17D_guy

oooh... so close;

Well, this just dropped - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/01/air-force-busts-retired-four-star-general-down-two-ranks-coerced-sex/97356020/

https://www.thecyberwire.com/events/afaasc2016/technical-workflorce-development-the-cyber-challenge.html "Officer personnel: 88% of the positions are currently filled. The biggest challenge is to retain the when their active duty commitment is up at the four-to-five year point in a junior officer's career. Retention is currently running at about 75%, and the Air Force needs around 90%. She said retention is currently under study—the Air Force doesn't yet fully understand why. Enlisted personnel: 66% of cyber specialty positions are currently filled. Retention here is generally solid, and there's a good bit of cross-training with communications fields. Civilian personnel: Here, the Air Force suffers from a Government-wide problem: "We lack a common definition of what a cyber position is." Grosso estimates the Air Force has about a 10% occupancy rate, "but we don't really know because of kabuki around what's a cyber job." In building the civilian workforce, she would like to have some of the authorities other agencies have that make it easier and faster to hire qualified people." For O's they need 90% retention to maintain ops... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of note, no one I know has been asked about retention in an official way. It's all been bro network. And on the E side to get to a Ops position you have to cross-train, and you used to have to be at least SrA. So.. that makes sense and doesn't speak to morale or anything like that. Civilians...who cares?

Every time a Republican excuses something Trump does with "but Obama did it too/first/last/etc." Reagan loses another memory cell.

Saturday I had studying to do. Sunday's the Sabbath, so that's a no-protest zone. Plus...not too much protesting going on in the Lone Star State. I keep seeing ads for the House Plan on Youtube when I turn my ad-blocker off. No actual plan, just that there is a plan... No one had any thoughts on removing the JCS and DNI from the NSC meetings? I found that the most disturbing thing from this past weekend. Well, that and Spicer's statement of Bannon having "extensive military experience." Well, that and blocking green card holders and Iraqi translators.

Got real quiet in here.

There's a "Send to Kindle" app you can get for Chrome (prob firefox too) that'll send the pages as PDF's automatically. You might have to do each page solo though.

AF's paid for the test of one. Rest I'm self funding as I've never been in a Sq that's given me anything official.

Interesting change to the NSC, good basic write up comparing back to Dubya - https://lawfareblog.com/national-security-presidential-memorandum-2—president-trumps-nsc-and-hsc

Another note that I had mentioned before: CGO's are started to get pinged for reasons they're leaving. Not exit survey's, but emails from former CC's. Word on the street is CGO retention is abysmal, particularly in our Ops Sq's. Since I'm not in one of the anointed Sq's and can't get my hands on retention numbers (wouldn't post those anyway) I've no way to confirm. I do have bros that are Ops and not too many are super happy with what their AF future looks like. This includes the patch-wearers and CNODP grads. I've provided feedback about how soon our CGO's are taken off technical/skilled work, lack of "cyber-pay," lack of recognition pertinent to the type of ops (a la Air Medals), the split between what 24 AF is doing, and the rest of the big AF. One idea floated to me by a Col was to not give CGO's certifications (GIAC, CISSP, etc.) since they're worth so much on the outside and allows us to realize our dollar value. I like the dude who suggested this, so I'm going to assume legit panic/worry and not a character flaw. He got a dig more at the numbers this past week, so we'll see what happens. Also of note are the number of Lt Col and Col retirements over the past 5 years. I generally hate the trope of "best and brightest" leave, but there's so much more freedom, money and ability to make a difference and lead on the outside--both commercially and politically, that I'm kinda concerned. While this improves my chances of making rank, because we have to wait so long to promote and I've had no Ops stink, the reality of me getting promoted is getting drastically reduced. Which I think my Big AF bro's are also seeing, and just bouncing. Plus the easy to find certification dollars.

Sorry no AR info, but now they're part of Global Strike. So, not sure if that's changed the awesome culture the bros had over there. I hope not, seeing them hang/chat is the only time I wished I was a flier.

