brabus

Don’t have a direct dog in this fight like some of you, but sounds like WGAF how he’s forced out, just that it happens. If it’s his recent DEI apostleship, then so be it.

They want money spent in their economy, not ours. It’s not about capability for them (the advocates of this idea).

SECDEF is all over it (per his recent X post). Agree with everything above, but now I'm starting to wonder beyond the cut with an axe reasoning I stated earlier, if there was some politically motivated decision making going on, hoping to draw the type of out-of-context/no critical thought reactions we've seen. It is very clear erasing any of this history is not remotely the intention or goal of the DEI EO, nor DoD or AF leadership. I hope it's simply just classic govt bureaucrat action (immediate wide-spread action without thought) that will get resolved quickly, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a bit of subterfuge at some lower level going on. The rot is everywhere.

We couldn’t possibly know, hasn’t been done 69 times before. “It’ll be a great outcome!” - Gen Bob (who will be long gone before that outcome is realized). And the cycle repeats.

What you’ve done is taken a headline and happily perpetuated the emotional clickbait without context. So here’s some context since I took the 6.9 min you did not to look into this: 1. What uhhello said - cut with an axe, the details will get sorted out afterwards (standard govt) 2. Per AF: “the videos themselves were not targeted for removal, but BMT classes that include diversity materials were pulled and are now under review to make sure they are in compliance with this week’s executive orders…historical videos were interwoven into Air Force curriculum and were not the direct focus of course removal actions.” Par for the course and relatively reasonable by big govt standards. These topics are not an issue at all and will happily be discussed in AF PME for decades to come - the specific videos/materials will need to be reviewed and will either be found to have no issue, or if they are some radicalized bullshit version, then they will source better material on those topics. 3. Trump honored Tuskegee airmen at his 2020 SOU, having Gen McGee (who Trump personally pinned his star on) as a personal guest. He is clearly a supporter and not anti-Tuskegee/black. Just a few injections of taking a breath and doing some quick “research” before maxing out seeing red. Try it some time, you’ll like it.

It’s crazy that my kids have better firearm handling/safety skills than a cop. What a failure.

It is a miracle this hasn’t happened yet. We are all in on the hope/luck-based gameplan.

What makes it so bad people are willing to take absolute horrendously shit deals to get away?

@Lord Ratner Makes sense, didn’t think about the fact we’re really just trading one for another. I personally would still spend a lot less on unnecessary stuff if the sales tax was high enough, but admittedly that “high enough” definition is very subjective, and perhaps you’re right that for the majority it’d just be seen as a wash and not really move the economic needle an appreciable amount. A big part I do like about replacing property tax with high sales/use tax is I can somewhat control the latter via life choices whereas I have no control over property tax (outside of choosing where I live and what property value I choose to live in). At least if I’m paying a ton of sales tax it’s predominantly on me for deciding to buy new trucks, ski passes, a new TV, etc. Regarding landlords, apparently I made a poor assumption about people not being retarded. Business 101: know your operating costs and plan accordingly.

@Lord Ratner Overall agree, good points. I know they literally don’t, and understand your follow on points. But let’s be real, the vast majority (probably 99%) of landlords account for property tax in their rent amount. There are variances in say multi-year leases with a mid-lease property tax hike, but in the end, renters are effectively paying it for the most part. I’m not saying this is all a good reason to keep property tax, just a consideration in the discussion. I’m just thinking what kind of sales tax would be required to replace the loss of property tax revenue. My state is right in the middle of property taxes nationwide (tax rate-wise, not total revenue), and in the top 10 least populated states. In 2023 it had $1.8B in property tax revenue. I feel like that’s a lot of revenue to replace with sales tax, am I wrong? So if it takes a 25% state sales tax to make up that $1.8B (made up for discussion sake), how often do you think I’m going to buy shit that is totally unnecessary? The answer is rarely. Hospitality/food industry: $0, won’t miss it at all. Activities for my kids (gymnastics, etc.): $0, they’ve got plenty of shit to do outside of stuff like that. New furniture, clothes, etc.: Very little - but we’re also not a “we need a refresh every year” family. An airplane…well yeah, I need that, so of course I’ll pay the tax! That’s the type of stuff I mean when I say it could really hurt the economy, at least in some areas.

I don’t think any position would be looked down upon. But I think those that you mentioned specifically will have little to no direct interaction with pilots (at least from a daily work perspective)

@Lord Ratner First, just want to clarify I’m not directing these questions at anyone in particular, or necessarily because of anything written in this thread. I just see it as linked to the thread discussion and I’m genuinely curious at what thoughts are out there to re-do the tax system without heavy, unintended consequences. I suppose it could be its own thread, so understand if a mod wants to do that. With that said, obviously the quoted replies below are for you, but don’t take them as spears, just interested in the dialogue and wanting to see what’s out there that I haven’t thought about. I understand the generalities revenue/debt discussion, but how do you generate enough revenue when property taxes vanish? That would be a massive loss of revenue, of which most states rely on for education, infrastructure, and public service funding. I don’t think my paid sales tax at Lowe’s is going to cover the spread. I know we could go down rabbit holes of fuck funding public education if I homeschool, etc., but let’s not get into weeds and focus on the bigger pic discussion. That makes sense generally. Though an unintended consequence is you would be effectively punishing people who live more rural (and people who drive for business, unless they maintain that deduction capability). That said, I guess I wouldn’t care that much if I also was not paying any property tax. We all need EMS/LE equally, so why do I have to pay a higher percentage simply because I earn more/purchase more? My wealth has nothing to do with my need level for EMS/LE. Under current system, everyone except the homeless pay property taxes (including renters, as every landlord factors that into the rent amount), thus funding these departments through property taxes is probably about as fair as you can make it…i think, of course I’d love to hear another way to fairly fund without using the large revenue stream of property taxes. Agreed. I’d love to see property tax go away, it’s bullshit. But I also bring up the above questions because I don’t have a great answer for how to generally fund the things I mentioned at the state/county/town levels. I don’t think sales tax is going to cut it, unless maybe sales tax becomes insanely high to the point we crush our economy in an attempt to kill property tax. I hear a lot of people (not you or anyone specific on here) yell about getting rid of property tax, and no they don’t want it replaced with a high sales tax, but also assumedly they don’t want to revert to 1800s level roads, utilities availability, basically zero LE/EMS services, etc.

