Majestik Møøse

Since the speculation ice has been broken, seems like there’s a serious problem having a published heli route that crosses the 3D visual glide path for 33. Normal 3.0° PAPIs will put you at 200’/.66NM which crosses Route 4 at exactly the max alt.

In 2025 it’s unacceptable that we rely on a pilot moving at 100-200 kts to visually acquire another 100-200 kt airborne target based on a 3rd-party visobs talk-on at a third location with no common reference point - in Class B, at night - to ensure flight safety. These are multi-million dollar vehicles and buildings that can’t get a common datalink picture on a screen. Lots of root causes for lots of problems with equipment, certification, training, manning, etc. Every child playing iPad games has more computing and display power than a lot of aircraft that are allowed in Class B.

Agree, and we’ll see tomorrow morning how quickly they’ll remove references to DEI

Lol dude have you looked at the right wing internet trolls lately? Overcompensation is the theme.

I’ll take the under. Cabinet level. Side bet on Trump saying “I never liked the guy” within a month after

Go look at Google Maps or Zillow in any California mountain town. Almost all shingle roofs with little to no fire rating. Plywood siding is standard. A new standing seam metal roof would run $60-90k (cheaper than a new house) but is a big expense for the average Joe. A solar roof like the one Tesla makes is extremely fire resistant (Class A) so if the California government can get over their biases there could be some very interesting tax credits for killing two birds with one stone.

The answer is Woody Harrelson’s plan from Doc Hollywood: “Earthquake insurance is something I'm keen to take a whack at…collect premiums for a gazillion years, and if the big one ever does hit, declare bankruptcy and retire.” So, yeah, basically that. I had Merced Insurance because that was the only company that would insure my house in a wildfire area. After Paradise burned down in 2018, I got a letter from Merced that basically said, “yeah, so, we’re done being solvent”. Apparently California picked up the tab to the tune of $500k max payout per claim. Same old story. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-merced-insurance-customers-20181204-story.html The best part is that Merced was 95% owned by United Heritage Financial Group, with the very same guys still working there. Not sure how that’s a thing, but it is. https://www.unitedheritage.com/get-news?fileName=Todd_Gill_named_as_President_of_United_Heritage_Insurance_FINAL.pdf

Corruption is everywhere in America (especially the legal kind with campaign contributions) so that’s not unique. Probably the same amount as the South and Northeast but California is just better at hiding it because they’re not overt Good Ole Boys. But to the people drawn to politics, money isn’t as influential as power. Ideas and policy are a bureaucrat’s personal power, and challenging the ideas that define their lives and legacy is what makes them dig in like nothing else. In California, the political class is centered on returning the state to what they remember it looking like when they were teenagers. It’s a false vision of a “natural” California that hasn’t existed in 200 years. People have forever changed California from a natural equilibrium into an economic powerhouse and you can never go back. The Central Valley levies changed grasslands, floodplain marshes, and oak forests into tree nut farms and rice paddies; its 10% of American farm output (cool), but the farmers’ unrestricted wells have drained the aquifers so much that the southern valley has sank dozens of feet. The mountain forests were able to grow 200 year old trees because they could self-regulate; lightning strike fires would burn the little stuff and the big trees would survive. But now because even the remote forests have a house every few miles the fires need to be put out immediately. And the compounding problem is those houses are served by 1960s power lines and roads that cause the fires in the first place. Roads and utilities that can’t be improved without permits from a dozen entities because brine shrimp, mice, and smelts might be affected. So there’s no going back to equilibrium naturally, it’ll have to be constantly managed and adapted, which the bureaucracy has not been willing to do. The LA fires pale in comparison to one of the million acre fires that are unfortunately common in the Sierras, but hopefully the day and night visibility for 10M people in LA will cause some movement. The solution is a combination of reservoir building, utility line improvements (including self-contained systems like solar and power walls, why not), brush management in critical areas (you can’t do it everywhere, too big), steel roofs/siding (the majority of legacy mountain buildings are asphalt shingles, really), and more money for air attack planes and pilots. Some smelts and mice might not make it, but at least less will die in fires.

Body cams have been a godsend. I remember there being a lot of debate over them back in the day.

