Blue

This. Also, right now it's just a lot of noise. You have 25 different Democrat candidates all clamoring to have themselves heard. The majority of voters aren't really paying attention until the field starts to shrink, and we get closer to the primaries.

Source? Genuinely curious to read more.

I have a tough time believing that this guy was flying a Mirage as a mercenary. If nothing else, there has to be hundreds (if not thousands) of folks out there with actual tactical jet experience who would have been more qualified than this guy. Thinking former pilots from third-world Air Forces, etc. Got to think that any organization sophisticated enough to have a flyable Mirage would at least capable of performing enough vetting to determine if someone had some semblance of previous experience. Although hell, maybe this guy is enough of a bullshit artist to pull it off. Think someone could practice enough on a PC-based flight sim to credibly fly a Mirage?

Don't disagree with any of your post, but I thought it was more along the lines of Shanahan didn't want his son's name plastered all over the news. Seemed like the wife was borderline nuts, the son went after the mom with a baseball bat, and the whole thing sounded really sad. Didn't think it was so much that Shanahan was going to be accused of anything, but more that all his family drama would be drug up for all the world to see.

Saw Triple Frontier on Netflix, and now I want the last two hours of my life back. You get the feeling they blew 95% of the money on getting A-list actors, and then kinda phoned-in everything else. The storytelling was uneven, there were random plot threads that went nowhere, and the whole thing felt kinda mediocre and silly.

Well, how else are we gonna beat those dang Rooskies?

Given the complaints I've seen here about Aero Clubs (bureaucracy, red tape, general nonsense), any thoughts about establishing a "Cannon Aero Club" at the nearby municipal airport?

What on God’s Green Earth would Nancy Pelosi hope to accomplish by going to Afghanistan?

I assume that, the fewer DC-10/MD-11 types flying in commercial service, the harder it gets to maintain the KC-10s? Any idea what UPS and FedEx's plans are for retiring their fleets?

I like the fact that they're publicizing the blistering incompetence of the AF depot at Warner Robbins.

One concept I thought intriguing--Increase the size of the House. Since 1789, when the Federal Government began operating under the Constitution, the number of citizens per congressional district has risen from an average of 33,000 in 1790 to almost 700,000 as of 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment

I feel like I've read the "Air Force firefighting foam destroys local water supply" story 100 times over the past several years. From what I gather, just about every place that had Air Force aircraft blasted out 100,000's of gallons of firefighting foam over the years for "training," and only recently have we found that the foam contains some nasty shit that doesn't break down? Is that about right?

Aerion is an interesting animal. From what I can gather, its sole source of funding is its elderly, billionaire owner Robert Bass. I can't decide if it's a case of someone using their wealth to drive innovation, or a company that's just spinning their wheels while draining their owner's bank account.

And, she'll probably end up in the Senate anyway... https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/politics/mcsally-sinema-kyl-2018-2020/index.html

An Eagle Tells Flying Stories With Associated Drivel by John Murphy Enjoyable, relatively quick read. The book follows the author through his military flying career from the 50's to the 80's, including stints in Active Duty and ANG, flying everything from the C-7 to the F-105 and F-4. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477276351/

Sicario: Day of the Soldado was disappointing. Uneven pacing, plot holes, and all-around kinda crappy storytelling.

GI Bill. Several states have veterans grants that provide money in addition to the GI Bill (assuming you go to a state school) Or, to get creative, if you don't have any immediate plans to get out, go find a couple of like-minded people who are also looking to learn to fly. Pool your money, buy a used 172, and find a CFI willing to instruct on the side.

There just is nothing low-cost about General Aviation anymore.....

The "model" changed with the so-called "peace dividend" of the 90's, and the associated waves of consolidation in the defense industry. Whereas previously you had many realistic competitors for any contract, post-90's you're down to just 2-3 companies competing for any business. This lack of competition stifles innovation, and drives up costs. Hence $45M for a capability that could realistically be accomplished for a fraction of that cost. It'll never be perfect, and we'll never have a defense-industrial base that's free of all waste and inefficiency. However today, we have a monster that consumes more and more treasure, while producing less and less for the national defense.

"A degree of waste and inefficiency" is one thing. Paying Lockheed ~$45M for a capability than can be had for ~$1M isn't "a degree of waste and inefficiency." It's fraud, and it's obscene. If we were actually concerned about keeping the defense-industrial base healthy, we'd be deploying those $1M sims, and using the $44M of savings on other things. What military capabilities could we have added with that extra money? How could we have expanded our industrial base, instead of just feeding the bloat at a few behemoths (Lockheed, Boeing, etc)? If we're really concerned about keeping the defense industrial base healthy for a near-peer war, we would be a lot better off spreading the money around to different, smaller companies, rather than shoveling it all into Lockheed's cash furnace.

Please identify these vehicles that "cost just a few thousand dollars (or much less)," and also have the safety and reliability of a new car?

T-X Program winner to be announced this week (supposedly, although not holding my breath). My money is on Boeing, if only because the .gov wants to keep Boeing-St Louis in business...... https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardaboulafia/2018/09/24/were-about-to-learn-the-winner-of-the-air-force-t-x-trainer-contract-four-things-you-should-know/#72c3065b33e2

From the article: The number of aircraft has not been specified. Any thoughts as to how many tails 1.8 bil gets you?

I downloaded the FlightRadar24 app to my phone. You can zoom in on Oshkosh to see traffic. The below is from about 8:00 Central time this morning. Large mess of folks holding over Green Lake and Rush Lake to the SW of Oshkosh (in addition to everyone over Oshkosh itself).

https://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=kosh Scroll about half way down, click on one of the options for: KOSH Fisk VFR Approach. Also using the free FlightRadar24 app on the phone to watch the lineup of airplanes coming in. Seems to have calmed down over the past hour. There was a big crush of airplanes this morning, but it's thinned out.