Everything posted by Smokin
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The Congressman is back yo
I'm rather surprised its that low. He's been in Congress a while (2019), so if he was really doing inside trading and Peolsi/Biden type stuff, I'd expect his net worth to be well north of $10M by now. Most guys can/should retire from the military with a net worth in the $1-3M range with zero outside help. Max out your and your wife's Roth IRA every year and put another 6-9% in the TSP and you have a good chance at just those three accounts putting you in that range at retirement, let alone years down the road. Obviously divorce or similar major life setbacks can crush that plan quickly.
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Gun Talk
The only real deterrent, and I doubt if it is legal, would be to hold the lawmakers in contempt of court and put them in jail for passing laws that any first year law student could tell will absolutely be struck down by the courts. Otherwise they pass a law they know will get struck down, but makes life miserable for gun owners until it does. Then once it gets struck, they change happy to glad and pass it again knowing full well what the result will be.
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Has anyone had to deal with EO? Looking for some advice if things get spicy.
If he can demonstrate a pattern that singles him out then he has a solid case for reprisal. For example, it is perfectly legal to order cop Airman Snuffy to guard the gate on Friday and Saturday night. But if Snuffy can show that after he submitted a complaint, his schedule went from a normal rotation to every Friday and Saturday night every weekend when other guys still had a normal rotating schedule, that's reprisal even if an individual order outside the larger pattern is legal. The larger pattern of behavior that makes the individuals life worse after (and thus likely because of) a complaint is illegal. Just like if you saw some dude complain about a squadron commander filing a voucher that was fraudulent and suddenly that dude ends up sitting SOF four times a week and is sent to safety school when his wife is due. All of those taskings are legal if you look at them individually, but would obviously constitute a pattern of behavior that anyone could see was a result of his complaint. The government has an interest to not make people afraid to make a complaint, so protects against this type of pattern.
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Has anyone had to deal with EO? Looking for some advice if things get spicy.
Do NOT do this. As much fun as it would be, this is textbook reprisal and would get you in actual trouble rather than just having to deal with BS complaints. Treat him no differently than you did before, other than document everything and obviously watch what you say. If there isn't a paper trail, it is your word against his and he is apparently willing to lie and play minority cards. And I mean document absolutely everything. If he shows up two minutes late, log it. Makes a single disparaging remark about someone, log it. If he walks into your office to ask when something is due, log it. However, and this is going to be the really painful part, you should start a similar documentation with everyone else, except the disciplinary part and maybe not needing quite the same level of detail. Otherwise if this ends up going sideways and you bring the documentation, the other side is going to logically ask to see the similar log you kept of your other employees. Otherwise they can claim you're only documenting him because he filed a complaint, which is also reprisal. When I started to have a problem with a guy that worked for me, I just kept a word document open on my computer. Anytime anyone that worked for me stopped in, I'd put it down. As simple as: "0945: Airman Snuffy asked due date for MFR - Friday". Depending on how often people stop buy or you go to their offices, shouldn't take too much of your day. Finally, if your boss doesn't have your back then you're probably SOL. I'd wait a week or so and ask for a sit down to talk about how much this guy is destroying the workplace. Even bring up the EO complaint as an integrity problem, which actually could be legitimately used against him if other people there will back you. If your boss still won't cover your back, then you're screwed.
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Venezuela and Narco Boats
That escalated quickly. Hope people thought through the transition better than we have the last couple times. Good work by the 160th.
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Gun Talk
Do you still have to pay that tax if you buy online and ship to an FFL? I've never paid any sales tax doing that, but then again, I've never lived in a commune like CA.
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Gun Talk
Terrible mass shooting in Australia (which must be fake news because guns are illegal there and they even did a confiscation). But an awesome display of courage for a dude that was able to jump one of the gunman and take his gun away even after apparently being shot twice in the process. The gunman then kinda stood there in disbelief and slowly backed away. More proof that most mass shooters are cowards and will stop when they're confronted with force.
- WTF? (**NSFW**)
- China & Chinese Shenanigans
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Reasons to despise cops
As always, I'm sure there's more to the story is being reported. Hopefully they had bodycams on to clear this up. That being said, I'm not a fan of this new trend of law enforcement wearing facemasks. That's something thugs and third world countries do. If I'm approached in my vehicle (or worse, at my house) by guys wearing facemasks, my first reaction is not going to be thinking that everything is fine.
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Leaving with Resentment
That is all horrific, but you missed my point. The system cannot do anything in and of itself; only the people within the system. So being disgruntled at the entire system because of some bad people doesn't make sense. You apparently got screwed by some people that had no business being in authority and have every right to be angry at them. My point is that there are good and bad people in every organization, the nature of the military just ends up giving those people the potential to have a larger impact on other people's lives than most civilian structures.
