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Dear god, the thought of having to choose between Stacey Abrams and Donald Trump in the next election sends shivers down my spine.

It’s sniffles and coughs now. It’s all a clownshow now - all this mask business. Everyone just making shit up like an elementary school game when for most people, covid is not a factor, never was a factor, and is sufficiently protected against - also - it’s their choice to do as they see fit for their OWN protection. Clownshow Example: Amex lounge DFW…. Get a whole warning from front desk about the rise in cases (not deaths) from the all powerful OMICRON, and how I need to wear a mask bla bla bla. If you’re eating (have a plate of food on your table)…. No hassle from the employee being the gestapo looking for violators when you don’t wear a mask. BUT! If you don’t have a plate of food, but are instead holding a cup of coffee and taking sips while talking to your group of people surrounding your table….. you get hassled for not wearing a mask and told to wear it and replace it between sips of said liquid. Zero sense. Zero critical thought. 100% clownshow, sheep, fear. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

RINO? Because they didn't support the unbelievably stupid election protest? I'm not as confident with Haley since she's been out of the spotlight for a while, but why do you consider Crenshaw not-conservative? Unless you mean RINO literally, which I consider a good thing. Last I checked, the Republican party has been a disgrace for decades, at least starting with Bush. They've been almost as pro illegal immigration as the Democrats have, minus publicly voicing that opinion. They've been weak dicks on foreign policy, when they had a chance to do something about Obamacare they shit the bed. And it would be absolutely hilarious if it wasn't so tragic how they completely abandoned fiscal responsibility almost immediately after the tea party revolution. It's not just the Democratic party that has to go through an reckoning. Republicans have confused supporting capitalism with enabling billionaire-led multinational corporations that are completely in bed with the Democratic party, simply because they are "business." But their business has been outsourcing jobs to other countries, and almost single-handedly funding all of the radical movements that are decimating our social fabric today. They have presided as the champions of capitalism over the most disgusting distortion of free market ideals in my lifetime, culminating in a pandemic, where for no reason whatsoever, the jobs and activities of the underclass were deemed non-essential, while nearly every single upper class pursuit was enabled and funded. They printed 6 trillion dollars and almost exclusively distributed it to the richest Americans, triggering an inflation wave which is going to devastate the minimal savings of the bottom half while the rich ride the speculative asset bubble to the Moon. Don't worry though, just like in 2008 they'll find a way to sell all of their nonsense holdings before the crash. The Fed will ensure they have enough time to do so by propping up the market until only us silly retail investors are left in play. So who exactly are the Republicans again? And don't give me some obscure Representatives on their first or second term, if the leadership structure of the party aren't "true Republicans" then there's no such thing at all. Exactly how have the top brass of the party acted as true conservatives while Crenshaw has not?

Pretty sure that's what the approximately 10,000 uniformed personnel who have been/are facing discharge would say to you and your gloating over their fate for their refusing to take the non-vaccine vaccine.

Can’t go wrong with either. Lots of pros and very little cons to both. AA: upgrade is 4 years and decreasing (in general, PHX would take much longer). PHX has been going to new hires. PHX is only the 320. If you can’t get PHX at Indoc, you could bid LGA/LAX 320 and subsequently get PHX 320 at your first vacancy bid, probably max 3-months after Indoc. Lots of AA pilots living in PHX do 320 FO for a few years, commute to DFW/LAX 777/787 FO and/or upgrade to LAX 320 CA, then back to PHX 320 CA when they can hold it. PHX 320 does a decent amount of Hawaii flying if that motivates you. It’s relatively senior on the captain side but there’s so many retirements that the future will look much different. Over half the seniority list is gone by 2026-2027 or so. AA offers widebody options if that motivates you. I don’t foresee a PHX widebody domicile, but who knows. AA work rules (reassignments mostly) lag but that’s largely mitigated by living in base. Best commuter policy in the industry. Can drop to zero with surprising ease, the vocal minority who claims you can’t are either too lazy/scared to try or don’t know how. AA has the worst, most incompetent management team by far. That’s all relative though; AA mgmt is light years better than the toxic frauds across AD USAF that love to call themselves “leaders”. SWA: 10 year upgrade to sit reserve on weekends and holidays in OAK. Much better balance sheet. I’d say SWA management is better, but my SWA buddies say that the old Herb culture is long dead and the new mgmt is not good. Better work rules that incentivize pilots to work hard. SWA pilots are very productive and are compensated well for that. You’ll work way harder as a SWA FO but be paid more for it. Only the 737… it’s not a bad airplane but an entire career on it? Yikes. I have no idea how senior PHX is at SWA. My buddies complain about a “Luke Mafia” and “Kernals” that think they’re still in the AF and can’t let it go. I guess that could be a good or bad thing. There are some threads on the SW forum of APC that would be worth a read. I’d take that stuff with a grain of salt. FWIW, apparently a dozen or so SW pilots left for AA over the past few months. I’m sure some AA guys left for SW. Grass is always greener type thing.

