nsplayr

Nah, don’t put words in my mouth. All I’m saying is that it’s a short road from, “Man this pride celebration is stupid” to “Haha yea man we should kick all the gays out again.” I’ve heard it. Maybe none of y’all feel that way and ok, I’ll be wrong on that. But like I said, I’ve heard it. Acceptance of gay people is still very young in terms of the list of “who gets full human rights?” and I don’t want to see any backsliding. I know too many good friends who are gay and who serve in uniform and they’re an absolutely critical part of our military team.

Why does it take a current civilian CFII 3 years of training to become a T-6 instructor but a FAIP can be made in, what, 18 months? A bunch of morons must have written the requirements for this...same with anyone who signs up. If you wanna fly T-6s that bad just, IDK, join the Air Force!

Fair enough. Like I said, I would rather celebrate the accomplishments of a diverse group of service members rather than just their identities as this or that. I know some who hold genuinely anti-gay views and they are feeling emboldened to try to turn back the clock 20 years, strike down legal gay marriage, and send folks back into the closet if not worse. I would like to see them fail in those efforts and not be unknowingly helped by folks like yourself that might be anti-celebration or against highlighting different identities or whatever rather than truly anti-gay.

It also lists the G Fund as “cash,” which is not true!

Good god whoever signed off on the new TSP site design should be shot.

I know it's uncomfortable to admit, but some of y'all can just come out and say (sic), "I don't like gay people and don't want to see/hear/think about gay stuff." It's not a popular POV at this point in history, but you can just come out and say it. It's ok...this is a "safe space" 😆 I'll be fair to you vs just snarky and say point taken that perhaps some of our "celebration" months go a bit overboard on identity itself vs accomplishments of people of that identity. I agree. I don't care if you're gay and in the military, but if you're gay and did something worth celebrating while in uniform I'd love to hear about it and share that story. But overall, if people wanna fly flags and be proud of who they are or celebrate their heritage then by all means go for it! I do all of those things for my identities as an American, an Italian, an Irishman, and an active service member. Feel free to grill a hamburger, eat a spicy meatball, down a pint of Guinness and blow some shit up in July to celebrate with me! 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇮🇪🎖️

You've identified the root cause...now what's your instructional fix? No detectable viral load = not transmissible. We've basically cured AIDS with modern medicine (for those who can afford it and get it and take as prescribed) and frankly it's a miracle unthinkable to folks back in the 80s. The difference re: COVID vaccine is a person refusing the vaccine is disobeying a lawful order and choosing not to get protected against a deadly virus, while the person with undetectable AIDS who wants to stay is following doctor's orders to reach undetectable virus levels and has done what they can to protect themselves and others from disease.

No clue what the administrative law here says re: what the Secretary of Transportation has power to help with vs encourage vs incentivize vs force. I also could never find an actual video or transcript of the full interview of what Buttigieg said even after some moderate googling, appreciate any link if y'all can find it. I am a fan of strong, capable government administration to help/incentivize/force (in that order) industry to do what's in the best interest of US persons. Maybe we're talking more like customer service reps to cut down on call wait times and curbing some frustrating consumer-facing scheduling practices i.e. stop selling tickets for flights you know are very likely to cancel due to staffing shortages? More like, "Hey airlines, just be upfront and say 'we're staff-limited and flying a more limited schedule' and detail to the FAA/DOT a plan to staff up to meet current demand, etc. Hard to say exactly without more expertise and context. I mean, if Sec. Mayor Pete wants to waive the 1,500 hour limit down to ~100 hours manned fixed wing PIC time and count CSO and RPA Pilot hours for the rest, I'm more than willing to get trained up by DAL/AA/UAL/SW/FedEx/UPS and fly the friendly skies haha! That'd be +1 in the pilot pool - crisis averted 😎

