This one has been disgusting from the start. Perhaps the best thing about this pandemic is that it doesn't affect children. There's not a single factual analysis that implies children are at risk from this disease. Yet the teachers unions in the most radicalized cities in America have used it as a cudgel, and politicians have jumped on board. Granted, I don't expect the average American to understand the immensity of facial expressions on childhood development, but I do expect experts in the field of childhood development to be honest about it, and they haven't been. The most profound effect of the pandemic is not going to be a few more old people dying a few years earlier (and yes, compared to the rates of death that have been posted here numerous times, this pandemic did not change the game for old people. They died of a lot of things, now there's one more on the list. As those most susceptible to the coronavirus pass, the rates will return to where they were. It sucks. But it wasn't the only factor and we treated it that way). Rather the biggest effect will be the millions of children, overwhelmingly those from low-income and single-parent households, who missed out on two years of desperately needed, in person education. Most of the people here have their shit together, and therefore their kids have their shit together. They have no idea the abject misery that children live in, in places like inner city chicago, new york, memphis, St louis, baltimore, Los angeles, or any number of liberal-run catastrophes across the country. They had jobs that let them stay at home and watch their kids, many of whom already had a firm basis in academics and could handle the transition to Zoom for a couple years. That's not the case for the kids whose parents didn't make it through a year of high school themselves, and spend their days either judiciously working at shitty jobs to pay for food for their kids, or wasting their lives away in a self-indulgent drug fantasy world, where the effect on their children is the same. Unmonitored, uneducated, and mostly just alone. For a lot of those kids, the teacher was the only person who interacted with them in a meaningful way on a daily basis.

the risk factors of covid are highly correlated to age group and co-morbitities. if you are young and healthy your risk is statistically proven to be VERY low. let people accept that and move on with their lives. if you're a high risk demographic...get the vax, and stay home. easy. none of the "mitigation" factors have done anything to "stop the spread". that has been proven. Good intentions (maybe), but now the gig is up.

As a FAA examiner said to me about 20 years ago when I was asking about logging PIC time when I was solo in the T-37: "You were alone in the airplane -- who was the PIC if it wasn't you?"

I quoted my last summary for comparison purposes. I was hired in March 2018. Here's how 2021 went. I'm a line holder. The alternative would be reserve, which at AA means 18 days per month (in blocks of 3-7) where you are either on a 2-hourish callout (76 hours pay/month) or 12-hour callout (73 hours/month). I get a schedule every month from the bidding software. I then use the trading tools to drop my entire schedule, with some rare trips being "sold" to others (I pay them to take my trip). I then wait for what we call makeup flying, trips leaving today or tomorrow that he company needs to fill dues to sickness, weather events, fatigue calls, delays, etc. I fly these trips because they usually have a high pay-to-flight-hours ratio, due to contract intricacies that aren't germane to the conversation. My entire goal is to maximize my efficiency. As an example, at AA these trips pay the same DFW-OKC-DFW vs DFW-ORD-DFW - Both pay 5:15 hours DFW-OKC, overnight, OKC-DFW vs DFW-OKC-DFW-JFK, overnight, JFK-DFW - Both pay 10:30 hours Anyways, in 2021 I flew 295 hours in the cockpit. I spent another 150 or so riding in the cabin as a passenger (fully paid at the major airlines). Lets call it 450 hours of actual uniformed work. I was paid 1310 hours (this includes vacation and training pay, which are done as work-hours) plus per diem, which worked out to $241k Gross earnings, plus $30.4k of company contributions to my 401k. So $270k in my fourth year. Recently the junior captain bid went to someone below me on the seniority list, but I will stay where I am and accrue seniority-in-seat which will allow me to further enhance my pay-to-hours-flown ration by picking up even shorter trips that pay the same as longer trip, as in the examples above. Please note though, I am an extreme case. You have to really work the contract and scheduling tools to do what I do, but anyone can if they can tolerate the uncertainty. I spend more days home than most, so when I say uncertainty I mean you don't know what you're doing until the day before at the earliest. As a side note, $270k seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me, but I fly with people who make quite a bit more than me, yet still live paycheck to paycheck. Please get yourself financially savvy before you start making eye-watering money. My neighbor, a wide-body captain married to a specialty doctor (total of ~$750k/year), spent years wasting everything. They tell me that Dave Ramsey saved them, and I'm a fan of his work, though I've never needed it.

The PSDM say "should" not "will" be notified. Either way doesn't matter, your 7 days starts on public release and everyone has until COB 25 Jan to decline (further down it say you do not need to notify AFPC if you are accepting).