SWA: Phoenix is fairly senior but prior to COVID the wisdom was that a new FO would hold any base they wanted within 6 months. With us hiring 1,500 new FOs this year, I hope that goes back to the norm. Mil leave at SWA is about the easiest thing I have done. Fill out a form on your company issued ipad and you are done. No sending in orders or getting harassed by anyone. I am not even sure if SWA truly tracks the 5-year USERRA limit, unless you were to drop a long term AGR order or something. As far as scheduling flexibility, SWA is pretty good. When I was commuting I would usually just give my whole schedule away and then pickup out of give away at my local base where I wasn’t senior enough to hold. We have something close to 6,000 FOs that all fly the same equipment as you and a good majority of them are greedy who will pick up your flying if you let them. I could clear a whole months schedule in about a day or so. Pay lags behind the big 3 airlines in years ~2-4 but somewhat catches up according to what I’ve seen our Union post. Of course Capt upgrade is probably 10 years+ and that would still require you to commute to Oakland. We are in contract negotiations now and it seems like the pilot group is all pulling the same direction so hopefully we get some good meaningful improvements. Hope that helps! I don’t come on here much anymore but I stop by now and then to check on all you guys. Let me know if you all have any questions! Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Whoever made this is phenomenal 😂 Uncle Joe.

Lol are you sure? I like Biden enough and I think the economy in particular is doing much better than people's perceptions of it; the sentiment is unmorred from the reality. Powell at the Fed + very robust emergency/recovery spending from Congress since spring 2020 have given the US a giant leg up economically coming out of the pandemic compared to peer democracies in Europe and elsewhere. Essentially full employment at this stage is an incredible achievement and 2021 has the strongest GDP growth since 1984. The main problems remains that the pandemic is not over and that's obviously spreading a lot of bad vibes in general. Hard to be optimistic when there's a lot of plague and death everywhere! Unfortunately the enemy gets a vote. Some unforced errors from the Biden Admin ranging from SMH to "wow, what a f*ck up," but I'm not trying to debate y'all blow-by-blow here. I give them the benefit of the doubt for good intent and y'all do not, I get it. I wish Biden were not 1,000 years old and had that view all through the 2020 primary and even when I voted for him. Harris has been an absolute liability politically and is an unwise successor if Biden decides not to run in 2024. Some of my more preferred candidates would be Jared Polis (CO governor), Stacey Abrams (assuming she wins GA governor in 2022) and Mayor / Transpo Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennett are also good in my book. The world where Biden wins again is where Trump is the GOP nominee, simply because Trump is such a wildcard/liability in many regards. A replacement-level GOP governor/senator with relatively Trump-aligned rhetoric I think wins in 2024, that's what I'm expecting to happen at least. Incumbency is also a huge advantage that should not be underestimated...I seem to remember about 96.9% of y'all being absolutely sure Obama would lose in 2012 due to perceived poor performance.

Some people will take awhile to realize that the vast majority of your .gov doesn't give a shit about you. They only care about two things. Votes, money, more money and more votes. They will say and do anything to get them. This country was never designed to have a ruling class but that's what we have now.

GFY = Giffy? Yeah. I should have gone there for the gif.

We have a lot of provisions that are not friendly to pilots, and heavily favor management. If you commute, the problems are exemplified... if you do what @Lord Ratner does, the issues are mitigated significantly. Off hand: No double dipping, no reassignment premium pay except for actual time flown outside original sequence block in, Recovery Obligation for a sequence that has a Misconnect, Illegality, or Cancellation that extends to 0159 the day after for domestic, or +30 hours from block in for international, only 150% premium, premium is seniority based (great for those at the top), trips blocked for IOE rather than being bought off (can still be bought off, but less common), significant disagreements with Management on Notification rules, negligible profit sharing, a near incompetent IT team, Loss of License (LTD) monthly pay capped at 60% or $8k, whatever is less, 60 hours of sick time a year, no timeline to settle grievances so there are 100+ of them pending, and the company enjoys "Fly and Grieve" afforded to them by the RLA, etc. All of these are largely Scheduling issues that can be fixed contractually. The other half of AAs problem are pilots who have seen the worst of the industry, and are 1) permanently jaded about life 2) constantly believe they should be made whole and are mad that it hasn't happened yet 3) refuse to learn how to manipulate our contract to their advantage 4) blame everyone else for not fixing their personal pet peeve (x6000 other pilots with their own personal pet peeve.) Despite all the above, I still enjoy working here. If you live in a mega hub, you can make a lot of money by working very little comparatively. If a pilot gets wrapped on the Union forums or the Facebook groups... well, misery loves company... and there's several hundred vocal pilots who won't be happy until you agree with them on how awful everything is. edit: still leaps and bounds better than AD, and I have more free time then I know what to do with. pilots having an entire second business is a real thing here.

Advice: AA vs SWA. I need to stay located for family in Phoenix and my priority is scheduling flexibility vs pay and I’ll be a TR reservist. Any words?