I'm not super into debating politics around here anymore (haha), but to help fill in the gap of the other ~50% of the country tends to think compared to what you typically read on BO.net: Unemployment under Biden is down about 2.5% from when Trump left office, and is basically tied with the record low unemployment we saw under Trump in Jan 2020. More jobs is good! The strong allied response re: sanctions & war materials supporting Ukraine and opposing the Russian invasion. Going from 1.1% of the US population vaccinated against COVID to 67.4%. The vaccine development under Trump admin was a highlight for me and the distribution under Biden admin is similarly important. At this point everyone who wants one can get one and dying from COVID-19 is relatively optional for all but the most elderly and/or vulnerable. Almost forgot, but the bipartisan infrastructure bill was good and long-overdue. Biden actually got this done where several previous admins had talked about it and failed to get something across the line. Obviously there are counter-points to what I wrote above, different interpretations of what happened, and other prevailing factors that influenced those "successes" I mentioned. Copy, cool. I can understand why if you're a conservative you will never like a Dem administration much, fair point. No need to @ me and stir the pot on any of these points. I do think the GOP will win seats in Congress in 2022 and the WH in 2024, which is utterly predictable given Dem congressional control since 2018 and the Dem presidential win last time. It would be unusual to have 2x 1-term Presidents in a row but I guess we'll see. The advanced age of both Trump and Biden is a factor there I think & will be even more so an issue in 2024 if it's those two facing off again. I am a big proponent of an age ceiling (70?) so long as we accept an age floor of 25 for Congress and 35 for being President. Personally I'm rooting for DeSantis on the GOP side in a theoretical 2024 primary. I think he's the only one who might be able to be Trumpy enough to win but not actually be named Donald Trump. There are lots of Republicans I as a Democrat like better, but none of them can win, so I'll settle for him over Trump. I imagine some of y'all should have felt the same way about Biden vice someone like Sanders or Warren based on policies more than personalities. Policies aside, Trump's negative personal characteristics and opposition to a peaceful & lawful transfer of power after taking a valid electoral loss is disqualifying to me beyond any policy disagreements. IMHO Republicans can get all the policies of Trump with a more normal, less dangerous leader in DeSantis. DeSantis/Crenshaw or DeSantis/Haley or some such arrangement, the GOP has plenty of bench strength beyond one or two families. I'm curious to see if that matters at all or if what GOP primary voters really want is the Trump id or "vibes" as the kids say now and perhaps they don't care one lick about policies...after everything I'm more and more in that camp TBH.

Agreed. I would 100% have a beer with him & his work with veterans is commendable.

More like they foolishly shut down half of their nuclear plants shortly before deciding to finally get off russian gas. Seems unwise! Meanwhile France gets 70% of its electricity from nuclear...all carbon-free! FWIW while I'm a strong supporter of renewables (solar/wind/hydro/geothermal), I'm also a strong supporter of nuclear. Steady nuclear with peaky renewables are really an excellent pair if you wanted to design a sustainable fuel mix for electricity. All until we crack the nut on fission, then it's game over for anything else. The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand!

My opinion is that until DC fast charging infrastructure is more plentiful (in progress), it makes a lot of sense for the average two-car family to have 1x EV for whoever has the longest commute + normal in-town family driving, and 1x ICE vehicle for road trips if that's something you do regularly. That'll probably be the case for the next 6-9 years if I had to guess. My family does not do a lot of road tripping, but we make an annual ~750 mile one-way trek to the beach and yea, that will be challenging if we decide to take the EV on that trip because it's already a long haul. Probably will opt to take my ICE truck for the duration/ease of fueling + larger cargo capacity, even though 14 mpg and $5 gas will be very painful. The EV vs ICE fueling numbers are still overwhelmingly favorable for 99% of our driving though, but as always (and literally in this case), YMMV. If/when we get some combination of swappable batteries, 500+ mile range, and > 800v charging, at that point even road tripping across our impressively big country will work great in EVs. The Porsche Taycan that you can buy today already has an 800v charger on board, which is awesome.