No, but we all pay higher insurance premiums because of the accepted presence of them on the roadways. That’s the point… they exist, and the rest of us get on with our lives with the unacknowledged risk they present. We similarly don’t preclude people from receiving EMT care because they were thrown clear of a motor vehicle crash when the law specifically told them wear their damn seatbelt. They get a bed in the ER regardless. Yet we can find no shortage of people calling for the UNvaccinated to be refused or at the very least out prioritized for any care… that’s some social score status China style triage from the same people that called Death Panels not a thing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

FIFY

If working at AA means living in base, and working at the other airlines means commuting, then go AA. That goes for all airlines. If you wanna live in Houston, go United. Dallas, AA/SWA. Atlanta, go Delta. For NYC area I would consider Jet Blue. Lots of potential there and good pay now. Anyways, where you want to live is the first metric. Now, as for AA, it's a dumpster fire. But the airlines all rotate who sucks the most. AA and the other majors are "too big to fail" so you aren't going to end up on the street. You might get furloughed if the world goes to shit again, but that won't be different at the other airlines. We might merge, and when we do some of the younger pilots at the smaller airline will hit the jackpot. Happened with American West and US Air. If we collapse entirely (too big for that), then you can end up like the TWA pilots who got screwed on seniority integration. And furloughed. But here they are, all working now, and you can find many, many, many similar stories at DAL, UAL, and SWA. The industry, like many others, is run by Wall Street shysters looking to use a fancy new accounting trick to bump the EPS a couple cents per quarter. So you really can't guess what will happen. But AA is the trailing airline right now, and I'm still doing pretty well. I'll make my next post covering 2021 earnings and work.

Hope my comment was taken as tongue-in-cheek. You're spot on though: People have short memories and tend to forget that the feast can turn into famine instantaneously...And the scheduler they were hassling isn't looking so foolish anymore. Can't tell you how many times I've seen it.

Cloth masks are a show of solidarity and little more. At this point those “minor inconvenience” events are the equivalent to ordering the Diet Coke with your extra big ass nacho and burger. More to the point the amount of people incorrectly using barrier systems like rubber gloves create more risk than simply distancing or avoiding social situations. Every moron boldly walking around in rubber gloves spreads risk because lost of the dirty nasty stuff out there lives longer on neoprene than on your fingers. The system is designed to protect you from what you’re immediately touching that is dirty, then be thrown away. Instead those groups are actually increasing risk while taking an active “deterrent” using it incorrectly and engaging in normal activities. We could tell people screw masks, stay out of the grocery store in your own damn car and use our new app. That would have been safer than watching Americans use masks wrong, touch things with gloves on, and then take their vegetables home and spray bleach on them… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don't worry buddy, I'll always get you that glove save MPA so you don't have to lie to your wife about the airlines not loving you back....again. But you'll have to ask me nicely.

It’s not elder abuse, the POS is responsible for his own actions. He has decades long history of saying the most nonsensical things, not the mention a long history of racist comments that no one cares about since his name is preceded with a D. It’s okay, half the country voted for him and no mean tweets!

https://www.the-sun.com/health/4494386/boris-johnson-plan-b-restrictions/ England for the win.

I went to WP early February of last year and had to get a waiver for exotropia. FC1 was stamped approved w/ waiver at the end of March.

https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/01/govexec-daily-vaccine-mandates-after-supreme-court-osha-decision/360986/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21183444-judge-jeffrey-brown-injunction-against-fed-employee-vaccine-mandate

Another “interesting” thing to behold is the growing number of retiring O-6s I’m noticing—many of whom for the last 6-9 years have been talking down on the dudes leaving AD early for the airlines—are now quietly appearing out of the woodwork in the many different airline hiring WhatsApp and FB groups with interview dates/CJOs…

The best stories are the guys who shit on the airline bros as full timers, then go to the airlines and become some of the worst DSGs you've ever seen. Then they decide to go back full time and crack down on the very shit in which they were the worst offenders! Meanwhile I'm over here trying to live my best airline/DSG life and getting caught in the crossfire.

Big sign at the front entrance for the people that didn’t use a condom. *Unwanted pregnancies out back* Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They should also be able to refuse service to anyone who smokes, drinks, or is over a 18 BMI.

I think doctors should be able to refuse care for individuals who are injured by not wearing a seatbelt while driving, or are intoxicated and cause an accident. Hey they knew the risk, and chose to not “protect” themselves Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Because you can't spread motorcycle accidents by not wearing a helmet. But that isn't even what we're talking about. I've repeatedly said I'm opposed to civilian mask and vaccine mandates. I'm opposed to almost all government nanny state interventions. The question was about risk and what I will accept in my own life.

Pawn (straw) man A does not equal B

the tide of stupidity is turning...but the stupid ones are doubling down

The old saying goes that you build credibility in teaspoons and lose it in buckets. I’ve run across Minihan a few times, seems like a good dude. But he has a lot of work to do to reverse the enduring culture built by the likes of Johns and Allardice.

Wonder how low his poll numbers were…

“…top scientists and doctors…” Just like those who in June 2020 told people to stay home when able, avoid large gatherings, etc to stop the spread of covid…unless it’s for a BLM protest, then it’s ok. Please excuse my skepticism that obviously clearly isn’t warranted. I’m sure there will be crickets from those on the left. "Staying at home, social distancing, and public masking are effective at minimizing the spread of COVID-19. To the extent possible, we support the application of these public health best practices during demonstrations that call attention to the pervasive lethal force of white supremacy," the letter says. "However, as public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States. We can show that support by facilitating safest protesting practices without detracting from demonstrators' ability to gather and demand change. This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders." Yep…no agenda outside of medicine and science. Over 1,000 health professionals sign a letter saying, Don't shut down protests using coronavirus concerns as an excuse https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/health/health-care-open-letter-protests-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

You see that , I always tell kids who want to get a degree to be a English major.

You’ve clearly never had to get your own atis and it shows! /s

Except that if you are operating on incorrect assumptions, you are likely behaving in a way that exposes yourself and others to increased risk.