HercDude

He isn't. Stack his resume up against any former SecDef and it is laughable. But anyone who makes the argument that a boot-licking FoxNews host is qualified because he was a CGO in the Army will tell you all you need to know about their ability to think clearly about the next administration.

Fox News.

I did VLPAD in 2019 - slightly different setup but not by much - and it was the best decision I ever made for me & my family.

Only because the GOP played politics and filibustered the proposed 50/50 joint commission, even though that proposal passed the House vote 252–175. We would have been much better off with a joined commission.

Come on dude. How many rioters/trespassers were there, and how many LEOs were there to sop or impede them? I know you're not a cop; neither am I. But surely you can see that the police were outnumbered by orders of magnitude and lacked the manpower and resources to protect a 170,000 sq-ft building. But don't take my word for it. Here is what Officer Robishaw had to say about it: "The sheer number of them compared to us, I knew ahead there was no way we could all get physical with them...I can’t do anything, you know, all I can do is shout orders and if they listen, great, and if they don’t, I cannot force them. I am by myself.” Chief Manger: "One false allegation is that our officers helped the rioters and acted as 'tour guides.' This is outrageou and false...I don’t have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6. Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building”

I've seen enough of January 6th to form my own opinion, but can you link to what you are specifically talking about here?

Yeah I don't really disagree with you, I'm just not seeing "control what the press reports" as a duty of this proposed board. The first quote would be concerning, but it's delusive to take one quote from one woman and claim that to be the legal framework this board will operate under. The second quote is a nothingburger. She's talking about digital platforms (i.e. - social media) and their ability to monitor fake news, trolls, and bots. I don't care what Twitter, Facebook, Truth Social, or Tinder does with their content or who they regulate, since they aren't the government. You misunderstood me. I was saying it's absurd to claim the "only" places that limited free speech in the way you cited were Russia, Nazi Germany, Iran, and North Korea. Again, that sounds like something you'd read on Breitbart. Free speech is prohibited all over the world. The government censors all kinds of speech today in the manner you mentioned in say, China or Pakistan. Hell about 1/3 of the nations around the world significantly constrain free speech. Close allies of the US and supposed modern countries like Jordan, Brazil, and Spain have severe limits on free speech and absolutely " regulate free speech...take down websites...control what the press reports."

Source? Patently and absurdly false. Sounds like something Charlie Kirk would say. Source? Sounds like a dumb idea, but we should avoid getting emotional.

Damn - I'm gonna miss that $255 check something fierce! PM Sent.

Douchebag GenZ social media influencer is flying across a National Forest, and just happens to have 3 GoPros recording it, when he just happens to have an engine failure, and just happens to have a selfie stick in hand when he parachutes into the mountains below. FAA didn't buy his story, and now they violated him and he's lost his license: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/us/trevor-jacob-youtube-plane-crash.html I hope the likes and follows were worth it. 🙄

Not looking for a new job or a new airframe and I'm not gonna move - it's not like I am desperate to get a full retirement. I've got a cushy airline gig to go back to. I'm just intrigued by the prospect of this particular AGR gig. This is an excellent point. I remember seeing emails about this a few years ago, but like most airline shit in 2020 I ignored it. I started leave in 2019 so the key would be to make sure people already out on leave were considered exempt, and not just people who took leave after the pandemic hit.

Wayback thread revival: I recently finished a 3 year VLPAD tour (it was awesome; very few complaints) after leaving the ANG. I was already flying for a major airline, so I've used 3 years of USERRA protections with them. I'm in the Reserves now and being courted for an AGR position that will get me across 20 years of AD service. While the VLPAD office may have said in 2017 that the program is not USERRA exempt, what really matters is weather or not your employers thinks it is. Anyone have any experience either getting VLPAD classified as USERRA exempt, or talking their airline into giving them greater than 5 years of Mil Leave? I'd love to do this job for another 3 years, and then start getting paid to be alive, but I'm not willing to give up 7 years seniority to do it.

When officers who have never been a UPT IP are assigned senior leadership roles at UPT bases, dumb shit will happen and morale will suffer.

Surprised that no one has pointed out to this crowd that in addition to getting an USAFA appointment, UPT slot, T-38 track, Raptor assignment, and admission to Harvard, his wife is a smoking hot fitness model/actress/influencer or some shit from Australia. I'm sympathetic to his concerns, but yeah.....hard to feel sorry for this guy.

