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A good read. One of our former U-2 Brothers was on this crew. He has some really good pics. https://coffeeordie.com/c-17-secret-mission-kabul/

I am sorry but you are straight up regurgitating the DNC talking points that spew out of the White House..."Putin Price Hike"...Come on Man. Of course it is global...and what we do at home impacts global supply. When Biden declared war on the U.S. energy industry and surrendered energy our independence he EARNED that sticker. Yes restarting the world economy and a war in Ukraine impact supply and demand but much of the increase happened before Putin went rouge and it is because we constrained our U.S. supply. We are now begging Venezuela, Saudi and Iran to produce more oil as if somehow that doesn't emit carbon like U.S. based oil does...Come on man! Please STOP referencing the 9,000 unused leased without giving the rest of the story. Does the energy industry have 9,000 leases to drill on government owned land, absolutely...does the government drag their feet, fight in court and block those leases at every turn...YES. The average time to get through the regulatory process is 10 YEARS. Then they fight all mechanisms to move and process the oil (pipelines and refineries). The oil market is not just a supply and demand curve, perception has a large influence. Would approving Keystone increase the supply of oil tomorrow, nope...but the price of oil would immediately fall on perception. This entire situation is purposeful - Biden said, “I want you to look at my eyes. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.” A lofty goal and something but a realistic timeline that doesn't destroy our economy would be a far better approach. Sadly, Biden doesn't comprehend how oil impacts every segment of our economy. This situation is going to get a LOT worse.

Concur. I'm not against the movement towards renewable energy sources, but the way the current administration feels it needs to force it down everyone's throats during their hopefully one-and-done tenure is not the solution! The US was moving in the right direction and at the right pace, but damning those who still use fossil fuels will result in a resentment that will hurt the Dems come election time, and rightfully so. Sorry, but the part you support is famous for good idea fairies that fail during implementation...because they don't know how to moderate themselves. The attitude they are smarter than anyone is laughable, and despite Trump acting the same way at least he had the wherewithal to do things that actually helped the economy and people. Trust me, Trump was the last person I wanted to vote for on the Republican ticket; but these past 18 months have proven despite what a giant ass he was, he did more for your average American instead of focusing on those who cannot determine what gender they are!

There are a number of issues with Green energy. I would not look at Europe as a beacon of light. They subsidize their green energy but they are currently at the mercy of Putin with Gas. IMO the Ukraine conflict has very much to do with Oil and Gas. The Caspian area has a massive play where Exxon among others have invested billions. The pipelines run through Ukraine and you cant really bypass Ukraine from the field to get to market. If you can own Ukraine you keep the taxes and tarriffs to yourself. If you recall the drama on the pipeline in the Bakken in North Dakota where the Indians were mad about it polluting the Missouri and their Rez, celebrities came out in the cold to protest. Well the Indians wanted hefty fees to pass through the rez so the oil company just bypassed it so they cried fowl to get it back. You talk about thousands of green jobs being created, do you care for the tens of thousands that will be lost? This industry pays well and provides opportunities to those that if they want to grind, they can make more than they dreamed. The tax revenues alone to all local to feds are in hte hundreds of billions. The only real green jobs i see are punks selling solar door to door so their company can get a tax rebate. Just look at Houston. one of hte fastest growing metros. You think they can all just work in wind? If you are a fan of Green energy you really need to understand how the grid will be affected if you make a fast switch. Nukes have been phased out, coal is being phased out. The flat out truth is we are consuming more energy than ever. Play the global warming card and the Earth getting hotter, thats just more AC running. Wind is a real joke. My company has an Advanced Engineering division. We have done studies on wind turbines and the load they experience isnt sustainable. They will fail long before create the energy they promised. ALso they are made of toxic materials and cant be reused or destroyed. So landfill it is. Ive had solar on my home in hte past and it really doesnt make sense financially. The ROI is typically not within reach considering when you are in range of payout, the panels wont be producing as new. Im not against Green Energy, I am just a realists. Most Teslas are powered by coal or natural gas. The US has oceans of Natural Gas. If they want to expand the grid they can easily replace coal with Nukes and Natural Gas. IMO solar and wind will never get us there. It will need to be some tech of a fusion reactor if we go down the road with as many EVs as promised. Lastly IMHO is that the Dems know this but they will make promises on the Green push that they will never see in their lives but are happy to buy the votes. They laugh as the family struggling to get buy to pay $100 to fill up their car on the way to hte beach. I lived in CO and Gov Polis and Hickenlooper both promised to move the state away from O&G. However, they have no way to support the state if they did. They know this but still make it a priority.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2022/06/13/airmen-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-deaths-of-afghans-who-mobbed-c-17-during-kabul-evacuation/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=air-dnr Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Sadly it’s all political. The left over the years have been on record for saying how bad they think fossil fuels are, how they want them to go away…even if it costs the average American citizen more money. Biden signs EOs to make it harder/more expensive to harness the energy of fossil fuels, he has advisors who are openly against fossil fuels, and the Dems have not produced any legislation that reduces regulations on fossil fuels. But the rising gas prices are now the fault of…wait for it…Putin’s war in Ukraine and those evil greedy oil executives. Biden doesn’t deserve 100% of the blame for the rising costs, but he does deserve 100% for not trying to lower the costs.

