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Eh, you look at Kathleen Hicks' bio, and it becomes clear how someone like her could arrive unprepared. She's a DC swamp creature through and through. She's spent her entire career within the DC Beltway. It's not surprising that she would appear so entirely out of touch. She probably thought Jon Stewart would crack a couple jokes, shake her hand, and leave. Look at her bio; she's spent her entire adult life as a bureaucrat in the federal government. She's married to a fellow swamp creature (Thomas Hicks) who had such career highlights as "helping to pursue low emissions alternative fuels" as Undersecretary of the Navy, and now runs a K-street advisory firm focusing on "help(ing) companies, organizations, governments and institutions prepare for, mitigate against and take advantage of change." Whatever the fuck that means. When people talk about the "Deep State," these are the kind of folks they're talking about. A huge body of career bureaucrats, answerable only to their fellow bureaucrats. They make buckets of money, and provide vanishingly little in return. As time goes on and their numbers increase, they only get more and more out of touch with the day to day lives or ordinary Americans.

I think Pooter's point is pretty clear and easy to understand. The Dems are making sure that Trump gets the nomination because they believe they can beat him. And they also understand that the Reps are stupid enough to let that happen. And if that does happen, the Dems will be in the White House for 4 more years. Its kinda obvious what they are doing. The only question mark is Biden. Can he be the face of the Dems for 4 more years. And that's where Republicans and conservatives have gone full retard. Biden can barely put a sentence together. He is blatantly anti-conservative in his policies. He's old. He can easily be defeated by a strong Republican candidate. But Republicans will find a way to put the idiot Trump back into the general election. And he will lose. Don't know if Biden will defeat him, but a Dem definitely will.

More of a DOD-wide problem but here's Jon Stewart asking the deputy defense secretary basic questions about why we cant account for where 70% of the budget goes And she has the nerve to get snippy with him.. lady, in what world are you going to verbally out-maneuver Jon Stewart

A near-peer has shown their ass on the global stage. They're hauling out WWII-era tanks to replace their losses. They've united the Western world behind them, to the point where NATO is less dependent on them for energy than any time in the last 30 years. They convinced the Scandinavian countries to finally join NATO. In what world do you look at Russia's current state and say "eh, they haven't lost anything"? Sure, they have nukes. So does Pakistan. Do you lie awake at night worrying about Pakistan? Having seen the state of their conventional military, I wonder if they even have the capacity to launch the nukes or if they've been picked clean of electronics and scrap aluminum.

Well said. I disagree a lot with Jon Stewart politically but he has a nose for sniffing out bullshit and exposing it. Reference his popularization of the lab leak on colbert's show or all of his amazing 9-11 responders advocacy. It's insane to come into this conversation snippy and condescending the way she did.

This should absolutely get traction with anyone that has a daughter below high school age. School boards and local politics do make a difference. High school girls across the country are missing out on state level opportunities to compete, or being the last girl to not make a team. It is happening and I think it is only growing right now, especially if you live in certain states. I'm willing fight for my daughters right to have fair competition....just be ready to be attacked like Riley Gaines

Back in the day on Sept 30th I remember doing the ProSuper thing with my supply and RA guys taking the budget down to zero, I was looking at the all the 781K write ups and ordering parts for what we had in supply to clear them. Ordering stuff like gortex jackets, boots , Leatherman,. Nobody to this day could explain to me why we couldn't carry it over to the next years budget.

I still don’t understand why anyone would sit down to an interview with Jon Stewart and not be fully prepared with their A-game to defend whatever it is that you do. He’s obviously shown up there for a reason and it’s usually not to say he’s thinking you’re doing a great job. Regardless of your love of the positions he takes, it’s rare that I run into too many folks that think the arguments he presents are not pretty well laid-out and backed up. Why anyone would show up not having at least an inkling he may make you look like an asshole is beyond me… Then again, I’m admittedly very biased and f-ing love him, as he’s been a tireless proponent for government support of 9/11 related illnesses for first responders and his actions have had direct effects on brothers I know and love. Without him AND THIS SPEECH, this battle would still be ongoing

One of the bad things about civilian controlled military is you realize the people doing the controlling rarely lack qualification. If you look at how people like Kathleen Hicks get to their post, its clear that when they arrive they don't have nearly enough preparation on strategy, geo political climate, global security, etc... to really make informed decisions about how to appropriate money, etc... Unfortunately, this is a viable career path. And I've seen it quite a bit in the academic world, MPP students who apply for White House internships that 5-6 years later lead to undersecretary positions in most federal arms. These are people who have barely the work and life experience of a seasoned major, now managing general officer equivalents on how to run a military. If you want to go far in the DoD, masters degrees and PME are for schmucks. What you really need to do is get on board with a political candidate and let them appoint you to a Pentagon position. You work your way from there.