Not for track select - no. I'm a current T-6 IP at CBM and I was a Phase 2 IP years ago. The current system bears little semblance to the traditional one where a class started together, advanced to Phase 2 and 3 together, graduated together, and were always racked/stacked against only each other. Wing/Group/STUS leadership may be saying we are back to the way we used to operate, but that's not reality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTEYUFgLveY

This is exactly how it has been done at Columbus for the last 3 years at least. The MASS is run as a student approaches syllabus completion, and they are tracked based on how they stack up against a running historical MASS. When they finish their last ride, they pack up their shit and head over to their Phase 3 squadron, they don't wait for the rest of their class anymore. Their class number is administrative only. My main concern with a return to single track is the aging of the T-6 fleet. If we're going to move all T-1 training to the T-6, we're going to be putting a shit-ton of hours on a jet that's already showing its age. The USAF acquisition process doesn't instill a lot of confidence in me that we could field a replacement (or even get Textron to build us more) before we fly these things into scrap. The answer from 19th AF of course, will be to preserve flying hours by expanding simulator and video game hours. Not a fan of that, personally. The T-6 is also a piss-poor aircraft in which to teach CRM. Agree that it's not rocket science and most of that training could be pushed on to the MWS world, or perhaps some sort of sim-only program where everyone about to enter the dual-cockpit world gets a wek or two advanced CRM course in a T-1 sim or something. But if we want guys to get wings after only ever flying the Tex2, they are going to be craptastic at CRM when they get their wings.

The GOP contingent in the House is now largely ballless Betas afraid of their own shadows. For proof look no further than this weekend's Hunter S. Thompson fever-dream that is CPAC. I have tons of respect for Rep. Kinzinger for sticking to his principles, ignoring the conspiracy theories, and fighting for the soul of conservatism. The GOP needs as many Adam Kinzingers as they can find.

The CGI was pathetic. Jurassic Park, which came out in 1993, has substantially more convincing CGI. It was like 30 minutes too long due to irrelevant subplots & filming locations (the entire Egypt setting could have been eliminates with zero effect on the story). The invisible airplane scene was embarrassing. The boss fight at the end made absolutely no sense, and piss-poor CGI Kristen Wiig is the supervillain? Really? Minor spoiler alert: Wonder Woman learns how to fly and lasso lightning......but somehow loses that ability 30 years later when Justice League takes place. Uh, OK........ 2/10. That movie sucks. Watch the first one again, because it's actually a good movie. Hell, just watch Linda Carter in the 1970s TV show - the CGI is about the same.

What is a vote-by-mail letter? Something reminding him to vote? Unless it's a ballot, what the hell does it matter? If your deceased father was mailed a ballot and voted, you can find evidence of that here: https://www.dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/check-your-voter-status-and-polling-place/ballot-information-and-status-lookup/ If you return negative results, this argument is non-existent. "Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True." --Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States

He fucking lost guys. Get over it. Your tin foil hat schtick is embarrassing and, frankly, worrisome in that you guys probably hold security clearances. The GOP held the Senate. President Trump outperformed himself with virtually all minority groups compared to 2016. The Democrats lost a dozen House seats when they were supposed to gain a dozen. The squad scared off a lot of independents. From a strictly partisan point of view there is much to be satisfied with if you are a Republican. But the President got his ass handed to him by a larger margin than he won 4 years ago. The networks called it, as they do every year, when the states report a sufficient number of ballots. IT IS OVER. This would be a great time for the POTUS to show some grace, class, humility, integrity, and leadership. While we are waiting for that, here is a textbook example:

When Andrew Yang showed up as Wong, I f*cking pissed my pants. 😆

Where is the evidence of this? I'm open to believing this, but I just haven't seen any of it in practice. The Democrats had an open socialist in the primaries, Elizabeth Warren who is pretty damn close, and several other fringe candidates. They picked.......Joe Biden? The dude who was absolutely the most milquetoast generic centrist out of the 20-odd candidates? What *evidence* is there that a President Biden will be powerless to stand up to a junior congresswoman from New York?

A brief discussion on why NFL ratings (along with every other sport) are down this year: https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/10/14/sports-cable-news-ratings-2020 Reader's Digest version - it's an election year and there is a pandemic, so people are watching FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC instead of sports. If you, personally, watched any of those channels instead of the World Series, punch yourself in the dick.