From what I understand the F-15 EX Eagle II is replacing, in part, the single-seat F-15 C/D models, not the F-15E Strike Eagle, i.e. the one with the WSOs onboard. Boeing apparently offered that as a possibility back in 2020, but I haven't seen any movement on that actually happening; perhaps someone in the Strike Eagle community can speak to that more intelligently. It should not make a big difference one way or the other. Either the Strike Eagle will continue on unchanged, get replaced with a two-seat EX, or by the single-seat F-35, meaning slightly less CSO seats in the Air Force, or who knows. It doesn't really impact you as a individual unless you're actively a WSO in that community already. And most importantly, don't put the cart before the horse...there are plenty of platforms with CSOs/WSOs/etc. and if you're trying to board for CSO, I would get excited about the possibilities of any/all of them. I might recommend shooting for the U-28 or the AC-130J just based on my experience but YMMV 🇺🇸 Good luck!

Lesson #1: Never pass on the opportunity to STFU on controversial subjects Lesson #2: I would get the vaccine both on the merits of being vaccinated against a deadly disease, and also because it's a requirement of employment in the military, so you might as well knock it out ahead of time if you're able to. Try not to lose sleep because the interview is over and there's nothing you can do to change the outcome at this point most likely. Hopefully whatever was said isn't a factor in hiring one way or the other, because it won't be an issue if you do get hired. Uncle Sam will make you get the vaccine if you haven't had it already, and you said you're not opposed to it, so problem solved. Good luck!

A 2 year old, 34 minute long Ben Shapiro video, posted twice. Well hot damn consider my mind changed! 😆

I paid $950 for the installation & $750 for the equipment, although prices for the same charger are $200 higher today it looks like on Amazon at least. So that does factor in to your year 1 fuel costs for sure, but I look at it more like a necessary hardware investment that pays off relatively quickly rather than a outright cost. I also went with a pricier installation of hard-wiring the charger to a new, dedicated 80amp circuit run from my outside panel rather than a more typical dryer plug installation that would have been about $250. I wanted to future-proof that setup for something like the F-150 Lightning that I have on order. The battery on that thing is *massive* (131 kWh i.e. like 10x Tesla powerwalls or 2.7x what my ID4 has) and I wanted to be able to fully charge that vehicle overnight if required. My charger as installed puts ~37 miles of range on my ID4 per hour, whereas if I had done the cheaper dryer plug-type install that would have been more like 20 miles of range per hour, and I felt the need...the need for speed! Even factoring in those costs, it's 40% paid off already just in 4 months based on my savings over the gas car we replaced.

Outstanding! It's off topic, but I never miss the opportunity to plug how much I love my EV (pun intended 😅). We do insure with USAA currently but that'll change here shortly. We've had a VW ID.4 since February and put 8,181 miles on it (my daily commute is ~65 miles plus all family driving). That took 2,912 kWh of electricity to power, we averaging 2.8 mi/kWh, and in total that cost $257 with my at-home Level 2 charger where we plug in most nights. The vehicle it replaced took regular gas (now priced $4.25 around me) and got 35 mpg. To drive 8,181 miles at that price & efficiency, it would have taken 234 gallons of gas and cost $933, i.e. 3.8x more expensive cost-per-mile than the fuel for the EV. And the ID.4 (even the AWD version that's Teslaish-fast) is under $40K once I realize my EV tax credit next Jan when I file, is a typical crossover family SUV that seats 5 comfortably, tows my kayak, and it's a near perfect daily driver. Literally YMMV, but I highly recommend EVs for daily driving needs for the vast majority of people even at current prices & technology; the numbers don't lie.

From my memory going AD to DSG in the Guard, yes and yes. Sell/terminal are your options (I chose ~70 days of terminal), and you do accrue leave while on leave so factor that in to when you start terminal based on your separation date. If you f-up the calculation it's NBD, you'll just end up selling a few days of leave.

