FourFans

...it's ok to make those generalizations if you're a boomer. Get off my lawn.

Agree. False. One man standing up for what's RIGHT turns into a bunch of men standing up for what's right. It's called leading.

Quoted for posterity, because I think you're 100% correct.

Let's get specific. Yes, I live in the airline pilot bracket of life, however I have friends spanning multiple demographics from church, parents from my kids school, and others that I've gotten to know throughout life. The friends I have in the low-income bracket are working at technical skills such as starter positions as plumbers assistants, handiman jobs, low-skill construction, and standard non-union service industries such as walmart, food service, and hotel workers, as well as primary school teachers (teacher's union...what a mess that is). Those are the ones I personally know and have heard their stories in significant depth. I also know that they need to get paid and almost all of them go to work if they can physically make it there. They don't skip work to spend money they don't have doing things that cost a lot of money. They do complain about the people you have observed, but from the people I've talked to, those are the exception, no the rule. I also know plenty of airline pilots who use every single sick day they have...and are rarely sick. So yes, that'll happen in work environments where sick-days are issued. People will ALWAYS game that system...but typically jobs with significant sick days are not low-wage. Conversely I've definitely observed a sincere decline in the quality and apparent availability of workers in the services field across the world (specifically hotels, restaurants, and entertainment industries), like you mentioned, ever since COVID got people paid to stay home. Welfare is a hell of a drug. But I don't think that's the standard, especially not in the US work force. We tend to notice the inconvenient things in life, not the worker who stocked the shelves or worked in the warehouse, and did so while feeling less than healthy. In general, people work to get paid so they can move up to better jobs. Judging the whole work force based on the lazy few standouts is false logic, and sounds a lot of like a grumpy old boomer perspective, such as "kids these days are all lazy and useless"...which is really helpful to absolutely no one. You've referenced "people you know". Care to elaborate the demographic you come from and what these people you know do for a living? Do you work in that field, or are your observations 3rd party? You also mentioned GS employees. Are you one? I ask because the view you're projecting, and your style of conversation, come across as rather cynical and founded on feelings, not facts. Telling people they are wrong with no factual or even anecdotal support is cute, progressive, and very millennial and all, but also entirely worthless. By the way, are you aware you can respond to multiple quotes in one post?

Working class America. Perhaps get out of your echo chamber.

Who needs C2 when you've got mission type orders?

Your upper-middle-class-first-world is showing. I'm guessing you haven't missed a meal or wondered where your next rent payment will come from in quite some time. I would estimate that a high percentage of working class America needs that money, as they live paycheck to paycheck, so if they can physically make it to work, they're going, no matter how bad they feel, because they need to get paid. You strongly appear to view the world through filthy_liar shaded glasses, through which everyone can and should make decisions and understand the world the way you do. Assuming you are, indeed, an upper-middle-class, non-blue collar, or even retired individual, as the tenor of your posts would indicate, your economic and social status make you vastly the minority in the US and the world. I recommend some travel.

So, a C-130?

I'll bet every time he speaks on live TV, that sign language chick thinks it'll be her last day, and just GOES for it.

Dude, I can tell over the internet that you are the asshat that gets routinely slapped in the squadron bar, regardless of how right or wrong you are.

That there is table built by a loadmaster so the tactics officer has a place to work at his computer...which then becomes an icon for the squadron. In part because it's awesome, in part because it's resting on the one pelican case that actually holds secrets...which each tactics chief has realized, to his own peril, and then ignored, until that fact is lost to the annuls of afghan lore. But seriously, don't forget to sign this certificate that you flew this flag. It's the 5th time, and it needs to be signed...

Dude. This is why I like you.

Um, no...and I never said I would. There's a boomer in the crowd that seems to think the world doesn't touch our daily life, so I gave him a daily life example.

Let me back it down a bit. On religion, I'm not attacking, simply pointing out that from my point of view he seems incoherent in his views and actions. That's across the board, and includes what I can tell of his religious beliefs, which are deeply personal. Fini on that topic. As to the politics, so I understand you clearly. You like what he's done with the economy, the border, energy, international relations, pandemic mandates, crime, LGTBQ and social equity meltdown, gun laws, and his own personal conduct (rolling together all the classified documents, his son's illegal affairs, etc). You're saying this is the man you wanted and you're happy with the job he's doing? Am I hearing that correctly?

Let me boil this down. Russia, Ukraine, and Europe DO impact your life. You not realizing that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Apparently I don't have the right verbiage to explain the 'how' in a way that you'll choose to hear, but let me put it this way: If you drink coffee, wear clothes, drive a car, or use the internet, those countries impact your life. Ignorance is not an excuse and it's certainly not a defense.

Kinda my point. The religion thing, without knowing any details, connects correctly with all the rest of the datapoints. I don't think this guy has done anything with sincere belief or true, unabashed good intention for a long while. I think he's abusing religion to try and rehab his image somewhat...and it's failing. So, you're willing to admit all the rest of his faults, recognize his overt lying and complete lack of integrity, yet dismiss the religion datapoint on...religious grounds?...as some one who yourself admittedly doesn't believe said religion? Interesting stance.

I'll disagree. The core of the problem here is that our president claims a personal belief that, in practice he so shuns that some practitioners of that believe system refuse to include him. Imagine a pilot you fly with that claims to be a good pilot, but is in fact entirely dangerous, and you refuse to fly with him. Personal preferences aside: It speaks strongly of our president's character, or lack thereof. He plays a key role in running our country and setting policy. What he does in private AND public flows from the same set of life rules, coherent or not. I'm pretty sure we should all give at least a little notice to his character.

Nope. When actions don't meet words, the actions tell the truth. When that happens a lot, we call those people politicians. National figures have been abusing religion to try and gain support since the beginning of time. Because we've been told what the absolute truth is (we ultimately are judged by God, and go to heaven and the new earth, or hell. If we've not established a personal relationship with Christ Jesus and accepted his salvation, we go to hell...which I'm guessing looks a lot like earth without God). Most people just don't want to accept that when they hear it because it's uncomfortable, truly incomprehensible (he's a God who exists in what to us seems like paradox), and exposes that ultimate of truths: We are not in control. Now,

I said what I said...and that's a large part of why I'm leaving the AF

...from a completely different perspective: I punched from AD at 17 years and am about to finish my 3rd good year in the AFRC. I AM NOT GOING ON ORDERS. I just rolled into year two at my major airline, and you would have to throw 7-figures+ a year at me to get me to go active for 3 more years. The BS level is simply not worth it, and the arithmetic is a wash on that active retirement.

You sure he wasn't in the Air Force?

We have many complete idiots in our country. We also have many not-complete idiots that actually trust government agencies not to lie to us or entrap us because they are naive, and often actively ignorant. In aviation, these individuals are commonly referred to as navigators. Everything you said is correct and, assuming gun owners self-educate and apply a little common sense. Those who choose NOT to be smart are the ones who will self incriminate, thereby ending up on a defacto gun registry and THEN start complaining about their rights. Lowest common denominator with shoot us all in the foot.

M2, you explore some truly unique corners of the internet.

Short answer: When this becomes law, SBR owners are required to register them. The process requires ATF approval, if they deny your request (btw if background checks take longer than 88 days, they are automatically denied), they now know that you have an SBR, that was not approved, making you a violator of federal law. In short, the ATF is trying to get owners to self incriminate before they know if they're approved to own the SBR that they already own. A federal administration having a list of approved and disapproved SBRs is, by definition, a registry. I doubt that's intentional, but it's an easy to see second order effect that shows they didn't think about this at all before implementing...soooooo....par for the course with this administration