Sorry dudes, not buying it, when it’s been politicized like it has even the smart college-educated guys can lose their minds. It’s now somehow “liberal” to send weapons to Ukraine. Fuck that noise. It’s a false choice to think that there’s a choice between sending old weapons to Ukraine and securing borders or whatever. It’s a minuscule amount of the budget, and something that nearly everyone in Congress agreed on until key MAGA mouthpieces (that are literally paid by Russian media) started focusing on it. Quitting on the Ukraine is cowardly and reprehensible, don’t care what your airplane quals are.

They also killed a Hornet pilot in 2003. https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/445/

$175B over 3 years to buy new munitions and send the old ones to a friendly democracy where they used them to dismantle the Russian military is the wisest use of treasury funds in decades. We spend trillions on nothing most of the time. I’ll never understand how so many Americans have fallen for the line that we’re spending money on Ukraine that would otherwise go to Americans. That money literally goes to American companies. The Russians sure are good at foolin people.

Have 0/5 times gotten a positive impression after talking to Patriot guys.

That’s $2.5B of weapons out of our stockpiles, not cash. The money goes to defense contractors.

A lot of guys also don’t realize how important it is to keep the younger enlisted disciplined. “How can I trust you to fix a plane correctly if you can’t maintain other standards”…is kinda the truth for an 18 year old. A 32yo Major with 10 years of experience dynamically employing jets can (usually) be trusted to use judgment about what rules are actually important, but the revolving door of inexperienced 2-stripers working on your oil and hydro fittings maybe not as much. Going from a flying squadron to one that’s 90% enlisted like an OSS is eye-opening; even if it’s full of highly qualified jobs like ATC there are non-stop disciplinary issues. “Do you want an airman that has a trend of not maintaining standards working ATC?” No…no I don’t.

My father in law asked if it was because of DEI.

This is why it matters: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/23/matt-gaetz-allies-congress-00195959 Assholes like Bannon will encourage him to run just because he’s on their team.

Well no I’ve never done any of the things on the list of things that Gaetz did, so yeah, I’m better than him. No one on that ethics panel is lying, they all know he did those things also. Along with everyone else in Washington. The only people that don’t believe it are the dumbasses having their opinions shaped by talking heads. And no, I don’t watch/listen to any of that shit.

Story I saw was funny as hell. And lucky, Jeebus.

I think we might’ve found NW Florida’s next congressman. I don’t live there, but if I did, I’d vote for a gunship pilot killer patch non-lawyer Wing/CC bro in about 0.69s.

Republicans and Democrats on the ethics committee agree that he did everything listed above. The only dissent was over releasing the report. Probably due to it being unprecedented…but unprecedented because it opens up a Pandora’s Box of what other investigative findings have there been. [emphasis mine] VIII. VIEWS OF CHAIRMAN MICHAEL GUEST ON BEHALF OF THE DISSENTING COMMITTEE MEMBERS “I write on behalf of the members of the committee who do not support the release of the report regarding former Representative Matt Gaetz. We believe and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024. While we do not challenge the Committee’s findings, we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006.” [more of the same] Go read the whole report. What more evidence do you need? Are you a Republican? He’s making you look like shit. You want a court to argue about procedures for a year? Naw man…fuck him. Voters need to see this because douches like him can’t stop lying to gain power, but we all know they’ll just keep doing what they’re told by the media.

Also, apparently there are more unreleased ethic reports across both parties. Release them and cast them all into the abyss. It’s not like there’s a shortage of politicians to replace them.

A majority of these things are illegal. The findings from the 50/50 bipartisan ethics committee are below. The dissent wasn’t about the findings, it was only about whether or not the report should be released. Gaetz is a douche and a discredit to the United States, Florida, and the Republican Party. Fuck him. https://ethics.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Committee-Report.pdf In sum, the Committee found substantial evidence of the following: • From at least 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him. • In 2017, Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl. • During the period 2017 to 2019, Representative Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions. • Representative Gaetz accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts. • In 2018, Representative Gaetz arranged for his Chief of Staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent. • Representative Gaetz knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct. • Representative Gaetz has acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.

So a fuckhead, got it. Seriously why would anyone give a shit about that guy. Clearly the majority of it is true or he wouldn’t have been asked to withdraw himself from consideration.

Turns out Gaetz is a fuckhead, confirmed. Perhaps congress should be drug tested more than once/never.