So, This seems like a well balanced article on something that's going on in Russia. Of course, we can't know what's really occurring; we can only speculate. But it is interesting 2 of the arrested have come from the FSB. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wow-it-gets-bigger Of course the secret trials should help put everything to bed. another one - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/report-arrested-russian-intel-officer-allegedly-spied-us/97094696/

Wow.. that's interesting. Also interesting is the reasons given. NY Times (ugh) has a good write up.

They only care about leaking classified data if it's against them political ends. Since Manning leaked against Dubya, and a war they didn't start (but sure carried on) - no harm, no foul. They also care about classified only as long as they can strip headers from documents/emails for a personal, insecure server. I really hope he's not considering a Snowden pardon...

As a kid I lived in Exmouth (which is the second red star above Learmonth) in the North West Cape. Would do again in a heartbeat.

Having spent a year in Best Korea, and now with their cult-president being impeached, the frat, rape and AAFES taking bribes little surprises me about that place. Me-guk probably doesn't want to pay what the Koreans are asking (plus the increase in the worldwide AAFES hiring quota). Philippines are a no-go. All we need is some DoD members getting shot and having crack sprinkled on them by a Durerte "anti-drug" gangs. Plus, who wants to live in a place with martial law? Outside of those 2 there are of course other options. There are requirements for massive infrastructure upgrades...they're just taking YEARS longer than planned because PACOM. EDIT - find it pretty interesting the AF managed to keep the serial rapist that was running around 2004-2006ish off Al Gore's internet. I can't find anything on it and my Airman's roommate was assaulted.

I guess I didn't communicate well. I've got no problem with it either. It's genius, and the Demo's were absolutely asleep at the wheel. It's local gov't, the way it should be. The NPR podcast goes into a little more detail about how the R's even had... public memos (not press releases, can't think of the term) announcing what they were doing. As a more conservative person, I'm fine with the way it happened. D's just assumed they'd always be in power, I guess. Even now they appear to be grasping at straws as to what led to the downfall.

Thanks for all the links, good reads/listens. Really? And they wonder why they can't even win the legislature back. Fixing/redoing the gerrymandering isn't going to overcome a complete out of step platform with the "fly-over" states. Republican's ability to win state houses to secure the federal legislature is breathtaking. NPR's fresh air had a good podcast on it. Other notes, I've always hated the smoke-fire line of reasoning and dismissed the whole thing with Russia holding kompromat on Trump. But then we find out Flynn had a holiday call with the Ruskies, where we're assured nothing political/sanction-related was discussed. Trump also keeps tweeting negatively about the IC. Also, there's interesting correlation between the non-IC dossier released on Trump and notable "deaths" in Russia of powerful information brokers. Additionally, the Panama Papers highlighting the shell-game of corporations and money movement (at least) of Russian oil companies aligning with some of the dossier numbers/offers. What's your thoughts on Trump's ties/non-ties with Russia or otherwise?

I kinda doubt it, but It's a possible issue: the comm heavy requirements/costs of running to droids PACOM areas may preclude basing there. We're having problems with other, less mission intense, programs getting up and running. Additionally, the political landscape is rough for getting that accomplished.

Follow-up - How many have Russian... Eastern European accents? I actually wonder this as well. The number of pol's who get caught up in women chasing.

Yep, I was wrong. Cheers.

I mean we can split hairs over it all you want, but feel free to read the article at some point. Plenty of WTF to go around, along with the assumption I'm a liberal who's going to blame Trump for everything. "Two military officials with knowledge of the situation said the Trump team decided to accept the resignation. A person close to the transition said transition officials wanted to keep Schwartz in the job for continuity, but the Army pushed to replace him.

Here's a WaPo link. Very... interesting decision. But I guess I shouldn't be shocked at anything with the incoming admin.

So, Rudy Giuliani is going to be Cyber Advisor to our new Czar President. Oh look, he runs a security consulting company. There's no way they'd leave a test page open to show config worked. Or tons of open ports that are easy to enumerate, crack and/or run Russian in.