Disclaimer: I hate taxes as much, or more, than everyone else on here. Question: Lets say property taxes went away, along with our current federal and state tax system, and we went to a flat income tax or simply a use/goods tax. How are infrastructure and gov services (at state level primarily thinking transportation-related infrastructure and support, LE, EMS) funded? Take yourself out of a large city into most of America - do you toll every road in existence for “use tax?” (can’t imagine the undertaking of such a massive project). Is the Sheriff’s Office revenue generated only by a per-response payment (e.g. I called 911 and now get a bill for the SO showing up? I did use them…) These are just two illustrations for discussion and far from an exhaustive list. I don’t like our current property tax system, but I haven’t heard a good alternative for the above questions, and admittedly haven’t spent much time brainstorming one. When people yell “taxation is theft,” I get it, but what’s your solution to things like the above?

Let’s say funding and airspace access was a non-issue, so we start moving T-6s to airline bases. Some guys will jump on it, and most will stop doing it relatively quickly once they’re reminded why they left the AF for the airlines in the first place (summed up as “all the bullshit.”) The bullshit is un-killable.

Swing and a miss. If you want to get all technical, then go watch literal millions of people not remotely touch their chest. Tons of videos from WW2 all over the internet that prove your statement completely false. I’m not saying nobody, hitler included, hasn’t touched a chest in the act, but the vast majority are not that way…but they also don’t support your cuckoo narrative, so you’ve ignored them and hoped the rest of us critical thinking capable people were too lazy to go look. You cannot say Elon is a nazi for this while ignoring the others, it’s all or nothing…or you’re just intellectually dishonest. We also didn’t go to the moon and cows will cause the earth to implode, right?

Aviation Resource Management, Aircrew Flight Equipment, intel. All work around pilots daily.

@StoleIt Okay, well then I guess all of these people are also nazis… RPReplay_Final1737605951.mov But here’s the thing, while I vehemently disagree with, and greatly detest, each one of these individuals, I also have no valid reason to believe they are nazis. It takes very little critical thinking effort to assess these physical motions they made are not Nazi salutes or demo-ing some sort of support or allegiance to said group. It’s just not hard to conclude that…unless one either is overwhelmed with politically biased rage (critical thinking is inop), intellectually dishonest, or just a truly dumb person. Im happy to entertain actual evidence on anyone, including Elon or Trump, but it just doesn’t exist. The Nazi schtick is tired, overplayed, and the vast majority of America just see it as bullshit noise. But by all means the Dems should keep it up and help the GOP win more elections.

That’s still not enough, but I do agree those are the two worst parts of the NFA.

And NFA. I really hope those two bills make it to law…would be so amazing. And what’s really wrong nowadays is how I use the word amazing to describe actions that would simply undo unconstitutional shit. That’s how far we’ve fallen as a country - just getting back to normal/following the constitution is now seen as a feat of strength.

Hopefully he’ll burn the IRS to the ground, along with our ludicrous tax code.

In conjunction with the words, “my heart goes out to you,” he touches his heart and then gestures towards the crowd. He’s literally gesturing the associated words. Not that it should matter, but also the actual salute referenced never touches the torso at all, it’s simply just directly raising the arm out. To draw this conclusion in reference to Elon is nothing but absurd retardation on display by leftist dipshits. Don’t get sucked into it.

Indeed. The primes, at a min, can go fuck themselves. Absolute garbage C-suites filled with greed and zero fucks given for the country that has enabled them to grow to what they are today. Only people worse are the inept gov officials who don’t enable, or demand, real accountability and consequences for failures. Currently reading a book called Freedom’s Forge, focused on pre-WW2 industry. The contrast of industry then to industry now is sickening and embarrassing. Industry used to give a shit about our country and people. Maybe Elon can lead a swing back that way to some extent.

I hope Hegseth puts some real effort into restructuring our acquisitions process. That could pay huge dividends for decades to come if done right.

I’m not making excuses for anyone. Just highlighting there’s more to the problem than “well these guys are just little bitches not wanting to rock the boat/hurt their next assignment/piss Bob off.” That of course does describe some out there, but I don’t think that’s the overarching RC.

Valid, but to throw them a bone, how many line IPs are overruled by someone above them when it comes to grading accurately, shutdown when they provide candid opinions on a below average student, etc. Also how many line IPs are grossly inexperienced for the job they’re charged to do, thus through uncertainty, fear of leadership reprisal, or both, they grade inaccurately. It’s not an excuse for all the bullshit inflated grades out there, but the problem is more complex than simply “line IPs are pussies and not holding the line!”