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*yawn* more sophistry. I'm already on record, I only timestamp these rants on the interboobs so the forensics can go back in 10 years and go "yep, we knew". We've been through this all the way back to 2018 fam; it is a dilution of quality, definitionally. Tell your bosses to put down the hopium pipe and grow a back bone, and tell their SES overlords at the Puzzle palace to tell SecAf no buck no buck rogers. Kids need new MILITARY trainers and hours with their brain behind their ass at .7M+ and no automation, herbie drivers too. I was a CFII before I touched a single military airplane, let alone instructed in one; I can speak 61/141/135/121/one-WGAF. I was also in academia before the military; I know ballwash pseudointellectual fodder for paper degree issuance when I read it. Hell, I used to teach it! 😄 To the degree which civ-only folks don't understand the historical rigor behind undegraduate USN/USAF military aviator accessions and initial traning, it is also true that many mil-only folks really don't understand the quality control morass that is 141 (forget 61). I won't rehash the dissertation on here, the BLUF is that abrogating our military pilot accessions to 141 is to admit defeat. Considering the US record as a combat operational loss leader for the past 50 years, I guess losing at pilot training is par for the course too. Empire in decay, happens to the best of 'em I guess. Honestly, I'd be more on board if they just cut the shit and 1) admitted they can't effectively lobby Congress for more cowbell for the UPT enterprise, and 2) admitted they have to send it to the civilian prop schools just to pad the logbook with negative transfer hours of little import. Heck, by that cockeyed COA's order of merit alone, again just cut the shit and go full up MPL (Euro standard, sim only) for your copilots (3/4 of pilot accessions for the USAF) and put their money where their mouth is. Padding the 141 with excess federal pork is the only thing this will accomplish anyways. Excess crew deaths down the line in grey jet initial/continuation training are on them though, not on us dinosaurs "getting in the way".

Trump nominated Matthew Lohmier to be the undersecretary of the Air Force. We’ve all sat around as CGOs and FGOs and talked about what we would do if we were in charge. Now we’ll get to see what that looks like with a retired major as the SECDEF and a former Lt Col as #2 in the Air Force.

A FAIP as SECAF. Dear God…

You don't say.. Here I was thinking you just like to crack open a thesaurus when you started typing a post.

You'll never be able to make personal/moral appeals to these political appointees. Besides, Congressional pork is higher than even their pay grade. That out of the way, let's address that "shitting on" stray bullet you threw in there. If you're talking about my criticisms, you can tone-police my delivery all you want. That's just "Tuesday" in my life/put it on my tab type of thing. The point is that the premise behind all that pick-me coding, hoop-jumping passed as "innovation", is that you can't lobby for the money for the proven solution in the first place. Don't get it twisted, and let me bold the answer for the reading comprehension challenged, as I see the question of root cause keeps popping up. The ENTIRE COA is couched on the private knowledge that the enterprise has been so undercapitalized for so many decades, they can't meet production quotas. And that became an inconvenient boo boo when the airlines stopped sucking again for a fart and a half after 14 years of constipation. Period end of story. Rest of their pitch is as I said, sophist ballwash, I don't care what overpaid cRafT contractor, or civilian 121 job chasing, lawnmower-time builder that offends. Again, for the johnny come lates in the back: This isn't about "efficiency". That's just a bullshit plausible deniable premise that keeps polyannas appeased, and which powerless Generals glob onto as a notch until they can get their revolving door NoVA civilian follow-on. What this is about, is Exodus 5 (vers 6-9, no shit). It's so obvious to the peanut gallery, even illiterate Bronze age goat herders managed to finger paint it on a book of effin' parables JFC. Pun very much intended. 😄 So with all due respect as I sincerely enjoy your brainstorming sessions on here, spare me the ingénue "we just trying to train the kids here man" all-hands-on-deck pep rally. These are politicians (yes, even the uniformed ones) working from a position of dishonesty and career self-dealing; these are not honest-broker problem solvers. Go get mad at them for not having a spine. Don't cast me a malcontent just because I display umbrage about unnecessary O-2/3 deaths at the altar of quality control dilution and political expediency, while being told I'm part of the problem for demanding no more resources than what was afforded to me when I was in those now dead O-2's flying experience position.

They'll probably do something along these lines, but it won't be available if you're over any reasonable income limit. See the following: https://www.ebikeincentives.org/eligibility/ They did the same thing with electric bikes, but they made sure that anyone who actually contributes to the tax kiddy isn't eligible. LOL. Someone who barely makes $45K per year ain't spending $2,000 on a bicycle, and hence probably doesn't benefit from the credit. It'll be the standard democratic "this feels and looks good" vs "it is good." True climate emergencies would necessitate removing all barriers to addressing "existential issues" - yet another reason (#69) why I don't take their "climate change" rhetoric seriously.