Top Gun Maverick was fantastic and I’ll fight you if you disagree 🇺🇸 Damn near made me wanna hop up out of my seat and sign up to become a pilot…wait a second…😆 p.s. - their strike mission was tailor-made for a stealthy RPA that you don’t care if it “makes it home” ::runs for the exits as every fighter pilot throws his beer at me:: Or maybe a 90 degree impact angle on that vulnerable Death Star vent straight from space rather than, what, 4x GBU-12s? Those things probably woulda fuckin’ missed 50m long haha Finally, Penny is 100x better than Charlie. She’s hotter, and frankly filthy rich! The beach-side bar, the beach-side cottage, the beautiful sail boat and god damn if I didn’t blow a load for her gorgeous 1973 911 🚨🚨 That girl has it all.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/05/27/military-services-lighten-facial-hair-and-uniforms-new-policies.html We're winning boys...one 1/4" at a time 😆 Trench warfare on the road to victory (full beards) but the Krauts are in a tactical retreat and we're moving our lines up!

Gentlemen, today and forever...dicks out for a true legend 🥃

Lolol...oh I got my mug and sent is straight into the trash. Thanks for nothing assholes haha! Glad y'all paid Gronk all that money for his promo though.

This is true from what I've seen, although I have to admit that I inexplicably did BFM my way out of ever getting a smallpox vaccine despite deploying 8 times 😅 #StoryTime Our medical records were not really looked at closely when we were downrange due to some SOF hand-waiving (i.e. we did not processes in and out through normal Big Green/Blue medical facilities) and I guess the folks at HRT and CVS were just lazy and never really followed up effectively when I was at home the other 50% of the time. FWIW the successful strategy (n=1 so YMMV) is that if your wife is pregnant, might be pregnant, or you have a child under age 1 in the house, you shouldn't get the smallpox vaccine while at home. So when I was offered the vaccine at home a couple of times, we were "trying to get pregnant," and for 1 year and 9 months of my deploying time, that was verifiably true (late 2010 through mid 2012). Home station med techs were like, "cool, you'll get it when you get downrange" and then because we never really turned in our deployment med records to anyone, I never did. 🤷‍♂️ I was never ordered to get it and I never "refused," I just kinda slipped through the cracks and was perfectly happy to let that happen. Now I'm feeling dumb because it was an irrational desire to not get it in the first place and also since apparently the smallpox vaccine is potentially effective against the next plague God has potentially decided we as a species are worthy of lol. My rule-following wife is shooting me daggers with her eyes and double-checking on my life insurance policies just in case I get The Pox and kick the bucket haha. Good luck if anyone ever wants to attempt to replicate...I imagine they look at that stuff a lot more closely after some small % of folks apparently decided all vaccines are optional now even though they joined the US Air Force and are not in the drive-thru line at Burger King.

Ok I've finally had it with USAA. I'm moving all my stuff (banking, credit card, car/home insurance) NLT 31 Dec 22 after they nerfed their limitless cash back card, which currently is a great deal at 2.5% unlimited cash back. Their website has gotten worse and worse over time, customer service ain't what it used to be, and it just blows trying to keep external accounts updated. Who are y'all banking with? Who has a slicker system for keeping a financial dashboard up to date? I basically want to see checking, savings, Amex & Chase credit cards all in one place with easy transfers and billpay. Bonus if they integrate car/home insurance but I can find that elsewhere if need be. Ally? PenFed? Navy Federal?

No worries! I took the COVID vaccines voluntarily in order to protect myself and my family, along with many others over the years. I also got about 6-9 anthrax boosters on a more "voluntold" basis but what are ya gonna do 🤷‍♂️ I'm sure taking doxy for approx. 690 days while deployed (all while breathing in burn pit fumes!) was also totally harmless and healthy 😅 (live look at me seeing my buddies retire & get their ratings) And as a commissioned officer in the world's greatest Air Force, yea, I do "trust in our federal government" a fair bit I suppose despite all the shenanigans and buffoonery I've seen in ~15 years of service. Much more good than bad overall, plus the checks keep coming on the 1st and 15th which I greatly appreciate & hope to continue for the rest of my life. 🍻 Re: monkeypox...I knew all that sketchy unprotected sex at European raves would come back to bite me in the ass someday... https://apnews.com/article/health-world-organization-united-nations-animals-72a9efaaf5b55ace396398b839847505 How can you blame me though??