You can't sign it on myFSS yet as the PSDM hasn't been released. According the AvB office the PSDM release will be mid to late April.

California is literally the epitome of what happens with progressive policies…and yet you’re saying the country wants progressive policies? Btw, I always find it funny how people like Nsplayr enjoy living in a state like Tennessee, but yet will tell you how bad TN is wrt their politics and how much better Cali is…but continues to stay in TN.

God help us all if that scum bag makes it into office.

Nope. Enter Gavin Newsom...

I'm sure the catholic church has plenty of controls to prevent any sort of abuse in their ranks 😂

Ain’t no party like a free Ukraine party ….

If this was done by a Catholic Bishop or the Pope, or a leader in the Baptist church, you wouldn’t hear the end of it from the majority of the media.

I don't read that in his response at all.

It absofuckinglutely blows my mind that women, and even more crazy, some women athletes, are actually okay with biological men pretending to be women competing against them and ultimately beat them. This is not some gray area of personal beliefs. It’s absolutely solid science that men have an athletic advantage over women. I could give two fucks if some dude wants to cut his dick off, or wear dresses, or take pills to pump estrogen in his body. It’s a free country, do whatever you want. But it wasn’t that long ago women couldn’t even compete in sports. And now we’re going to piss all of that away to appease a fraction of a percent of the society.

Worked for me. Showed up with a $40-$45 bottle of whiskey. Nothing extreme but something I'd want to drink! Left it in my truck for the interview but at the end when they asked if I had questions I said "do yall like whiskey? Because I brought some..." (I'm sure you can guess how that went). Whipped it out when I showed up to the social. The way I see it, this is your shot. You can't control every aspect of how your interview and interaction with the unit will go, but you better leave as little to chance that you possibly can.

A nice bottle with a message and if you have a local flare where you are from, beer, alcohol, food, whatever, bring it and present to the masses. This is a moment you can never get back. And if you bring a six pack of Miller light, that’s all they will need to know about you. They might not even drink. But if you don’t value your future with that unit and don’t do something special and put effort into it, it’s an easy pass for them. They want someone they would like to hang out for 10+ years and has a good attitude and if you have a family, that they get along with you. You could have the best resume ever but if you’re awkward or don’t make an effort to make a splash in some of the only chances you get, then it’s an easy pass. There isn’t a shortage of people trying to get into a unit. There is a shortage of good people with their heart and mind in the right place that people want to go to war with. A bottle or special gift or a way to set yourself apart is just a small subset of who you are. Don’t just get a bottle and leave it. Make a splash. Do something to make them laugh show them why they want you and can’t be without you. The pilot shortage isn’t so bad that people will hire someone they don’t want to be around in military aviation. Generally speaking.

You can also consider writing a short message on the bottle with a sharpie. Something simple like "Thanks for your time/consideration, etc" and your name. More than once I've gone to a bottle, asked "who the hell brought this?" and then learned about a promising prospect.

It absolutely matters, even if they say it doesn’t. If they’re inviting you to interview they are giving you a chance to land your dream job (if that’s what this is to you). Getting a nice bottle is an easy way to show how much it means to you and they do notice it. The extra money you spend will be worth it when you get a “nice bottle, man” comment versus getting roasted for bringing something bottom shelf. If you want the job, put yourself in the best position to land it.