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Leaving with Resentment
No organization will ever care about you, nor will it betray you, because it can't. The people in the system are what matters and you'll find good and bad people in every system. I had far more good than bad experiences in my AF time and I would absolutely do it all again, but I know that experiences will vary. I still think that there is a higher proportion of good dudes in the AF than in the airlines (I'm at a legacy) or in most other career fields. Timing and luck play a huge part of your AF career; I knew good guys that got repeatedly shafted and I knew guys that had a great career even though they were less deserving. But by far more common were good dudes that got some good deals and some bad deals. It sucks when your commander/boss happens to be one of the guys that shouldn't be there, but that happens everywhere, including at the airlines. The only difference is at the airlines it is often easier to distance yourself. If your career really was just one bad deal after another than either you were extremely unlucky (it happens, I knew a good guy like that) or it might be your attitude. Looking back at my career, I'm thankful for all my good deals. They made great friends, memories, and stories. But I'm also thankful for most of my bad deals because they helped shape my path to be where I am now.
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Reasons to despise cops
I'd like to see that exact same interaction happen without a badge to hide behind and no TV cameras... That 'tough guy' would get whooped.
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UPS MD-11 Crash in SDF
AKA, "the" engine. Having only one really simplifies which one you're talking about.
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Gun Talk
Just so we're not always beating up on cops' shooting skills here; skip to about halfway through. Dude was apparently wearing two plate vests and thought the motorcycle helmet would stop a bullet.
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Gun Talk
During my first requal in M9s, the instructor told everyone to point their guns at him and practice pulling the trigger to get the feel of it. My chin hit the floor. Had I been in his chain of command, I would have pulled every qualification he had.
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Reasons to despise cops
The video is pretty disturbing, although it would be nice to know what happened in the 6-9 seconds before the video started. It appears to be an absurd amount of force being used. Do all the agents really need their guns drawn? Unless she was suspected of some violent crime, then these guys should be retrained in the proper use of force. Police, to include ICE, FBI, ATF, etc, need to understand that they are public servants, just like the military. Any policeman that is so scared that he feels like he needs to be the 5th guy to draw a gun on a small single female is in the wrong line of work. That being said, if she was actually the one instigating and either hit or positioned her vehicle to impede the operation (again, previous 6-9 seconds would be nice to see), then their actions would be a little more justified. I'm guessing that the truth is somewhere in the middle as it usually is. If ICE was entirely at fault, there would be dozens of lawyers lined up at her door. She probably either hit the van or was being aggressive with her vehicle and the ICE leadership likely realized that they used excessive force so they didn't pursue charges. But given the district that the events occurred in, it is entirely possible that the DA dropped the charges for political purposes even if she was 100% at fault.
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Gun Talk
A Glock was the first pistol I bought, but that one is still my only Glock (a pretty old model, maybe it'll start being worth something). They did push a significant innovation with their original introduction, which is good for the gun world. Hopefully this new model similarly pushes all the companies to improve.
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Everyone calls me boomer.....
If that's not a real designation, it should be. Think I made it to Oregon only few times, spent 98% of my time hunting. 'Oh, I have space for two pounds of meat, I'd better go shoot a dozen animals.' Designation should be official if you ever powered on the Commodore 64 and then left to go play tag for 15 minutes while it booted up.
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Everyone calls me boomer.....
More parents than you would think will take your side. I sat kids on multiple occasions across multiple sports because of an attitude and only one time did I have a parent say anything about it (and the coward didn't come to me, they went to the club admin who backed me). I set clear expectations at the start and 95% of kids met them. The few that didn't found little support from their parents. I benched one kid and he walked away crying over towards his dad. His dad took one look at him and said something like "what'd you expect?" and the kid stopped crying because he realized he wasn't going to get anywhere. He didn't have an attitude with me the rest of the time I coached him. Also gave out exactly zero participation trophies or medals.
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Aliens and UFO Shenanigans
If it was a Hellfire, shouldn't it have detonated?
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"Boomer" Welsh drops the hammer at Texas A&M
So how many retired guys here have their 'Rank' (Ret.) as their titles at their new job? Absolutely zero chance you would ever catch me referring to my retired military rank. He's the president of a huge university, isn't that enough? I had to go to his speech one time on active duty and walked away thinking "How does everyone not see right through this guy? That was nothing but dumb pandering and anyone that was motivated by that is probably dumb enough that we don't need him."
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Gun Talk
None. My brother is a lawyer and dealt with the legal side of a defensive shooting related case where the carry insurance basically said "sorry, not covered". My brother had coverage and dropped it after that case. Basically, it's in the financial interest of the insurance company to consider it to be your fault, in which case it is a crime, and many policies have carve outs for when you are 'committing a crime'. I also read of another instance where the carry insurance lawyer took 15 minutes reviewing the case and told the individual to make a plea deal. The dude fired the lawyer, hired his own, fended off all charges, but then had to go after the insurance company to pay back the fees for the lawyer he hired. Decision to get insurance or not should also depend on the DA in the areas you carry the most. If you have a conservative DA that will be look more favorably on a defensive shooting than some commie in NYC, you also probably don't need it. If you carry in NYC or somewhere like that, might be worth it. Edit to add: if you get it, I would absolutely take the time to read all the small print before buying.
- WTF? (**NSFW**)
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Best Grill
If pizzas are a consideration, it is worth getting a specific pizza oven. Pizzas are best cooked around 900 degrees, which is far hotter than most grills will be able to stay when opening and closing constantly. I got the propane Solo Pi, doesn't take up much room and cooks a pizza in about 2 min. Not cheap, but if your family likes home made pizza, its a game changer.