Smokin

Finally the left is actually correct for once in labeling something as a "phobia". I actually am scared of fat people. Scared that they might sit next to me on an airplane and take up half my seat. Or scared that they will get the window exit row seat and we all burn to death while they try to unhook their seatbelt extender, extract themselves from the seat, only to have them get stuck halfway out the door.

"I can't understand it myself," he said. "It's stupidity. I don't understand it. This is not something that I'm familiar with even in my 33-year career." Either a complete liar or not even remotely connected to the fighter community.

One look at our current military leadership, both on the AD and the guard, show that any attempt to "drain the swamp" was either never attempted or was a complete failure.

It is a little ironic that you call out people saying he's smart by implication, yet don't actually offer any formal evidence that he's not smart... Not saying I entirely disagree with you. If you compare Trump to other political leaders and businessmen, I don't think he stands out amongst that group as abnormally intelligent. However, he clearly has people and street smarts as he has been regularly able to manipulate and set people/systems up to his advantage. If you want formal evidence of this, we're still talking about him two years after he lost his reelection campaign. How many people were talking about George Bush two years after he lost to Clinton? He keeps himself in the news when it would be far better for the country for him to fade off into retirement.

They'll need every penny of it with the 3% pay cut in basic pay and airlines looking at mid 20% for pay raises.

Base zip code. They don't care where you live.

Maybe they'll declare war on Ukraine? I don't understand the thought process that Ukraine somehow should have their hands tied about what targets they can strike. I get that the rest of the world doesn't want to the war to bring other countries in, but Russia invaded and all of Russia's targets have been in Ukraine. Why should Ukraine be held back from striking Russia? With how much Russia is struggling against Ukraine, I don't imagine Putin wants the war to widen either. The interesting thing to think about if these are drone strikes; does Ukraine now have drones capable of reaching that long range of a target or are there Ukrainian SOF units inside Russia?

But this is the problem. People who have a history of poor decision making, let alone extremely poor decision making, should not be flying plane loads with hundreds of people in them. I hope that people who have made poor decisions have the ability to recover from them and lead a productive life. But there are decisions that will close doors. If I ran a construction company, I would consider hiring an individual that had a violent criminal past if that person showed that he was doing everything possible to turn his life around. But as a pilot? Absolutely not.

It may seem unAmerican, but I'm not sure I'm going to be cheering for the USWNT. After all their crybaby antics about not being paid as much (news flash, you're not as good or you wouldn't lose to U15 boys teams) and their absurd political grandstanding, they could use a setback to have a reason to focus on actually playing soccer.

12 is just strange. I agree that 4 isn't enough, but 8 is the logical number. How many teams could be ranked 9th, regardless of how messed up the season gets, and have a legitimate claim that they should be a contender? If that's really not enough, then just go to 16. Teams 1-4 getting a first round bye is odd.

Found one redeeming feature to Qatar, they don't put up with fat people overflowing into other seats on their airline. More airlines need to follow this example. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/qatar-airways-plus-size-model-upgrade-didnt-fit-economy-seat

They need to use the VAR for flops. If a flop is confirmed, yellow card. It would put an end to the most absurd aspect of the sport. That and have the players stop raising their hands telling the ref who should get the throw in the second the ball goes out of bounds. Guess what guys? The ref isn't taking their cue from you.

I'm not a lawyer and if the DOL doesn't back you, then it is fairly worthless. But, nowhere in USERRA does it state you have to be on a "new set of orders" or "start service". "The term 'service in the uniformed services' means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service under competent authority and includes: active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty training, full-time National Guard, a period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the employment for the purpose of performing funeral honors duty as authorized by section 12503 of title 10 or section 115 of title 32." Additionally, in the anti-discrimination section: "(a) A person who is a member of, applies to be a member of, performs, has performed, applies to perform, or has an obligation to perform service in a uniformed service shall not be denied initial employment, reemployment, retention in employment, promotion, or any benefit of employment by an employer on the basis of that membership, application for membership, performance of service, application for service, or obligation." Finally, in the all important re-employment section: "...any person whose absence from a position of employment is necessitated by reason of service in the uniformed services shall be entitled to the reemployment rights and benefits and other employment benefits of this chapter..." Again, fairly worthless if the DOL's official position is that it wouldn't apply if you are currently on active duty. If they don't enforce it, you'd have to sue and convince a judge which would be a lot of work, but this seems pretty clear to me. Maybe the DOL has the same problem the airlines have. All sorts of experts that are eager to tell you everything about the law while they have never read it themselves.

