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I didn’t. And I just tried. But I stopped after I read the word equity twice. It’s amazing how racism is passed off as furthering our military. Equity isn’t equal. It’s pushing some people with certain identifiers down to forcibly push others with different identifiers up regardless of the effects on the system or actual effectiveness of the system. Which means it’s racist.

It will never be enough, and that’s by design. Telling a certain group of people that they’re not doing well because of racism, bigotry, etc and that one political party/philosophy will solve it equates to votes/power/money…so it can never end/be completed. Similarly, take a look at the NFL. The left is literally saying that the NFL is racist…the NFL.

Picture of the Moskva Appears to be in the middle of fighting fires aboard. Obviously the guy on the support vessel who snapped this didn’t do his annual cyber awareness and OpSec training. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I kinda have to agree with them. There shouldn’t be a league based off performance. It should be strictly based off arbitrary percentages of made up identifiers that have nothing to do with football. Start with just one team and let the rest do their thing. You’ll see that one team will be amazing because of its arbitrary diversity.

Seems all spin...though the K-20 investment got my attention. Direct assessions maybe? Professionals getting different signing bonuses maybe? Preferential placement? In the military installation serving under-represented, assumably minority populations...does that mean cleaning up fuel leaks on Pacific Islanders' ancient homelands? Or can we assume that is PFAS/PFOS cleanup near old farms? How about fuel cleanup near Pueblos? ...which the DoD is already doing.

This should come of no surprise, look at our CINC, VP, administration and the views they hold, not to mention the CJCS, SECDEF, and so on. They mask their sheer incompetence with virtue signaling (remember the useless one sided “extremism down days” last year) and race baiting. Putin couldn’t have picked a better time and the Chinese are laughing at us. But hey, at least we can put our preferred pronouns in our email block!

This is my chance to be an NFL corner!

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-equity-plan How much diversity is enough? And how many levels of diversity? I’ve got to have equal Jewish and Italian demographics for mechanics for the percentage of New Yorkers assigned to Joint base Langley or whatever it’s being called now. I still blame Fingers Goldfien for his part in this. 2 years of UPT should only contain minorities. Our military is off its rocker.

This is something many people don't realize. Most think the same limits to Roth IRA's apply to Roth TSP (401k), but there are none. You are capped at the standard 401k annual contribution limits; $20,500 for '22. I don't care who you are, max out a Roth 401k for 30+ years and you will be enjoying $2M+ tax-free at 60 years old.

Pull up the Reserve Vacancies list on the portal and find yourself an IMA job

Saw ‘Nightmare Alley’ on HBO Max last night. Wasn’t sure what it was/what to expect since my better half said she wanted to watch it, but had some good character development and some twists throughout. Worth watching.

Unfortunately the notions of "left" and "right" today are obscured by cultural and historic definitions, as the left and right "wings" harken back to the national assembly during the period of the French Revolution. The two-dimensional "political spectrum" only muddies these concepts as, in practice, separating economic and social liberty (or control) is near impossible. People tend to form political associations based on broad ideological beliefs (e.g. freedom vs control) or by more empirical or granular issues (e.g. tax rates, abortion, gun control, regulation, etc), none of which are easily placed in a single quadrant. Assuming the "far left" and "far right," meaning the commonly understood totalitarian ideologies of communism and fascism, don't come close to "meeting" presents a false choice, with the "moderate" position simply being placed between the two. Communism (or in practice, socialism) and fascism have more in common than most realize as they are both collectivist ideologies that subordinate the individual to the group, whose locus of control is by default the state. Unlike classical liberalism, neither recognizes the sanctity of the individual, and their rights, if any, are merely utilitarian and subject to the whims of the state and the party. The term "fascism" has latin roots, symbolically as a bundle of sticks fastened together (symbolizing the strength of the group under the leader). The ideological origins of fascism in Italy, first authored by Giovanni Gentile and practiced by Mussolini, were actually socialist in character. https://fee.org/articles/theres-no-denying-the-socialist-roots-of-fascism/ Gentile was influenced not only by Karl Marx, the father of authoritarian socialism, but also Hegel, who was essentially the ideological grandfather of authoritarian socialism (Marx's main man), having developed the notions of dialectical historicism and German idealism (awful!). His convoluted philosophy ultimately boils down to nothing more than nineteenth century alchemy that influenced a number of terrible ideas and regimes. While many historical and contemporary advocates of socialism have decried any common ideological roots or practical similarities between socialism/communism and fascism/nazism, these splinters are regular features in their ideologies. For example, the infighting between Bolsheviks & Mensheviks during the Russian Revolution, the left-opposition against the Stalinist "right," the purging of party members following Lenin's death (and Trotsky's ultimate demise by icepick to the skull) under Stalin, the Night of the Long Knives (Nazi "socialist workers party" members killed by Hitler), and so on. These ideological "splits" demonstrate that just because one faction is opposed to the other, they are not polar opposites but merely dissenting factions. Practically speaking, both Nazism/fascism and socialism/communism as political and economic systems concentrate power under the state. Both are opposed to free market capitalism, private property rights, and individual liberty. Its well understood that both systems restrict or eliminate civil liberties and clamp down on dissent, freedom of speech/expression, privacy, etc. What's more telling is the similarity in their economic systems. Many socialist ideologies propose that the means of production will be owned by "the workers" which, due to its absurdity, gives rise to the state ownership of production, i.e. a centrally planned, state-run economy that eliminates market and price signals and private property rights. Fascism and nazism likewise take control of existing private enterprises, eliminate or restrict property rights, and establish wage and price controls under state mandates. https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html Here's an even better example. Look at the proposed economic policies of a Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist) or an Elizabeth Warren (Progressive Dem) type and compare them to Fascist Italy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Fascist_Italy I'm sure none of us favor a political or economic system that is "far left" (communist) or "far right (fascist)" but given this dichotomy would likely describe ourselves as "moderate." But placing oneself in between fascism and communism is...absurd. If one were to ask your political beliefs, would you say "Well, I'm somewhere between Stalin and Hitler"? That...doesn't sound right. If we look at the ideologies and history of these regimes, it becomes obvious that liberal, free-market capitalism (what we nominally have in the West) is not in between the far left and far right, but rather completely separate and opposed to either system. If anything, fascism is between free market capitalism and communism.