Another perspective from the dark world of cargo (777 aircraft): My March trip leaves 19 Mar for 13 days including my commute home. So, I leave on a Tuesday morning and I'll be back home Sunday midday just shy of two weeks later. I get it - not everyone would want that. There are plenty of shorter trips available if someone wanted say, two 6-day trips with a week off in between or even more trips (four 3-day trips). I prefer to minimize my commutes. As a result, I'm off 15 days in a row before the trip from 3 Mar-18 Mar. If I had worked the first two weeks of Feb, I could have had 4 weeks off in a row without using vacation. I'm working as an FO (as opposed to bidding a Relief FO trip), so I will fly a mix of long and short flights. I usually try to bid for an international deadhead to start the trip (and maybe one at the end of the trip if I get lucky) and one revenue flight each day I fly during the trip. If I wanted all long-haul flights on the trip, I would need to bid an RFO trip. Those trips typically have a deadhead (always on pax carriers, never our own aircraft) every other leg. The RFO works as part of a 3 or 4 pilot crew, has a layover and then deadheads to another city to meet up with another crew in need of additional pilots and so on. An added bonus of bidding the FO trips (if you know who the LCAs are i.e. Instructors) is you can also get bumped if they need that trip for training new pilots. You purposely bid a trip with them knowing they're going to get a student. So, your two-week trip gets "bought" and you get paid to stay home for the month. If you still want to work that month, you can pick up an extra trip or trips (maybe over the same days you planned to work originally) and double dip (even more, if your extra trip is being paid as draft - 150%). Day One I deadhead on AA in business class to Paris - I leave from my home airport to fly to France without having to commute to my domicile to start the trip and have some extra money left over for a private car to take me to the airport. Arrive Paris, 24 hours off 4-pilot crew Paris to Guangzhou, China (12:01 block hours)- 29 hours off 2-pilot to Osaka, Japan (3:17 block) - 50 hours off 2-pilot to Seoul, Korea (1:51 block) 33 hours off 2-pilot to Guangzhou (4:03 block) 27 hours off 4-pilot to Cologne, Germany (12:54 block) 62 hours off 3-pilot to Memphis (10:15 block) I get in to MEM around 0500, so I'll grab a nap in one of our hub sleep rooms (private, single bed, private showers available) and then use more extra travel money to fly home on AA with a real ticket (they'll upgrade me to first class) and another private car to take me home. Should walk through the door at home around 1400. We do our rest periods on the 3-pilot crew the same as TreeA10. 3 equal periods. With the 4-pilot crews, we do 4 breaks (two each) as he said, but the two breaks may not always be equal. Some guys like one short break and one longer (short, long, long, short). So, a typical 13-hour flight would start with the two RFOs taking a 2 hour break while the flying crew works. Then the flying crews rests for 4-hours, RFOs rest for 4-hours and the flying crew gets another short 2-hours right before top of descent. Longer flights closer to 14-15 hours usually just mean the shorter breaks get longer. Not too many pilots I work with have much luck sleeping longer than 4-hours at one time during the flights. That trip pays 86:21 in credit hours. Actual blocked flight hours 44:21. So, it works out to just over 6.6 pay hours per day on the trip, which at my pay rate is $1513 per day. Really efficient RFO trips can average up 8-9 pay hours per day and as a result tend to go very senior. One other thing - We're allowed to check in to our hotel up to two days early with a deadhead on the front of a trip if we wanted. So, I could take my wife, get her a business class ticket with my frequent flyer miles on my Paris deadhead flight. Leave two days early and we get to Paris two days before my scheduled layover starts (so, really 3-days before I have to work). The day I go to work from Paris, she starts making her way home on another FF mile ticket. Since I have extra travel money (cheaper ticket from my home airport than the one FedEx planned to buy from Memphis), I can also expense the two extra days of hotel against my travel bank. End result is a 3-day mini-Paris vacation that only cost me some frequent flyer miles and the expense of ground transport to get her back to DeGaulle and to my house after her flight home.

Apparently you don’t know much about what airline unions do to protect pilots. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

No not at all I think there is just a point where in the long term it is better for us and the Ukrainians that accepting some of their territory was lost is better than further war and the cost of further fighting. Not a fan at all of Russia or Putin. Free Ukraine will need large long term aid, I’m cool with that, it’s just that at some point if it can be had, ceasefire and focus on rebuilding. I’m also okay with a surprise deployment of 25k US boots on Free Ukraine with no end date to prevent Putin from trying round 2 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know what to tell you guys, you're all looking for some virtuous moral north star in a game completely devoid of morals. You're absolutely right, it's capricious, targeted, and almost certainly strategically timed for maximum election impact. But if you don't like it, don't give them an opening. Be smarter than them. Because you can bet the left will try to capitalize on any indiscretion just as I would expect the right to do if the roles were reversed. Trump is the epitome of the phrase "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." It's also pretty funny that you mention perception. Because a majority of Americans support the indictment. This is not playing as some horrific travesty of justice anywhere other than very right wing circles. And this next point doesn't speak to the validity of the case, but since you mentioned perception.. it appears the majority perception in America is that trump has existed almost entirely outside the rule of law, so people don't seem to have qualms about the book finally being thrown at him. Trump being held accountable for something.. literally anything.. is a far cry from Maoist/Stalinist political persecution. But you keep trying to sell that one through 2024 and see how far it gets you.

Wow. Didn't expect that from you. You've been had. Talk to some Black Sea desk officers and FAOs about Ukraine from about 2000 up until Russia invaded. Ukraine is one of the most crooked and corrupt nations on earth. I understand an active duty person flapping the party line, but dude, do you really believe we should put 25K Americans into that cesspool country that exploited America and NATO for everything it could? And do you really think we are putting a dent into the Russian threat? They have nukes. Ukraine doesn't matter just like Afghanistan didn't matter in '89. The Russians still have nukes. Let them take that corrupt shithole, then they will really be bleeding ruples and blood trying to control it. You've been had.