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/trump-nro-meink-air-force-secretary/ New SECAF was a Nav, call me naive but he was aircrew and I think if the right group of lawmakers like these guys https://www.airandspaceforces.com/fighter-pilots-congress-airpower-new-caucus could be convinced to charge at this situation, you could get somewhere. Somewhere being new mil iron, better pre-UPT training and quality sims. He went thru training, he had to make a grade and I think as he sat 5 feet behind pilots for several years, you could ask him honestly is doing this as cheap and as quickly as possible for people who will be flying 169 souls and/or 169 million dollar jets really a good idea? Would you have wanted your Co’s to be trained this way or the old way with better jets and better sims? Keep that COA real, don’t shit all over what has been done or tried recently and propose constructive solutions. Propose in media and engage likely partners (UPT base CODELs, aerospace industry states, seek opinion maker backing buzz does make a difference) 2 cents: Civilian schools basics, keep that. COTS mil trainers, VFR direct platform request to Congress for the PC-21 then have the Puzzle Palace run an expedited domestic production selection process. Which ‘Merican aerospace company can produce 350+ quickly with the highest quality assurance? Multi engine is the T-54, LIFT is the T-7, it’s already ordered, teething issues be damned.

Go look at Google Maps or Zillow in any California mountain town. Almost all shingle roofs with little to no fire rating. Plywood siding is standard. A new standing seam metal roof would run $60-90k (cheaper than a new house) but is a big expense for the average Joe. A solar roof like the one Tesla makes is extremely fire resistant (Class A) so if the California government can get over their biases there could be some very interesting tax credits for killing two birds with one stone.

Russia is and has been a threat to US interests since 1945 (maybe 1918?). China is a bigger threat right now, but if you're fighting two guys at once and one falls to a knee, it isn't time to ignore them, it is time to stomp their face so they are out of the fight for a long time allowing you to focus on the other guy. Is it expensive to fund Ukraine? Yes. Are we getting a way better return on that money compared to much of the other junk we burn our national treasure on? Absolutely. This is another Russia in Afghanistan scenario except the "good guys" aren't Islamic terrorists. We'd be foolish to walk away from this opportunity to spend some money and help an enemy bleed themselves out. Way better to defeat an enemy via a proxy war than face them directly in a war yourself. And that doesn't even address the good of helping a free people defend themselves.

What in the TikTok gen z did you do?

She’s both an absolutely amazing person and a massive PR boon for the Air Force. She’s fantastic.

Dibs

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Policies. Here’s just a few. Bush—Iraq War and Patriot Act, amongst others. Romney—weak on 2A. Weak on immigration. Voted to confirm Jackson to SCOTUS. Voted for massive Ukraine spending. Voted to remove Trump after the nonsense first impeachment. McCain—war hawk. Weak on immigration. Voted against repealing the ACA. All three were part of the old school/elitist wing of the GOP.

Dibs

Not bad for an ex brother Recce puke.

Frank Kendall III... AMF.

Now, the media "does" its job.

It’s no different than being in direct combat - after a bit you don’t trust any of “them”, you’re senses are numbed to atrocious things, and you use dark humor as a means to cope. Doesn’t mean you’re a sociopath, I think it’s a fairly normal human response, and to expect cops to be different is just like the jackasses who expect “warrior monks” in the military.

Agreed. While the audit videos show a lot of stupid cops who either don't know the law they are supposed to be enforcing or just choose to ignore it when their status is challenged, you very RARELY see the hours upon hours of 'we didn't get the response we were looking for so we didn't throw it on youtube'.

"Two days to stop the spread"

Worked 7 fires last year doing mainly mitigation with Hot Shot and Hand crews as a contractor. We fight fires backwards, instead of spending money doing year-round mitigation and controlled burns we do them after the fact after a massive fire. My last go was in the Big Horns near Sheridan Wyoming, what stopped it was 10 inches of snow. Lost 40 pounds last summer and was in the best shape of my life. Staying in shape to pass my pack test, 45-pound pack, 3-mile walk, under 45 minutes. Thought about this year going back to aircraft mx on the fire bombers but love being on the fire line with the boys. Tried being retired but my neighbor talked me into this, money is good and its better than working at some box store.

I’ve talked about commercial training for ratings for a SGTO a bit before but here’s an actual AETC article talking about it. It’s the brain child of Matt Leard the AETC/A5/8. https://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4024636/us-air-force-partners-with-academia-industry-to-test-future-pilot-production-mo/ oh and the T-7 is still a dumpster fire. https://www.airandspaceforces.com/usaf-rejiggers-t-7-plan/

Glad you’re finally asking for help understanding this since we know you sure as shit can’t articulate anything with respect to global politics.