This entire war is amazing to watch. Russia’s only off ramp to return to normalcy is if the FSB kills Putin and his successor says, “yeah, he was a crazy asshole, good riddance, now who wants to buy some oil?” I’d put $69 on it happening within the year.

It's total insanity. I don't know what the point is, but it sure isn't 'science,' or 'public health.' The rationale for mask mandates was always based on two main concepts: 1) "Flatten the curve" so hospitals don't get overrun. 2) In the good ol' days of cloth and surgical masks, 2-way masking was touted as the solution for the fact that those types of masks don't protect the wearer. "My mask protects you, and your mask protects me," they told us. Fast-forward to today, and both those concepts are OBE. They mailed out 400 million "free" N95's across the country and the CDC declared that 1-way masking using them was "highly effective" at protecting the wearer. So now, "your mask protects you," and we're at no danger of overrunning hospitals? Great. Mandates should have ended that very instant. If 1-way masking is highly effective, and we're not going to overrun hospitals, why should I be forced to wear one? The reason is that they've decided that the US is a nanny state. They know what's best for you, and will help you make the "right choices" for yourself ...by not allowing you to make choices for yourself. And sadly, very few people are calling them out on it or even highlighting the disconnect. Vote them all out.

Gives them two more weeks for cases of COVID to “surge” and then “justify” a longer extension. I’ll gladly eat crow on this if I’m wrong, but I think the TSA mask mandate will exist at least through the midterms. Fauci was just on the news the other day saying he thinks the airline mask mandate should be extended beyond the 15 days. This has become just another classic example of complete COVID hypocrisy and lunacy. When this all started it was determined and stated widely that flying on airplane was one of the safest things you could do because the air filtration systems on board; yet the airlines are one of the last places you are forced to wear masks.

TSA extends the public travel mask mandate another two weeks…WTF is the point of that?

This thread got going again because of mandates. The mandates for Airline travel, and then Philadelphia's new mandate. The examples of individual's showcasing their mask lunacy are provided to demonstrate how messed up some people's heads have gotten because of all this. Although you are absolutely right that I don't care what they do personally as individuals, their hysteria and idiocy is relevant because it impacts public policy (i.e. mask mandates that I'm ordered to follow.) There are ample mitigation resources and strategies available to everyone. People can make choices for themselves. And when/if we are allowed to, you won't hear a peep from me. But for now, unfortunately, that group -- the covidian psychos -- are still driving stupid, irrational policies that everyone has to follow.

My kids school has a sign in the parking lot that reads something to the effect of "Staff is armed and will use lethal force to defend students." I'm not saying that stuff isn't at my kids' school. But maybe not.

I just hope I can get some good, reliable information on Naval aviation from this upcoming documentary. Definitely don’t want to just go enjoy myself and get nostalgic.

Meanwhile in the Army… All awards for the 64 pilots who were herding people off the runway or the CAB for the crew that got shot/hit by small arms… still sitting at division. 29 hours continuous operations in one case (crews swapping twice with the aircraft going waaaay past prescribed maintenance checks) ….yeah we will get to that when we feel like it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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