Delta has gotten much better since they moved the dude you're talking about. I know guys that have recorded his speeches and conversations because he said blatantly illegal things while representing Delta. That being said, of the big three, I think Delta is still the least military friendly, but that margin has shrunk considerably in the last 4 years. For example, I think that if you were sitting long call and went into the squadron and knocked out a sim, I understand that would be an issue with Delta, but I don't think United or American would care. But if I were a new guy and had CJOs at two of the three, the margin is slim enough that I wouldn't even consider it in my choice. As to the outside employment, it is commander and JAG approval. Commander basically signs that your employment won't affect your service (easy if you're just dropping two weeks of leave for indoc) and the JAG signs that it wouldn't be illegal (like working park time for Lockmart on a project you oversee in your military job).

I've always thought that some airlines (Delta) spend a fair amount of time fighting USERRA when they could use it to their advantage. If I were the chief of hiring, I'd actively recruit military pilots that are within a few years of separating (retirement or not) and get them to apply. Have them do indoc on regular leave, then drop mil leave when it is over. Sure it costs the company some money, but it would guarantee a predictable hire date and high quality pilot in a couple years. Would be rare for that pilot to then go somewhere else if he already has a couple years seniority. Really, they should have done this 3-5 years ago, then they would have a group of pilots they could count on since they knew they would need a hiring wave now. And those pilots would have burned much or all of their USERRA time already, which would make them even more predictable, as in they won't get through consolidation and then drop orders.

The lottery is math (actually a tax on people that are bad at math) and everyone knows that math is racist.

They'll just re-pass the exact same law with one word different and make people challenge it, just like they did this time. Too bad the judge didn't hold some of the lawmakers in contempt for clearly passing a law that was more restrictive than the one ruled unconstitutional.

That and states, or people, asserting their constitutional rights and claiming that the federal government is bound by law is also threatening to their plan.

https://irstaxtrouble.com/unique-tax-issues-faced-by-pilots-and-other-interstate-transportation-employees/ Just in case you don't want to take other pilot's words for it to keep you out of IRS trouble.

That is largely true. Many of the union guys involved in or that voted for the TA faced recall. With inflation at a record high and the writing on the wall that profits are going up to pre-covid levels, the companies have no motivation for serious negotiations. If I were corporate leadership, I'd start with a vastly underwhelming offer, then offer a small concession every few months just to keep kicking the can down the road while pretending to be negotiating in good faith. Meanwhile, inflation is basically giving me labor at 10% cheaper per year while I'm selling tickets at 30-40% higher than last year. Every year I can prolong finalizing a new contract, the better my profits. And if the union is dumb enough to accept a mediocre offer in the meantime, then win-win. I would bet that is why we're not hearing anything. Inflation has given the company the upper hand and they know it.

Hopefully the family can use that to sue the contractor for wrongful death. The Air Force is immune to that lawsuit, but the contractors are on the hook.

The unions are bad, but worse is just the overall culture of education. From elementary school to doctoral degrees, the culture is generally far more liberal than the surrounding community would warrant. The left made a concerted effort to take over the education system in the 60s and it paid off big time for them.

Company dependent. I bid my yearly vacation while in my second week at my initial sim qual. I had to ask my sim partner what this whole "vacation bid" was and how to do it. Reserve is timing and company dependent. I had good luck with timing the airlines, but I had a schedule my 3rd or 4th month after my check ride. Wasn't a great schedule, but it wasn't reserve either. I also know a guy that literally never sat reserve. Got a line the month after his check ride.

Just like kids. Small countries, small problems. Big countries, big problems.

Funny how she loves to play the victim. Those fat people are not the victim, they are the perpetrators. The poor bastard stuck in the middle seat between two whales is the victim. Airlines need to fix this before it gets worse. Just like the "comfort animal" problem a little while ago. If you need an animal to calm you down to fly, you probably shouldn't lock yourself in a big metal tube flying through the sky with absolutely no way to get out of it once the door shuts.