Now it all make sense - drove across the country a while ago, multiple days of it being windy as shit and tons of turbines not turning. The failure of current “green energy” on full display. Concur with others though, I fully support energy advancement, but let’s do it on a realistic timeline and not rush it, which in turn ends in failure with the bonus of destroying our economy and crushing the middle and lower class.

That’s why I asked based on what you know right now? You can always change your mind since it’s not the real election lol. You voted for Biden and he hadn’t ran anything…so I would say that running Florida is just a little more than running nothing.

full steam ahead, until full reverse!

Same reason you have to go get a single pilot check ride in a Dutchess to get an ATP even though you might be currently flying a four engine heavy around the world and your mil form 8 is far more relevant to transport flying than the worthless three days you just got to spend in a light twin. Some shit will just never make sense.

Wait, what? It is? Unemployment is at record lows. Personal income is up month over month, as is disposable income, as is consumer spending. Our load factors are back to pre-Covid levels if not higher. We're often full, and we've been leaving non-revs behind at least half the time. What's going on in your world that has the economy in the toilet where you live?

there is so much revenue to be create from O&G that can better our country as far as infrastructure, education and other programs that could really help those in need, I dont know why we want to race away from that sector. The US is in a position to be the global energy export leader. When you factor all the jobs involved in Exploration and production (Drilling), Midstream (Transportation) and Downstream (Refining and delivery), ppl only think of hte big players like Exxon and Chevron but there are thousands of other businesses all involved in the process. Maintenance, Integrity, Installation, there are hundreds of thousands employed. Planting a bunch of wind farms wont create the jobs claimed. I also challenge proponents of wind to drive through WY on any given day and notice all the turbines that are idle due to wind loads. Turbines need wind but too much and they break. IMO our energy policy should be to be an Energy leader while supporting R&D to develop new technologies that can be more efficient.

Ive never understood this sentiment. You are essentially posting the millennial job paradox. LF: Experienced leader to be President of US. Must have 10 years experience running countries. Who are you going to find like that? A state is literally the next lowest executive echelon in the US. Like if you want someone with public service executive experience, a governor is literally your most qualified candidate.

SOS is where pilots learn how inept *most* of the AF really is and why everything outside a flying sq is a dysfunctional sh-tshow.

It's more than just gas prices...

I 7-day opted out of SOS. Big Blue wouldn't let me go, but I got "orders" to SOS and it had the 7-day op at the bottom. I checked the box, and it somehow sailed through.