I appreciate your civil response, truly …even though I think most of the candidates you mentioned are terrible to our democracy..Polis actually impressed me, in a good way, when he wiped his ass with all the Covid hype. I’d like to see more people like him and Tulsi, on both sides of the aisle.

Just playing devil’s advocate, why not just knock out ACSC, at least by your second look? It wasn’t that much work, granted I knocked it out in 4 months while sitting a desk deployed. I understand everyone has valid priorities like family but is it worth risking the chance of not being continued at 17.5 years in, so close to that check of the month stability?

For once I agree with you in that this would be the smartest course of action for the Dems. But I'm going to disagree that they are smart enough to execute this plan. And while I think there are some interesting potential Republican prospects, I have my doubts that that party can get out from under the Trump/populist faction. I guess I'm kind of pessimistic at the moment. I expect at least another four years of dumpster fire whether its Trump 2.0 or Biden gridlocked with an uncooperative (to say the least) Republican congress.

Can they alternate whose on top? 😎

It's a pipe dream...but I'd vote for a Tulsi Gabbard/Nikki Haley ticket (no matter which name was on top) in a heartbeat. And it would automatically short-circuit any "misogynist/racist/xenophobic" attacks.

I also don’t see how she could be confirmed to the SCOTUS. Surely she wouldn’t be allowed to break the tie in the Senate to appoint herself.

Lol See thalidomide, see Tuskegee experiments, see all the recalled drugs in our nations history. I am the only person who has my best interest in mind. I’m not saying that we shall throw the baby out with the bath water (the FDA and CDC do some good work), but these covid drugs seem much more on the side of thalidomide, than penicillin or Tylenol. I’ve never seen such targeted adds for the use of Tylenol in children, but for covid they are literally paying children to get vaccinated ( see “kids deserve a shot” website ). State gov agencies have raffled off scholarships, lottery tickets and much more in the name of “public safety”. Doesn’t that smell weird to you? If the medicine was so good shouldn’t you have to pay for it? Oh wait, as a taxpayer we already paid for it via a juicy contract to the tune of 2 billion, and to add insult to injury we paid for all the coercive incentive programs for people to take it. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Seriously? I doubt the man has gotten into anything to pull out of in a very long time! First, that's a helluva assumption! There's no way they would not put forward an incumbent president unless it's for health issues. Otherwise it proves he hasn't done the job as well as they keep claiming he has. Also, they next logical choice would be the VP, and her ratings are falling even faster than his. If the Democrats were smart, they'd realize Biden was a one-and-done without mulligans; but in my opinion his "performance" has not only set them up for a huge hit during the mid-terms, but also in 2024. If they were smart, they'd have an exit plan better than the one they employed for Afghanistan. That would require not only taking Joe out of the picture, but Kamala as well. And despite what she thinks, it ain't gonna be Hilary either. The Democrats don't have a lot of time to get their shit together! All debates on voter fraud aside, they got lucky in 2020 and Biden's victory was more about people with hurt feelings over Trump more than a true belief that he would be a better president. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot wrong about Trump but in comparison Biden's performance can be summed up in a single graphic...

No, the Trump admin did sanction Russia for the pipeline in 2017 and was heavily condemned by the EU for doing so. Further completion was also a major factor in Trump's decision to pull 10K troops out of Germany. (Along with failing to uphold NATO spending and other issues, but NS2 was definitely a key point). Biden immediately reversed that decision before it was implemented and wanted to go for a softer diplomatic approach. Putin was smart enough to realize you don't need to control all of Europe, just Germany. They have the largest population/most money in Europe and the rest of Europe happily submits to their leadership.

This probably could also go in “What’s wrong with the Air Force”.

Disgruntled, I have no idea if you're accurate. All I know is my QOL at UAL is great. My goal is "time off" and "schedule", not "money" or "premium pay". I will never be the guy that get's $100,000 in a month. All I want to do is fly to Hawaii and back. When I retire at 28 years with the company, I'll likely not be able to hold wide body captain. And I'm good with that. I was hired at the end of the wave. I jumpseated with a 51 year old 777 Captain last month, and when I ran "the calculator", I discovered he will retire as the #3 pilot at UAL. Timing is everything, I suppose. I can't speak to the SWA schedule or QOL. My buds there love it. When you turn 65 years old, let us know how it turns out for you. 🥃

Money may not buy happiness, but financial security is a real thing. Being able to send your kids to any college they get into is a real change in your quality of life. Knowing that your wife won't be impoverished if you don't make 20 years and Lt Col is also a real difference in your life. The air force may not be able to compete dollar for dollar with a lot of jobs, but pretending any money above $100k salary and tricare is unnecessary is asinine and insulting.

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.

If you choose to stay in and are the type that is going to use mloa to enhance your schedule, don't be the jackass that brags about it when you're around co-workers who can't do such things. It happens a bit more than I'd ever have imagined and as a fellow mil dude, there nothing more cringeworthy.