I don’t even think it’s important. The GWOT invalidated those schools and the officers they produced. None of their advanced education brought anything worthwhile to the GWOT. Our successes were tactical, and produced by guys & gals in the trenches flying the daily line figuring out a new way to expedite authorities, move stuff, pass gas, engage high speed cars, track squirters, etc. Guys like you. Making the only thing close to a win by pure grit & attrition. Whereas our numerous GWOT failures were produced (militarily at least, I’ll sidestep political finger-pointing) by inexperienced commanders overthinking relatively simple problems. Attendance at these prestigious schools and their prerequisite Exec/ADC jobs is a time demand incompatible with double digit line flying deployments. When these graduates finally showed up down range, it was always in a leadership position however their lack of operational experience and credibility resulted in leading without confidence or operational context; their knowledge of war was theoretical. They didn’t trust their captains to provide that experience, were crippled by a lack of confidence, did not understand how to intelligently take calculated risk, were fixated on irrelevancies while mischaracterizing captains who prioritize mission and ignored irrelevancies as undisciplined, and stuck to poor command decisions out of pride. You couldn’t talk to these people. They just wanted to make it to the end of their tour without anything happening. They despised initiative. The elite IDE/SDE schools and fellowships are no longer prestigious. They produced graduates who simply cannot win, and stifled those who could.

So weird, because this seems like a great job for military pilots who separate or retire because of the BS but who love that type of flying. Sure, it's less than airline pay, but American won't let you do a split-s in their 737.

To continue the derail, a great resource is the FAA Aviation Instructors Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9A). Some of the chapters don’t really apply like lesson plan development etc but the first 2 chapters are good on some fundamentals. I don’t want UPT to turn into a touchy freely Part 141 school where the CFI’s kiss the students ass, but I’d like to see less throwing pubs/choking the oxygen hose Tweet style instruction. And if you’re one of those IP’s that’s convinced every student is trash and they can’t do anything right and are super nervous and awkward all the time, it may be you.

False hope is literally the AF’s favorite management tool. Without it, the Bobs might actually have to lead.

Of course as a kid and not paying for tickets, the 1970s was my golden age of flying. Beautiful flight attendants back in the day. At least to this 9 to 19 year old. I flew back and forth from Taiwan to BNA every other year from 1970 through 1982. Usually Northwest Orient across the pond and then some combination of Eastern, Continental, Braniff, AA and/or Delta (the ones I remember anyway) to get across the US. Actual silverware, porcelain/china plates, real hot food cooked onboard... The cost back then was about what Business class prices are now (when adjusted for time). So while coach seats have gotten way too cheap, for comparable travel amenities that I remember, the price is pretty constant. The huge negative was the smoking sections. The thick smoke covering the top 1/3 of the fuselage sucked on a 12 hour flight from TPE or NRT to SEA, DTW, or MSP. I remember once /maybe twice having to stop in ANC for fuel when headwinds were strong (guessing headed towards Asia but don't remember for sure). Great memories looking back 50 plus years. - gramps

And this is them still working today!

I've considered finding orders to close out my remaining 3 years of AD to get the full retirement...and then I log-in (more correctly: I ATTEMPT to log-in) to a AF computer...and my decision to bypass the AD retirement solidifies again. As to probation, Huggy shacked it. Don't risk excessively extending probation. That next 20 year multi-million dollar career in the airlines simply isn't worth the 12 months of orders and absoluteluy zero protection that the USAF will give you in the event your new airline fires or furloughs you because of COVID-23 or whatever insanity is next. A few days here and there for drill weekend is manageable. Dropping 3 years at 6 months in is hanging it out on the line in what has proven to be a feast-or-famine industry.

Last Sunday's Monaco - other than being on my bucket list for a place to see world class "talent" due to all the money, was yet another cars on parade event. Tradition is fine, but not when the fat hippo cars can't pass on the narrow streets. Sounds like McLaren is pointing to the door for Riccardo.

Not a fair comparison my dude. Mav is not dumb, he could quickly see what Charlie was becoming, a tired old hag who spent more time on her career and let her looks quickly fade. Sure she had the smarts, maybe Mav was intimated by that...maybe she could have even showed how smart she was by appearing on various aviation shows (ala Dr Rebecca Grant). She is probably somewhere high up in the pentagon right now and people who don't know Charlie probably say "that dude is squared away." Charlie chose her career over Mav. Enter Patty Benjamin, sure she was underage and an admiral's daughter when her and Mav first meet...but she kept her looks and she owns a fighter bar...so she's the winner in my book.

I prefer the original Kelly McGillis over the sequel Jennifer Connelly. Fight me.

What I don’t understand is when the FAA said ‘nah’, why they didn’t just go do it in Mexico, where anything goes. They were in Arizona already…just do it over there. Instead they directly challenged the FAA, after they’d made their ruling.